• North Carolina’s biothreat warning system receives funding

    The North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative (NCB-Prepared), a project to develop an early warning system to detect biothreats, has received $3 million in funding. The goal of NCB-Prepared project is to develop a statewide system that can detect and alert health officials and first responders within hours of an outbreak indicating a bioterror attack, contagious disease or illness, food-borne illness, and other biothreats.

  • The hidden dangers of south-of-the-border hot sauce

    In the last decade, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued several warnings about and recalls of imported food products that exceed federal standards for lead. Products containing chili peppers and salt, such as Mexican-style candies, were often suspected as sources of lead contamination. Researchers now find elevated lead levels in some hot sauces imported from Mexico. The researchers urge USDA and the FDA to develop enforceable screening standards for hot sauce.

  • New technology enables crops to take nitrogen directly from the air

    Nitrogen fixation, the process by which nitrogen is converted to ammonia, is vital for plants to survive and grow. Only a very small number of plants, however, most notably legumes (such as peas, beans, and lentils) have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria. The vast majority of plants have to obtain nitrogen from the soil, and for most crops currently being grown across the world, this also means a reliance on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen pollution is a major problem however, and efforts to deal with it are costly. Researchers have developed a method of putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria into the cells of plant roots. The implications for food production are enormous.

  • Tick rover robot kills ticks dead

    The day may not be too far away when homeowners can schedule monthly tick clearing service, drastically reducing the risk of tick-borne illness in their pets and children. This is because the “tick rover” robot has just cleared a major hurdle. Testing last month indicated unequivocally that the device kills between 75 and 100 percent of the ticks in its path.

  • Natural pest control protein for fighting hookworm: billion to benefit

    Hookworms, and other intestinal parasites known as helminths infect more than one billion people in poverty-stricken, tropical nations, sucking the vitality from the body, and leaving hundreds of millions of children physically and mentally stunted. A benign crystal protein, produced naturally by bacteria and used as an organic pesticide, could be a safe, inexpensive treatment for parasitic worms.

  • Food safety, farm groups oppose Smithfield sale

    A group of farm and food safety advocates is pushing federal regulators to prevent the sale of Smithfield Foods to Chinese food giant Shuanghui International Holdings. The coalition argues the sale could hurt domestic food safety, cause economic damage in rural communities, and could be a threat to national security.

  • Climate forecasts predict crop failures

    Climate data can help predict some crop failures several months before harvest, according to a new study. Scientists found that in about one-third of global cropland, temperature and soil moisture have strong relationships to the yield of wheat and rice at harvest. For those two key crops, a computer model could predict crop failures three months in advance for about 20 percent of global cropland.

  • Mass religious gatherings in Middle East increase risk of MERS coronavirus spreading globally

    Researchers say that the life-threatening MERS coronavirus which has emerged in the Middle East could spread faster and wider during two international mass gatherings involving millions of people in the next few months – the umrah pilgrimage and the hajj. The researchers describe the most likely pathways of international spread based upon worldwide patterns of air travel.

  • U.K. water industry: fracking may contaminate U.K. drinking water

    U.K. water companies have warned the shale gas industry that the quality of U.K. drinking water must be protected at all costs and fracking must not harm public health. Shale gas fracking could lead to contamination of the water supply with methane gas and harmful chemicals if not carefully planned and carried out.

  • Pathogen which caused Irish potato famine even more virulent now

    The plant pathogen which caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s lives on today, but with a different genetic blueprint and an even larger arsenal of weaponry to harm and kill plants. An estimated $6.2 billion is spent each year on crop damage and attempts to control the pathogen.

  • Provision in House farm bill could postpone FDA food safety regulations

    The largest overhaul of food safety regulations in the United States in more than five decades could be in danger as a result of an amendment in the farm bill that passed the House last week and sent to the Senate Tuesday. The House farm bill (H.R. 2642)has a provision requiring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to direct a “scientific and economic analysis” of the regulations under the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA).

  • Disruption of maize trade would have global ramifications

    Maize is at the center of global food security as growing demands for meat, fuel uses, and cereal crop demands increase the grain’s pivotal importance in diets worldwide. Disruptions to U.S. exports of maize (corn) could pose food security risks for many U.S. trade partners due to the lack of trade among other producing and importing nations. This is particularly true in nations like Mexico, Japan, and South Korea that have yet to diversify their sources.

  • Addresses trade-offs between food security, greenhouse gas emissions

    Agriculture and land use change contributed about 1/3 of total human greenhouse gas emissions in the past decade, through crop cultivation, animal production, and deforestation. Improving agricultural productivity could help cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, a new study shows, but sustainable farming methods are key.

  • Lawmakers uneasy about Smithfield’s acquisition by a Chinese food giant

    Lawmakers last week questioned Smithfield Foods CEO Larry Pope about the proposed acquisition of the pork producer by China’s largest meat producer. Lawmakers are worried that the acquisition will negatively affect U.S food supply and agricultural producers.

  • U.S., South Korea teaming up for bioterrorism exercise

    Officials from the United States and South Korea were in Seoul, South Korea last month for the third annual joint anti-bioterrorism exercise in Seoul. Around eighty U.S. officials and between 120 and 130 South Korean military officials participated in the tabletop exercise.