The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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caltrek
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Chinese Taikonauts Just Grew One of the Most Important Staple Crops in Space
by Andy Tomaswick
September 10, 2022

Introduction:
(Inverse) RICE IS one of the world’s staple crops. It is regularly eaten by more than half the world’s population. And now, it’s been grown in microgravity, on board the newly launched Chinese Wentian space laboratory.

Wentian launched in July and joined up with the Tianhe module of China’s new space station. Its original complement of eight experiments included one that attempted to grow rice in microgravity.

Rice typically grows to three to four feet over four months, and the stalks on Wentian have not been able to complete their entire maturation cycle since the experiment started in July. However, they seem to be on track compared to their Earth-bound counterparts.

There were actually two types of rice launched as part of the experiment. A tall shoot variety reached almost 30 centimeters in the first month of growth, and a dwarf variety reached around 5 centimeters. Both of these growth amounts are on par for these particular rice varieties on Earth.

Rice isn’t the only thing in the experiment, though. Scientists added Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress. It’s a common flowering plant typically used to study genetic mutations, which can be especially helpful when carrying out an experiment in space.
Read more here: https://www.inverse.com/science/chines ... -in-space
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Introducing the Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI)
Homepage

Introduction:
(The Carbon Cycle Institute) The Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI) advances the carbon cycle as the fundamental organizing process underlying land management and on-farm conservation in our efforts to mitigate and adapt to the global climate crisis.

Addressing the climate emergency will require not only dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions but also the large-scale removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. Agricultural and natural lands are our most valuable tools in massively scaling up rates of CO2 sequestration across the globe while also building climate resilience and ecological health.

Carbon Farming

A multitude of agricultural practices present the opportunity to significantly increase the amount of carbon stored in long-term carbon pools including soil organic matter and plant biomass, while supporting food production, rural economies, and ecological health.

Engaging Agriculture

CCI provides education, training, and mentoring to conservation partners, producer groups, and individual farmers and ranchers. Our carbon farming framework builds on and supports existing conservation programs provided by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, local Resource Conservation Districts, and extension services. CCI is committed to ensuring agricultural producers have access to technical assistance and funding support.

Policy

Scaling agricultural climate solutions relies on strong policy support at regional, state, and national levels.
Read more here: https://www.carboncycle.org
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Re: The Future of Food, Agriculture, and Aquaculture

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With a tip of the hat to WJ Fox for finding this you tube video. (See also the CRIPSR and Genetic Engineering thread.)



Edit: The tomatoes are also the subject of a Future Timeline blog: https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... omato.htm
Last edited by caltrek on Mon Sep 19, 2022 3:41 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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New Study Cracks the Code to Increasing Grain Size and Reducing Chalkiness in Rice
September 14, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Rice is a staple food for millions of people around the world. Advances in genetics and breeding science have modernized rice cultivation, leading to improvements in grain weight, an important determinant of both grain yield and appearance quality in rice. Studies focusing on quantitative trait loci (QTL) — small regions of DNA that control factors like grain size, length, and shape — have been at the forefront of these advances. By identifying favorable QTL (i.e., traits) and incorporating them into different rice varieties, scientists have been able to increase grain yield, contributing to greater food security. However, the potential of favorable QTL from wild rice varieties, which are not usually consumed, has been largely untapped.

A species of wild rice called Oryza glumaepatula has received some attention because it is an important source of genetic diversity for rice cultivar improvement. Therefore, a group of researchers from the South China Agricultural University and Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture developed a series of germplasm resources by breeding O. glumaepatula with HJX74, an elite regular rice variety. Their findings, made available online on 19 July 2022 and published in The Crop Journal, demonstrate that gl9, a particular variant of the GS9 gene from O. glumaepatula, contributes to a high grain yield and good quality in cultivated rice. Prof. Shaokui Wang, the lead investigator on the study, explains “Several wild rice varieties have good genetic resources that would be beneficial in the rice varieties we consume. But these can often not be incorporated because wild rice species are quite different from the cultivated ones. One aim of our study was essentially to bridge this gap and reap the benefits of favorable traits from wild rice.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964666
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Changes to Animal Feed Could Supply Food for One Billion People
September 19, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) While millions around the world face the threat of famine or malnutrition, the production of feed for livestock and fish is tying up limited natural resources that could be used to produce food for people. New research from Aalto University, published in Nature Food, shows how adjustment to the feeding of livestock and fish could maintain production while making more food available for people. These relatively simple changes would increase the global food supply significantly, providing calories for up to 13% more people without requiring any increase in natural resource use or major dietary changes.

