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Agriculture

The bigger the tomato, the blander the taste.

New Research

The Quest to Return Tomatoes to Their Full-Flavored Glory

We’ve bred the original tomato taste out of existence. Now geneticists are asking: Can we put it back?

A wapato bulb

Canada

The Northwest’s Earliest “Garden” Discovered in British Columbia

The 3,800-year-old stone platform was used to cultivate wapato—wild water potatoes—a staple crop for many North American peoples

We asked Smithsonian scholars to make book recommendations to our readers for this holiday season of gift giving.

Increase and Diffuse Knowledge for the Holidays With These Smithsonian Curated Books

Books recommended by Smithsonian Institution scholars

Martha, a farmworker in California, says a group of white locals often harass her, yelling that immigrants take U.S. jobs. “Why don’t they work in the fields?” she asked.

A Photographic Chronicle of America’s Working Poor

Smithsonian journeyed from Maine to California to update a landmark study of American life

As a professional falconer, Rosen has trained all of her birds, which now number close to a dozen. Her brood includes Ziggy, a hybrid prairie-gyrfalcon.

Why Winemakers are Turning to Falconry to Tackle Pests

Napa Valley vintners are finding this tried-and-true deterrent more effective than modern technology

Payam Pourtaheri and Ameer Shakeel enjoy casual conversation with Radia Perlman, 2016 National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee during the Meet the Experts session at 2016’s Collegiate Inventors Competition.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

Could These College Inventors Tackle the Global Pesticide Problem?

Developed by a team of University of Virgnia students, AgroSpheres break down pesticide residues on crops hours after they are applied

Puerto Rico’s #1 Crop Isn’t Sugar, But It’s Still Sweet

Puerto Rico’s agricultural economy was once dominated by sugar plantations. Today, the same fields hold everything from corn to bananas

This Champion Pumpkin Weighs More Than a U-Haul

At the annual Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh-In, a pumpkin weighing 1,910 pounds took the crown

It's all about the sunflowers at Sun & Green

Go Waist Deep Into the Largest Sunflower Farm in Northern Taiwan

Sunflower season is in full bloom in Taoyuan

The 2016 corn maze "Rainbows, Kittens, and Killer Baby Unicorns" at the Treinen Farm in Lodi, Wisconsin.

From Star Trek to Killer Baby Unicorns, Five Over-the-Top Themed Corn Mazes to Visit This Fall

The American Velocipede

American Drivers Have Bicyclists to Thank for a Smooth Ride to Work

Urban elites with a fancy hobby teamed up with rural farmers in a movement that transformed the nation

Cool Finds

The U.S. Government Is Buying Tons of Eggs and Cheese

A Depression-Era program is helping bail out America’s egg and dairy farmers

IBM’s Watson Takes On Yet Another Job, as a Weather Forecaster

The integration of the supercomputer and weather stations around the world could have a huge impact on global industry

One of 5,200 wine labels from Maynard Amerine's collection

Cool Finds

Help Crowdsource the History of Wine

The University of California, Davis, is looking for online volunteers to help catalog and describe 5,200 wine labels

Reynolda House Museum of American Art

These Five Museums Put the “Culture” in “Agriculture”

It’s a lot more than just “tractor art”

Christian Puglisi, restaurateur, standing on his Farm of Ideas in Abbetved, Denmark on July 28, 2016.

Acclaimed Chef Christian Puglisi’s New “Farm of Ideas” Might Be the Next Big Foodie Destination

The Danish restaurateur is creating a place for food producers, chefs and foodies from around the world to gather and learn

Biddulph Grange Garden, Staffordshire‬

Step Inside 12 of England’s Most Beautiful Gardens

Age of Humans

These Microbe-Coated Seeds Could Help Us Thrive in a Dark, Dry Future

A Massachusetts-based startup is prepping for your basic apocalyptic scenario

Winners at last year's Google Science Fair

Google Thinks These 20 Teenagers Could Change Our World for the Better

These kids from around the globe have created innovative new technologies, from malaria-testing apps to water-saving agriculture systems

The microbes living in soil may be crucial for healthy plants. What's more, soil microbiomes are hyperlocal, varying immensely from place to nearby place.

Age of Humans

Soil Has a Microbiome, Too

The unique mix of microbes in soil has a profound effect on which plants thrive and which ones die

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