Every seat in the College Station, Texas hall was filled with scientists and folks from the food industry, gathered for one reason: to wish a happy 20th birthday to the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center. When you first hear that such a place exists, nestled inside of Texas A&M University, the name sounds ridiculous. How can you improve upon a vegetable? I imagined subterranean laboratories where veggies are injected with a secret bacon-flavored serum, a mutant supergarden where veggies are crossbred with kale to make super superfoods. What… Read More →

Original post by Roberto A. Ferdman from The Washington Post’s “Wonkblog,” January 22, 2015.  America is in love with avocados. The country’s appetite for the creamy versatile fruit (yes, avocados are fruit) has grown just about every year for the past 15 years, according to data from the Hass Avocado Board, invading kitchens and menus across the country. The rise is such that sales of Hass avocados, which make up more than 95 percent of all avocados consumed in the United States, soared to a record of nearly 1.9 billion pounds (or some 4.25 billion avocados) last year, more… Read More →

(CNN) — Eating a Mediterranean diet may be your key to living longer. That’s according to a new study led by Immaculata De Vivo, associate professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. The diet involves eating items off a menu that is rich in vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans and peas, unrefined grains, olive oil and fish. It keeps dairy, meat and saturated fats to a minimum. And you can have a glass of red wine with dinner without cheating. The diet has been… Read More →

“A new mice study suggests that grapefruit juice might be just as effective as the type 2 diabetes drug, metformin, at lowering blood glucose. The research, which was funded by the California Grapefruit Growers Cooperative, was published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. Regarding the funding, study co-author Joseph Napoli, PhD, professor and chair of nutritional sciences and toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley, said this: “I understand the skepticism.” But the funders had nothing to do with the experiment, he says, besides providing some money and… Read More →

          Eating fruit every day can lower risk of heart disease by up to 40%, new research suggests. The researchers found that compared to people who never eat fruit, those who eat fruit every day cut their heart disease risk by 25% to 40%. Those who ate the most amount of fruit also had much lower blood pressure compared to the participants who never ate fruit Read the full article here

Dharwad: The global community of scholars must work together to solve problems like food insecurity, sad Mark Hussey, noted agricultural scientist and interim president of Texas Agricultural and Medical University. Addressing fresh graduates, postgraduates and PhD awardees at the 27th annual convocation of the University of Agricultural Sciences held in Dharwad on Thursday, he said the world’s exponentially growing population was at the core of these problems. “As a result, food insecurity, malnutrition and world hunger are rampantly growing. Currently, one sixth of the world’s population (a billion… Read More →

Dharwad: The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, conferred honorary doctorates on Dr. Mark A. Hussey, Interim Presdient, Texas A&M University, United States of America and Dr. Rajendra Singh, the waterman of India, at its 27th annual convocation held here on Thursday. Pro-Chancellor and state Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda presented the degrees in the absence of Governor H. R. Bhardwaj. […] Delivering the convocation address, Dr. Hussey called upon the global community of scholars to collectively work towards solving problems such as food insecurity, malnutrition and hunger. He… Read More →

Texas University, in association with University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, will start two institutes in the State to strengthen agriculture and horticulture sectors. A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at his home office Krishna […] gave its not for establishing the two institutes. A centre for excellence in ‘food for health’ will come up in Bangalore and the other on agriculture development at Dharwad. A proposal has been sent to the State government to sanction necessary funds for establishing the two institutes. Link to download… Read More →