Currently, roughly a third of cereal crop production is used as animal feed, and about a quarter of captured fish aren’t used to feed people. Matti Kummu, an associate professor of global water and food issues at Aalto, led a team that investigated the potential of using crop residues and food by-products in livestock and aquaculture production, freeing up the human-usable material to feed people.

‘This was the first time anyone has collected the food and feed flows in this detail globally, from both terrestrial and aquatic systems, and combined them together. That let us understand how much of the food by-products and residues is already in use, which was the first step to determining the untapped potential,’ explains Kummu.

The team analysed the flow of food and feed, as well as their by-products and residues, through the global food production system. They then identified ways to shift these flows to produce a better outcome. For example, livestock and farmed fish could be fed food system by-products, such as sugar beet or citrus pulp, fish and livestock by-products or even crop residues, instead of materials that are fit for human use.

With these changes, up to 10-26% of total cereal production and 17 million tons of fish (~11% of the current seafood supply) could be redirected from animal feed to human use. Depending on the precise scenario, the gains in food supply would be 6-13% in terms of caloric content and 9-15% in terms of protein content. ‘That may not sound like a lot, but that’s food for up to about one billion people,’ says Aalto’s Vilma Sandström, the first author of the study.
Read more of the EurekAlert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/964715

For a lengthy presentation of research findings as published in Nature Food: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00589-6
Last edited by caltrek on Wed Oct 05, 2022 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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A Better Understanding of Crop Yields Under Climate Change
September 19, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) You don’t need a PhD in agriculture to know that water is critical to crop production. But for years, people like Jonathan Proctor, who has a PhD in Agriculture and Resource Economics from the University of California Berkeley, have been trying to explain why the importance of water isn’t showing up in statistical models of crop yield.

“Studies analyzing how crop yields respond to temperature and rainfall tend to find that temperature matters much more than water, even though we understand from plant physiology that temperature and water supply are both really important for crops,” said Proctor, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Peter Huybers’ group at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). “Solving this puzzle is critical for quantifying how climate change will affect global crop yields.”

The research team had a hypothesis: What if the models were measuring the wrong type of water? Rather than measuring precipitation, as previous studies had done, the Harvard team used satellites to measure soil moisture around the root zone for maize, soybeans, millet, and sorghum growing around the world.

The team found that models using soil moisture explain 30% to 120% more of the year-to-year variation in yield across crops than models that rely on rainfall.

“Rainfall and soil moisture can differ pretty dramatically due to evaporation, infiltration and runoff,” said Proctor. “What falls from the sky is not necessarily what’s in the soil for the crops to drink — and we find that what’s in the soil for the crops to drink is what actually matters for their yield.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/965179
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Heated Plot Experiments Reveal Link Between Warmer Early Winters and Lower Crop Yields
September 19, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Innovative experiments using temperature-controlled field plots have helped to explain the link between early winter temperatures and yield in some of our most marketable arable crops.

Laboratory and in-field technology enabled the team of researchers from the John Innes Centre to simulate full growing seasons and establish that chilling is important in late November/early December because it promotes growth during early floral development of the crop.

They showed that oilseed rape plants can undergo a developmental phase known as flower bud dormancy if the winter temperature is too warm. This physiological process occurs as the microscopic, newly formed buds lie inactive waiting for low temperatures to signal growth and is well understood in perennial plants which grow year after year.

This development stage was not known to exist in annual crops; those that complete their life cycle in one growing season.

Oilseed rape plants that were chilled at this key developmental stage developed faster and were higher yielding, producing more seeds per pod. Conversely plants grown in warmer conditions grew slowly and were lower yielding.
Read more of the EurekAlert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/965105

Read a presentation of the results of the study as presented in the journal PNAS here:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2204355119
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Ninth Circuit Finds Hydroponic Crops Can be Labeled Organic

by Maria Dinzeo
September 22, 2022

Introduction:
SAN FRANCISCO (Courthouse News) — Hydroponically grown crops can be considered organic, a Ninth Circuit panel ruled Thursday, upholding a federal judge’s refusal to bar hydroponic growers from using the label.

