Category Archives: News
Improving US melon crop focus of $4.4 million study at Texas A&M AgriLife Research
COLLEGE STATION — More than $4.4 million is being funded to discover ways to improve the U.S. melon industry through a grant to scientists with Texas A&M AgriLife Research and in seven other states. The monies, provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, were part of $35 million given to 12 projects to find “science-based solutions and new technology for the specialty crop industry.” The four-year project, “A Sustainable, Systems-based Approach for a Safer and Healthier Melon Supply Chain in the U.S.,”…
NIFA Invests $35 Million in Specialty Crop Research
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture sent this bulletin at 08/24/2017 01:14 PM EDT WASHINGTON, D.C. August 24, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced 12 new grants totaling $35 million for science-based solutions and new technology for the specialty crop industry. Funding is made through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. “Specialty crops generally fetch high value for the farmers, but require more intensive farming than conventional crops, such as…
Science Of Stink: Blame Sulfur Compounds For Your Garlic Breath
Maanvi Singh June 21, 201410:48 AM ET Garlic is delicious. But if you consume enough of it, its stench can repel not only vampires but any person within a 5-foot radius. What’s behind garlic breath that makes it so offensive? In a video, the folks at the American Chemical Society and the chemistry blog Compound Interest lay out the chemicals responsible for the odor. Chopping or crushing garlic releases the compound allicin, which then breaks down into four other smelly compounds. The most mischievous of them is allyl…
Experts on medicinal plants to gather at Clemson University conference
Denise Attaway, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences; Public Service and Agriculture CLEMSON — Researchers from all over the world will convene at Clemson University for the eighth annual conference of the American Council for Medicinally Active Plants (ACMAP) to talk about how plants can be used to help fight diseases, provide proper nutrition and much more. The ACMAP conference takes place June 20-23 at the Madren Center. Jeffrey Adelberg, a Clemson horticulture professor and conference organizer, said its aim is to teach people about plants that…
Texas tomato growers slicing into vegetable market with fresh fruit all fall
By: Kathleen Phillips Writer: Kathleen Phillips, 979-845-2872, ka-phillips@tamu.edu Contact: Dr. Kevin Crosby, 979-845-7012, k-crosby@tamu.edu COLLEGE STATION – Tomatoes are the Type B’s of the vegetable world: Laid-back, creative, collaborative. Want a slice on a burger? Fine. Chopped into a salad? Great. Pureed and slathered over a pizza crust? Yum. Steeped in a winter stew? Ahhhh. But fresh is what most consumers covet, and that’s what Dr. Kevin Crosby, Texas A&M AgriLife vegetable breeder in College Station, had in mind when he released a new variety called Hot-TY. “It’s…
Cold-Pressed Juice
Nobody Can Prove That Cold-Pressed Juice Is Better for You IF YOU’RE THE type of modern citizen with a gym membership and/or a road bike, you’ve probably heard at least a little about cold-press juicing. Celebrities deliver breathless testimonials about their juice’s improved nutritional profile, magically legitimizing $12-a-bottle prices. And startups are popping up to capitalize on the trend—one raising $120 million by promising to deliver pre-packaged fruit, ready to be juiced on its proprietary machine. The science, at first, sounds pretty good. Good enough, at least, to…
Is cold-pressed juice really that healthy, or is it all just hype?
By DAVE MCGINN The Globe and Mail Published Thursday, May. 21 2015, 3:13 PM EDT Last updated Thursday, May. 21 2015, 5:35 PM EDT Cold-pressed juice is the elixir for our time-starved, nutrient-deprived lives, if its devotees are to be believed. That’s part of the reason a 355-ml bottle can cost $12. The latest health fad has become a multibillion-dollar industry and has been deemed the new “status symbol,” helped along by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow. Companies such as Whole Foods and Starbucks are riding the trend,…
Dr. Patil’s Insight on the Cold-Pressed Juice Hype [Wired.com]
IF YOU’RE THE type of modern citizen with a gym membership and/or a road bike, you’ve probably heard at least a little about cold-press juicing. Celebrities deliver breathless testimonials about their juice’s improved nutritional profile, magically legitimizing $12-a-bottle prices. And startups are popping up to capitalize on the trend—one raising $120 million by promising to deliver pre-packaged fruit, ready to be juiced on its proprietary machine. The science, at first, sounds pretty good. Good enough, at least, to convince consumers to pay up to $2,500 for the privilege of making the right kind of juice at home with…
For Center, 20 Years of Creating Vegetables [Texas Monthly]
by FRANCESCA MARI – APRIL 5, 2014 – Texas Monthly; NY Times Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/us/for-center-20-years-of-creating-vegetables.html?_r=2 Workers in South Texas last year harvested the sweet Texas 1015, an onion created to stop tears. In 1983, after more than 10 years of research, a Texas A&M University horticulturist named Leonard Pike created an onion that did not make people cry. This alone was revolutionary, but Dr. Pike also conferred another attribute upon his plant progeny: a single center. Previous onion varieties had multiple centers and were a mess of interlocking circles…
The Results of a 7-Yr Study are In! Vegetarian and Pescovegetarian Diets Shown to Lower Cancer Risk [WSJ]
The Wall Street Journal reports that a vegetarian diet may be optimal for warding off the second most deadly cancer in the US. The study included 770,000 participants and showed a 22% relative reduction in risk for bowel cancer and a 43% reduction for those who ate fish, as well. Although the relationship between fish and cancer reduction is unclear, the study found positive effects of decreased meat and increased vegetable intake on bowel cancer risk overall. SOURCES: Michael Orlich, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, preventive medicine, Loma Linda…