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Farming

A blowfly on lavender flowers. Flies are the unsung heroes of pollination. They visit flowers to stoke up on energy-rich nectar and protein-rich pollen and transport pollen from flower to flower in the process.

How Much Do Flies Help With Pollination?

The much-maligned insect could be the key to ensuring future supplies of many of the world’s favorite foods

Researchers in France are testing which fish eggs are best suited to being launched to the moon. So far, European seabass are among the leaders.

Could Astronauts Rear Fish on the Moon?

Researchers in France aim to boldly farm fish where no one has farmed fish before

Regenerative farming, which centers on building soil health, is one promising pathway for decreasing agriculture’s carbon footprint.

To Meet Ambitious Emissions Goals, Large Food Companies Are Looking to Lock Carbon in Soil

But the logistics of moving farmers in their supply chains to regenerative agriculture practices can be complicated

In Singapore, a city-state notoriously tight on space, Apollo Aquaculture Group is building an eight-story indoor aquaculture facility.

An Eight-Story Fish Farm Will Bring Locally Produced Food to Singapore

The massive indoor aquaculture facility is an effort to boost food security for the small island city-state

The remains of an individual buried at the Augustinian friary, pictured during excavations in 2016

New Research

Medieval Britons’ Remains Record the ‘Skeletal Trauma’ Inflicted by Inequality

New study reveals the horrific injuries sustained by lower-class members of English society

Seabird guano covers a small island off the coast of Peru.

Ancient South American Civilizations Bloomed in the Desert Thanks to Seabird Poop

Prehistoric farmers fertilized their crops with the waste, which they imported from the coast

Grōv Technologies’ vertical farm is designed to minimize land and water use of conventional feed production.

Could Indoor Vertical Farms Feed Livestock?

The people at Grōv Technologies think farmers can produce wheatgrass for their herds with less land and water using the method

German-American schoolteacher Robert Meyer believed strongly that he should be allowed to teach his community the German language.

From a Small, Rural Schoolhouse, One Teacher Challenged Nativist Attacks Against Immigration

In the wake of World War I, rabid anti-German sentiment led to the arrest, later deemed unjust by the U.S. Supreme Court, of Robert Meyer

Nearly 80 percent of the world's vanilla beans are produced by small farmers in Madagascar. The global supply is tiny compared with demand and is often threatened by extreme weather and disease.

New Research

Newly Sequenced Vanilla Genome Could Boost Tiny Global Supply

Tweaking the crop’s genes could help increase its yields and make it more resistant to disease and natural disasters

Early Puebloans wove turkey feathers into yucca fiber to make the blanket.

In the Ancient American Southwest, Turkeys Were Friends, Not Food

An 800-year-old blanket made out of turkey feathers testifies to the bird’s significance in Pueblo culture

A map of Doggerland, which once connected Britain to mainland Europe

Study Rewrites History of Ancient Land Bridge Between Britain and Europe

New research suggests that climate change, not a tsunami, doomed the now-submerged territory of Doggerland

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Smithsonian Voices

Our Thanksgiving Menu Has Lost a Few Crops

Studying the domestication of any crop that people once ate helps scientists reveal how modern crops have evolved

A view inside the Asian giant hornet nest that Washington State entomologists destroyed last month.

Asian Giant Hornet Nest May Have Contained 200 Queens

Officials say they’ve counted roughly 500 hornets in various stages of development after examining a nest they found and destroyed last month

A new chili pepper-shaped device that connect with a smartphone to reveal how much capsaicin is in a hot pepper.

New Research

This Chili-Shaped Smartphone Accessory Can Measure a Pepper’s Spiciness

New device can measure concentrations of capsaicin, the compound that gives peppers their burning heat

Farms have been processing their heritage turkeys earlier to keep them small.

Turkey Farmers Scramble to Meet Need for Smaller Thanksgiving Birds

They’ll just be thankful when the year is over

A satellite image of the Noordoostpolder, a Dutch municipality where the four settlements were found

Cool Finds

Dutch Archaeologist Discovers Traces of Four Submerged Medieval Settlements

A five-year research project yielded the locations of several long-forgotten villages

Buried farm machinery in Dallas, South Dakota during the Dust Bowl in 1936.

New Research

Are the Great Plains Headed for Another Dust Bowl?

Researchers say atmospheric dust in the region has doubled in the last 20 years, suggesting the increasingly dry region is losing more soil skyward

Xanthia DeBerry, with her daughters Angelica and Aniaya, is part of the seed saving project.

New Project Aims to Revive Ozark Cuisine Through Seeds

St. Louis chef Rob Connoley looks to reconnect black farmers to heritage crops, using records from a 19th century seed store

Archaeologists unearthed shards of pottery, wine jugs, floor tiles and traces of crops, among other artifacts.

Cool Finds

Sourdough Bread Oven, ‘Air Freshener’ Found at Medieval Irish Monastery

During the 13th century, French monks created a Cistercian community at Beamore in County Meath

The spotted lanternfly has landed. This adult was seen in Pennsylvania, hard hit by the alien species.

Can Scientists Stop the Plague of the Spotted Lanternfly?

The voracious, shape-shifting insect native to Asia is attacking crops, vineyards and trees

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