Agriculture

Scientists sequenced the DNA of an ancient watermelon and discovered that it contains the oldest plant genome in the world.

A banana-killing fungus has finally reached Latin America, as scientists long feared it would.

Thousands of years ago, fallout from volcanic activity may have sounded a death knell for an Egyptian dynasty.

Chickens' staggering popularity as a food source has come at an enormous cost — to chickens and to people.

The biological and physical changes happening on Earth due to climate change will transform food production, researchers say.

Simulated "Martian gardens" are helping NASA scientists learn which plants astronauts will be able to grow in future missions to the Red Planet.

Cereals are not just for breakfast — and with grain yields falling, expect to feel the impact.

A new gene in a strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) not only protects the bacteria against last-defense antibiotics, but is easily shared among microbial species.

The ongoing civil war in Syria has led to the first-ever withdrawal from the Svalbard "doomsday" Global Seed Vault.

Two new maps available for free download considerably improve estimates of land dedicated to agriculture, and provide the first global overview of field sizes.

Fairly and efficiently distributing food is a large and complicated problem and a team of engineers set out to make it work better.

It seems that with the beginning of agriculture around 10,000 years ago, group decision making changed

We need to make better use of land, light and logistics for an increasingly urban population. And we need to incorporate zero-waste and low-energy technologies into the task of food production.

A NASA instrument designed to study the oceans turns out to be useful for studying land, too. The Aquarius instrument reveals levels of moisture in soil around the globe.

Moss offers clues in the search for how molecular signals direct cell growth.

A new USDA program pays farmers to reseed fields with clover, alfalfa and other plants good for grazing that also feed bees. The initiative is an attempt to counteract colony collapse disorder.