CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — From tweeting photos of delicious meals to reviewing restaurants, social media give foodies numerous opportunities to indulge their passion for edibles. But these media and other digital communications — including recipe websites and food-delivery apps — also generate a rich trove of text data for food scientists and food industry researchers to study what people eat, how nutrition affects health and many other food-related topics. Read more from Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. – An international research team has received a $1.4 million grant from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council to investigate food availability and food security among indigenous mothers and children in remote Australian communities.

URBANA, Ill. – Illinois specialty crop growers have reason to celebrate the end of the 2019 growing season, according to plant pathologist Mohammad Babadoost of the University of Illinois.

After a questionable start, the Illinois pumpkin crop is looking good in time for fall. The pumpkin industry in Illinois is worth approximately $200 million, and produces about 90% of the country’s canned pumpkin supply.  

URBANA, Ill. – Alleviating food insecurity is often seen as one of the fundamental roles a country should fulfil. In some cases, this is encapsulated into a constitutionally formalized “right to food.” In other cases, including the U.S., the right to food isn’t formalized, but the U.S. government spends billions of dollars per year to help Americans obtain the food they need.

URBANA, Ill. – Food insecurity is emerging as a serious health care issue in the United States. One in eight Americans is food insecure, which may lead to a range of serious health conditions. A new study looks at the relation between food insecurity and health care expenditures across the country. 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A new computer model incorporates how microscopic pores on leaves may open in response to light—an advance that could help scientists create virtual plants to predict how higher temperatures and rising levels of carbon dioxide will affect food crops, according to a study published in a special issue of the journal Photosynthesis Research today.

Read more at the RIPE website.

URBANA, Ill. – When international aid organizations respond to hunger crises around the world, they rely on food security early warning and monitoring systems. However, assessments from those systems can lag months behind the actual situation on the ground.

More accurate and timely warnings could greatly improve the global response to food crisis and help alleviate acute problems, according to a team of agricultural economists at the University of Illinois, working in collaboration with the University of Texas, Austin.

URBANA, Ill. – Are pork chops on the menu this grilling season? According to new research from University of Illinois meat scientists, pork enthusiasts can improve taste, juiciness, and tenderness by cooking chops to the new USDA standard: 145 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The Chicago Council of Global Affairs hosted the annual Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. on March 20-21. The symposium provides a platform for discussion on the U.S. and the international agriculture community’s progress towards food security.  

Food security practitioners from around the world gathered at the University of Illinois in early April for the Fifth Annual International Food Security Symposium sponsored and coordinated by the Office of International Programs in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES).