Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Farming

Grape breeding PhD student Laise Moreira collects flower tissue for analyzing sex trait in grapevine as part of the VitisGen2 project at the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center in Excelsior, MN.

The Quest to Grow the First Great American Wine Grape

Genetics might be the key to creating vineyards that both resist disease and don’t taste like skunk

Flying Dog plans to release a seasonal beer each year with hops grown from the project.

The East Coast May Be On the Brink of a Hop Renaissance

Can a farmer and a brewer come together to bring hops back to the eastern United States?

A lithograph from printers Currier & Ives depicted swill milk as the root of many vices

The Surprisingly Intolerant History of Milk

A new book provides an udderly fascinating chronicle of the controversial drink

A young Walden resident, circa 1974, appears none too happy about being kept inside, or having her picture taken.

This Photographer Spent 46 Years Documenting the Vanishing World of Vermont’s Remote Northeast Kingdom

A spectacular sinkhole the length of two football fields and the depth of a six-story building has opened up on a New Zealand farm.

Trending Today

Massive Sinkhole Opens Up in New Zealand

The gaping chasm has revealed 60,000-year-old volcanic deposits

Potter envisioned Hill Top as a living testament to rural tradition. Its artifacts, from crockery to rustic furniture, are reproduced in her drawings.

Britain’s Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?

Shepherds and ecologists are butting heads over what’s next for the beloved landscape

What Will the Automated City of the Future Look Like?

Tokyo, Singapore and Dubai are becoming prototype ‘robot cities,’ as governments start to see automation as the key to urban living

This aerial photo shows spills from TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone pipeline on Friday, November 17, 2017.

Keystone Pipeline Leak Was Twice as Big as Previously Thought

A representative of TransCanada Corp., which owns the pipeline, says the leak spilled 9,700 barrels of oil into South Dakota farmland

How Do You Make Beer in Space?

Strap on your beer goggles and join us on a hops-fueled rocket ride

Unfortunately, there’s not an unlimited amount of daylight that we can squeeze out of our clocks.

One Hundred Years Later, the Madness of Daylight Saving Time Endures

The original arguments Congress made for ‘springing ahead’ have been thoroughly debunked. So why are they still being used today?

These Arabica coffee beans could help support biodiversity—as long as they're grown in the shade.

New Research

Coffee Growing Can Be Good For Birds No Matter What Bean You Choose

Whether you swing arabica or robusta, your coffee can support biodiversity—as long as it’s grown in the shade

Cacao trees with chocolate fruit pods on Kauai, HI.

How Hawaii Became the North Pole of Cacao

These chocolate makers have set up shop in the only state—and the coldest place—that can sustain cacao plantations

A Kenyan farmer using the fertilizer in his fields.

How Climate Change is Fueling Innovation in Kenya

A new generation of start ups are working to help farmers in a region that faces myriad challenges

Grazing sheep on solar farms can be a win-win for the energy and agricultural industries.

Future of Energy

There’s a New Job in the Solar Industry

And it involves shepherding a landscaping crew of hungry sheep

Why the Shift to Farming Ruined This Ancient City’s Health

The switch from a hunter gatherer society to a farming one appears to have resulted in a more sedentary lifestyle for the inhabitants of Catalhoyuk

The fruit that bursts with contradictions.

The Toxic Rise of the California Strawberry

Growing this popular fruit year-round has long relied on harmful chemicals. Is there another way?

This New Zealand Farmer Revolutionized Modern Planes

In the early 1900s, a New Zealand farmer named Richard Pearse built what looked like a flying bicycle. Some of the ideas he developed are now standard

The Enduring Romance of Mistletoe, a Parasite Named After Bird Poop

Nine things you should know about our favorite Christmas plant

Amazon may be coming to a garden near you.

Amazon Now Has a Patent For a “Garden Service”

The massive online retailer might recommend recipes and tools based on pictures of your plot

A medium-size passenger jet burns roughly 750 gallons of fuel per hour.

Future of Energy

Can Sugarcane Fuel Airplanes?

Scientists have engineered sugarcane to increase its oil content, and they are developing renewable jet aircraft fuel from the oil

Page 13 of 29