A team from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has engineered potato to be more resilient to global warming, showing 30% increases in tuber mass under heatwave conditions. This adaptation may provide greater food security for families dependent on potatoes, as these are often the same areas where the changing climate has already affected multiple crop seasons.

Fungal contamination of cereal grains poses a substantial threat to food security and public health while causing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses annually.

A few years back, a group of weed scientists showed that soil-applied herbicides are less effective against agricultural weeds in the context of our changing climate.

Most corn and soybean fields in the U.S. are planted with herbicide-resistant crop varieties. However, the evolution of superweeds that have developed resistance to common herbicides is jeopardizing current weed management strategies. Agricultural robotics for mechanical weeding is an emerging technology that could potentially provide a solution.

As the world’s native bee populations are declining, crop production requiring pollinators increasingly relies on commercial pollination services. In the U.S., the beekeeping industry is in great demand, and truckloads of bee colonies travel the country to accommodate crop growers.

Agricultural producers and farm workers experience stressful working conditions that result in anxiety and depression at higher rates than the general population. At the same time, access to mental health care is often lacking in rural areas.

Agriculture is a stressful occupation, and farmers struggle with anxiety and depression at higher levels than the general population.

Hyperspectral imaging is a useful technique for analyzing the chemical composition of food and agricultural products. However, it is a costly and complicated procedure, which limits its practical application.

Livestock production is an important component of U.S. agriculture, with global demand for meat and dairy expected to double in the coming decades. This increase will lead to intensified grazing on U.S. grasslands, potentially exacerbating water quality degradation from livestock waste runoff into waterways.