The Organic Foods Production Act, on the books since 1990, specifies that farmers must submit an organic plan showing that their practices foster “soil fertility” through techniques like proper tillage, crop rotation and manuring.

Along with the Center for Food Safety, some of the nation’s oldest organic farms sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture after the agency denied their petition requesting a rule that would make hydroponic crops ineligible for organic certification in 2020.

Northern California farmers argue that it took decades to build the farming practices that earned them the right to call their produce organic only to be undercut by hydroponic producers who piggyback on the label without putting in the work. In hydroponic farming, plants grow in sand, gravel or liquid with added nutrients but no soil.

In a March 2021 ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg wrote that he does not read the law as categorically banning all non-soil-grown crops from being labeled “organic.”
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/ninth-c ... -organic/
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Press Release: Advanced.farm Receives Grant Funding to Support R&D for Robotic Apple Harvest
July 12, 2022

Introduction:
(Advanced.farm) The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission has awarded a grant to advanced.farm to support its development of a robotic apple harvesting machine. Building on its position as the leader in robotic strawberry harvesting, advanced.farm will now pursue apples as part of its mission to automate ag’s impossible tasks. “Our machines are picking twice as many berries per hour as they were at this time last year”, said Director of Business Development at advanced.farm, Peter Ferguson. advanced.farm currently has several fleets of robotic strawberry harvest machines deployed with leading growers throughout California. The company, which closed a $25M Series B round last year, has developed its own custom robots, soft grippers, camera, and autonomous driving chassis. “Most of our technology stack will be able to be applied to apples and other crops. The apple growers we have worked with in Washington are excited about the future of automation in agriculture and have been very supportive of our work.”
advanced.farm plans to use the grant funds to build its first prototype robotic apple harvest machine and hire for key positions, including software and mechanical engineers, as well as field operators.

Harvest automation has been a key focus of innovation in agriculture in recent years. Ines Hanrahan, executive director of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission said “We urgently need new solutions to ensure our crops can be picked in the future to secure the national food supply chain. The WA Tree Fruit Research Commission is pleased to be working with advanced.farm for the coming three years, since this company has a proven track record of getting harvest automation solutions all the way into the field and in grower hands.”
Read more here: https://advanced.farm/press-release-ad ... -harvest/
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New Genetic Variation from Old and Exotic Varieties for Environmentally Friendly Wheat Cultivation
October 4, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Thanks to the continuous funding of the work over six years so far by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, it was possible to test the IPK Leibniz Institute's extensive collection of old wheat varieties for their yield performance and resistance to yellow rust in the laboratory, but also in field trials. "This required a logistical masterstroke from all project participants and many innovative approaches to evaluate the potential of the old varieties without disruptive effects," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, first author of the study. To determine the yield potential, the old varieties were crossed with adapted elite varieties, for example. Only then became the yield potential of the old varieties clearly visible.

And that's not all: the researchers used the results to develop bridging lines for wheat breeding from promising old varieties by crossing them with current varieties. The performance of the resulting progeny surprised the researchers: "We observed higher yields in some bridging lines as compared to important current elite varieties," says Dr. Albert Schulthess, scientist in the research group "Quantitative Genetics". Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif, coordinator of the consortium and head of the research group, is convinced that thanks to the involvement of the two breeding companies, the biodiversity of the elite pool can be increased by using new valuable genetic variation of the bridge lines: "This is of great importance to tackle the huge problems that climate change poses to agriculture."

But that was not all. The results of the study enable a big step towards farming with less or no pesticide use. "Through the comprehensive sequencing of old and new varieties in combination with the valuable field data, we were able to identify possible new gene variants for resistance to yellow rust infestation," says Dr. Albert Schulthess. This would not have been possible without the decoding of the wheat genome, in which the IPK Leibniz Institute played a leading role. "With the new genome regions we discovered in a few old varieties, we can diversify the immune system of wheat," explains Prof. Dr. Jochen Reif.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966824
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