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Farming

Sassafras leaves begin to grow. Both 19th-century Ohio farmer Thomas Mikesell and current Ohio State University ecologist Kellen Calinger-Yoak recorded important details about the plant.

What a 19th-Century Farmer’s Forgotten Notes Reveal About Growing Seasons

The documents provide evidence of climate change’s effect on hardwood trees in Ohio

Representative Robert F. Broussard believed hippos imported from Africa would rid Louisiana and Florida of the water hyacinths smothering their waterways.

Untold Stories of American History

How the U.S. Almost Became a Nation of Hippo Ranchers

In 1910, a failed House bill sought to increase the availability of low-cost meat by importing hippopotamuses that would be killed to make “lake cow bacon”

Edna Lewis gathers ingredients in the garden behind Ellerslie Plantation west of Charlottesville, Virginia, 1975.

Women Who Shaped History

What Made Edna Lewis the Mother of Soul Food

The Virginia-born chef did more than anyone to elevate Southern food to haute cuisine

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

Driver-optional e-tractors promise to increase efficiency while cutting emissions.

Planet Positive

Could Electric Tractors Revolutionize Farming?

The vehicles may change the agricultural landscape by scaling sustainability and increasing efficiency

Gambarin's nearly 270,000-square-foot artwork, outlined with a tractor, is now considered the largest portrait of Picasso ever made. 

Italian Artist Uses Tractor to Create World’s Largest Picasso Portrait

Land artist Dario Gambarin used a 270,000-square-foot field in Verona, Italy, as a canvas

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

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

Baofeng Su, a fish genetics researcher at Auburn University, is part of a team of scientists studying the effectiveness of injecting alligator genes into farm-raised catfish.

Scientists Are Injecting Alligator Genes Into Catfish

The technique could help prevent infections in the millions of pounds of farmed catfish raised for human consumption

The new solar panels would filter light more efficiently.

Farmers May Not Have to Choose Between Crops and Solar Panels

With a new photovoltaic panel, researchers harness sunshine to harvest energy and food together, taking advantage of the full light spectrum

Red junglefowl, ancestors of wild chickens, are known to mix with domestic birds.

The Wonderful World of Birds

Why Chickens Need to Stop Breeding With Their Wild Cousins

The red junglefowl is losing important genetic diversity in its native Asian habitat

Americans might choose more sustainable meals when beef items on menus are labeled "high climate impact."

Could Climate Impact Labels Change the Way We Eat?

Warnings on fast-food menus might make Americans think twice about choosing beef, a new study finds

A poster, boldly declaring "Sí Se Puede. It Can Be Done" and held in the Smithsonian collections, offers a look back to how farm laborers won the right to join and form unions.

Why ‘Sí, Se Puede’ Was the Winning Motto for the United Farm Workers

Their nationwide boycott helped farmworkers win the right to join and form unions

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

Signed copies of the thriller Reykjavik, co-written by Iceland's Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir and Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson, one of the most popular crime writers in the world, are pictured during the official release of the book in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 25, 2022.

Iceland’s Christmas Book Flood Is a Force of Nature

The nation’s seasonal publishing and gifting tradition nourishes its unique literary culture

Humans have come up with a number of wacky methods to keep animals deemed "vermin" in check.

Seven of the Wildest and Weirdest Attempts to Curb Animal Pests

Why use fences or traps, when you can use deadly viruses or lustful snakes?

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

Under the right conditions, researchers say, some crop yields could increase by 50 percent or more.

Is Hacking Photosynthesis the Key to Increasing Crop Yields?

It’s an agricultural moonshot, but scientists hope to make plants like corn, wheat and barley as heat and drought resistant as cactus

Cows produced more saliva and snot, were wobbly on their feet and moved their tongues around a lot after eating high-cannabinoid hemp.

Cows That Ate Hemp Produced Milk With THC and CBD

New research adds insights to the debate over using industrial hemp as livestock feed

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