Agriculture

Floodwaters cover a street in the reemerging Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley, on April 14, 2023 in Corcoran, California.

California's Long-Dry Tulare Lake Has Returned

Record-breaking snowpack and storms have flooded hundreds of acres of agricultural land in the state's San Joaquin Valley

The three-inch-long pottery shard contains only parts of a passage from Virgil's Georgics.

Virgil Quotation Found Etched on 1,800-Year-Old Roman Jar

Researchers say the ancient inscription is the first of its kind ever discovered

A giant African land snail

Giant Snails Take Over Part of Florida—Again

Officials issued a quarantine to control the invasive species, which devours vegetation, damages structures and can carry a parasite dangerous to humans

Researcher Laurent Davin plays a replica of one of the 12,000-year-old bird bone flutes recently discovered in northern Israel.

These 12,000-Year-Old Flutes Mimic the Sound of Prehistoric Birds

The remnants of seven small bird bone instruments were discovered in northern Israel

Farmer Paul Willard, 80, picking corn in his field. He shares the family farmhouse with his brother, Wendell, 74, a cabinetmaker who helps with farm chores, and Wendell’s wife, Elizabeth Cooper, 64, who grew up on a nearby orchard and writes beautiful poetry.

These Intimate Photos Capture a Family Farm’s Bittersweet Final Years

Photographer Ellen Harasimowicz has chronicled New England’s Willard Farm in its final harvests

A vineyard in the Mudgee wine region of Australia.

Climate Change Is Threatening Vineyards in Australia

Winemakers are looking for ways to adapt and grow fruit that's more resistant to heat and drought

Researchers use microphones to measure the noises emitted by tomato plants.

Plants Make Noises When Stressed, Study Finds

Scientists detected high-frequency sounds emitted by plants that had been cut or dehydrated

Dairy farms like this one run by the Barstow family in Hadley, Massachusetts, make smart use of a substance cows produce in abundance.

How Dairy Farmers Are Turning Manure Into Money

These New Englanders have found a way to help the planet and convert more than 9,000 tons of cow waste annually into electricity

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located in the Norwegian Arctic on the remote island of Spitsbergen.

Take a Virtual Tour of the 'Doomsday' Seed Vault

The impressive depository carefully preserves over one million seed samples in its Arctic location

Wild pigs have been in the southern United States for hundreds of years.

Destructive 'Super Pigs' From Canada Threaten the Northern U.S.

The animals root through crops, prey on native species, cause soil erosion and carry pathogens that can spread to humans

McClintock used this Bausch & Lomb wide-field binocular microscope to examine morphological mutations in corn.

By Studying Corn, Barbara McClintock Unlocked the Secrets of Life

A look through a historic microscope helps explain what we all owe the Nobel Prize-winning scientist

The finely crafted, decorative ceramics

Archaeologists Unearth 3,000-Year-Old Wishing Well in Germany

The Bronze Age well was full of decorative ceramics, jewelry and other items likely used for ritual purposes

Boat docks sit on dry, cracked earth at the Great Salt Lake's Antelope Island Marina on August 1, 2021, near Syracuse, Utah.

Drying Great Salt Lake Could Expose Millions to Toxic Arsenic-Laced Dust

The largest saline lake in North America is on track to collapse within five years, a new report finds

Pollinators, including bees, face pressure from disease-causing organisms, habitat loss, climate change and other factors.

The World's First Vaccine for Honeybees Is Here

It could be a game-changer for beekeepers fighting American foulbrood, a disease that can wipe out entire colonies

Pollinators, including bees, are suffering because of human activities.

Shrinking Pollinator Populations Could Be Killing 427,000 People Per Year

New research explores the relationship between human health and crop loss due to pollination deficits around the world

A view of the Shanidar Cave in Iraq’s Zagros Mountains, where some of the charred plant remains were discovered

Neanderthals Cooked Surprisingly Complex Meals

Charred food remnants provide insight into 70,000-year-old dietary practices

Rice is a major staple crop around the world.

Perennial Rice Could Raise Yields and Cut Costs

These plants that grow back year after year show promise, but they are not a silver bullet

The 6,000-year-old watermelon seeds from Uan Muhuggiag (left) border a child eating a modern watermelon.

Why Prehistoric Herders Didn't Spit Out Their Watermelon Seeds

Thousands of years ago, Saharans ate the kernels before the fruit became sweet

Frozen chemicals across the country could thaw and make their way into groundwater and surface water during winters, research suggests.

Once-Frozen Chemicals Could Pollute Water as Winters Warm

Thawing agricultural nutrients threaten streams, lakes and rivers across the country, new research suggests

Ads like this one for Tesco turkey in London may no longer be allowed in the Dutch city of Haarlem starting in 2024.

A Dutch City Is Banning Some Meat Advertisements in Public Spaces

The climate change-motivated move is accompanied by bans on fossil fuel ads elsewhere in the Netherlands

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