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How natural is our food, and what does ‘natural' mean anyway? Science for Sustainable Agriculture asked this important question to consumers to understand their perception of key issues about the use of science in food and agriculture. The independent survey was designed and conducted by consumer research agency England Marketing Ltd.

 

The highlights of the report include the following:

 

 

According to agricultural economist Graham Brookes, a member of the Science for Sustainable Agriculture advisory group, the study highlights the deficiency in knowledge about the real origin of many common food crops and the transformation they went through to be available in the UK. “This raises questions about the validity of current public discussions around issues such as precision breeding when most consumers appear unaware of the level of scientific intervention which has already gone into the development of our everyday foods,” he added.

 

Read the press release and the full report for more details.

John Innes Center & KeyGene, NV

 

Gregor Mendel, the Moravian monk, was indeed “decades ahead of his time and truly deserves the title of ‘founder of genetics.’” So concludes an international team of scientists as the 200th birthday of Mendel approaches on 20 July. 

 

The team, from KeyGene in the Netherlands and the John Innes Centre in the UK, draw on newly-discovered historical information to conclude that, when his proposals are viewed in the light of what was known of cells in the mid-19th century, Mendel was decades ahead of his time.  

 

“Uncovering hidden details about Mendel has helped to build a picture of the scientific and intellectual environment in which he worked. At the outset Mendel knew nothing about Genetics and had to deduce it all for himself. How he went about this is highly instructive,” said Dr Noel Ellis from the John Innes Centre, one of the contributors to the study.

  

The new information shows that Mendel began his work with the practical objectives of a plant breeder, before he became interested in the underlying biological processes that condition the heritable differences between organisms. It also shows that Mendel recognised the importance of understanding the formation of reproductive cells and the process of fertilisation.  

 

A small but rich inheritance 

 

Mendel’s work and ideas have been studied by many, even though material describing his work is limited. Where Darwin left thousands of letters, for Mendel only a few are known.  

 

Mendel’s work started to receive significant recognition 34 years after its publication and 16 years after his death. No notes relating to this work have been found. All that was left was a pair of scientific papers, one of which is the famous ‘Experiments on Plant Hybrids’ published in German in 1866. This paper remains the basis of what children at school learn about genetics today. 

 

Newspaper articles from Mendel’s time have been digitised  

 

Thanks to modern technology, the authors were able to extract valuable information from 19th-century newspaper articles, proceedings, and yearbooks that have recently been digitised. These show how advanced the ideas and work of Mendel were as he used cell biological theory to come to conclusions on how traits of plants are transmitted from parents to their offspring. 

 

Mendel’s Elemente: what we know as genes 

 

Mendel noted that pea plants must maintain and transmit the ‘code’ for the appearance of a trait, we now call these coding instructions genes, Mendel called them ‘Elemente.’ 

 

For many traits, two different Elemente or ‘Elements’ are present, for example to code for flower colour in peas, one which conditions purple and an alternative for white flower colour. 

 

Mendel proposed that in the male and female parts of the flower, reproductive cells are formed that only contain one type of Element, and these single Elements are transmitted to a daughter plant, one from the male and another from the female.  

 

We now know that only half of the number of chromosomes is transmitted to egg cells in the female flower parts and pollen in the male flower parts, thanks to the division that occurs during meiosis at the formation of gametes. 

 

Two centuries on from his birth this remarkable scientific life is still offering up new insights. 

The article, How did Mendel arrive at his discoveries? appears in Nature Genetics 

Link to the paper in Nature Genetics (open source):

Source: USDA news release

 

Farming activities in the United States accounted for 11.2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. From 2019 to 2020, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions declined from 699 to 670 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent but increased from 10.6 percent to 11.2 percent as a share of the U.S. economy.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that in 2020 agriculture produced 5.6 percent as nitrous oxide (N2O), 4.2 percent as methane (CH4), 0.8 percent as on-farm carbon dioxide (CO2), and 0.6 percent emitted indirectly through the electricity that agriculture consumes. Emissions come from cropping activities that emit nitrous oxide, such as fertilizer application and manure storage and management, and enteric fermentation (a normal digestive process in animals), which produces methane.

 

Of the economic sectors in the United States defined by the Energy Information Administration, industry (excluding agricultural emissions) accounted for the largest portion of total greenhouse gas emissions (30.3 percent), followed by transportation, residential, commercial, agriculture, and U.S. territories (no specific consumption data can be attributed within the territories, so they are listed as a group).

 

Source: USDA news release

 

WASHINGTON, - Today, the Biden Administration announced additional steps it's taking to support U.S. farmers in their work to stabilize food prices and feed Americans and the world amidst continuing challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reducing the economic risk of raising two crops on the same land in one year, making it easier for U.S. farmers to grow food in America, increase food supply, and lower food costs for American families. This action is part of a broader set of commitments made earlier this year by President Biden and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to increase domestic food production amid potential global food shortages related to the invasion of Ukraine.

To reduce the risk of raising two crops on the same land in one year - a practice known as double cropping - USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) is expanding double crop insurance opportunities in nearly 1,500 counties where double cropping is viable.

"In May, I joined President Biden at the O'Connor farm in Kankakee, Illinois to announce a series of actions to help farmers do what they do - grow food for American families and the rest of the world. Today, USDA is making good on one of those commitments and making it easier to plant double crops and sharing some of the financial risk by making crop insurance more available in over 1,500 counties," said Secretary Vilsack. "We live in a challenging time, but I put my trust in the American farmer and U.S. agriculture to help keep the food we need affordable and available. The Biden administration and USDA will continue to find ways to ease burdens on American farmers and lower costs for American families such as expanded double crop options through crop insurance."

 

 

Improvements include:

· For soybeans, double crop coverage will be expanded to or streamlined in at least 681 counties, including all of those that were initially targeted for review. While some additional counties were permanently added to be double crop counties, the majority of expansion removed barriers such as requiring production records and streamlined the process to get personalized coverage through a written agreement.

 

· For grain sorghum, double crop coverage will be expanded to or streamlined in at least 870 counties that were initially targeted for review. Similar to soybeans, most of these changes included streamlining the administrative burden and requirements to obtain written agreements. Written agreements provide the producer with the maximum flexibility by allowing them to obtain crop insurance coverage, but not requiring the coverage of both the spring and winter crops as in permanent double crop counties.

 

· RMA will also work with the crop insurance industry and farm organizations to highlight the availability and improvements in written agreements as an option for any farmer that grows a crop outside the area where a policy is automatically offered.

 

This expansion of coverage was guided by extensive outreach to nearly 70 grower groups covering 28 states. This includes a wide array of stakeholders such as producers, agents, university extension and other agricultural experts, commodity associations, state departments of agriculture and insurance companies. USDA may add additional counties as it explores these options with farmers this summer, with the final rules being locked in by the fall. Since farmers need to plan ahead for adding a winter crop to a rotation, USDA wanted to make sure they had time to consider this option and consult with local extension and agriculture experts and their crop insurance agent.

 

Additional resources released today by USDA include frequently asked questions as well as the Helping Farmers Address Global Food Insecurity webpage on farmers.gov

 

Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private crop insurance agents. A list of crop insurance agents is available at all USDA Service Centers and online at the RMA Agent Locater Producers can learn more about crop insurance and the modern farm safety net at rma.usda.gov.

 

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America's food system and lowering food prices for Americans by focusing on more resilient local and regional food production, encouraging fairer markets for all producers, and ensuring access to safe, healthy, and nutritious food in all communities. USDA has also prioritized building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, has made historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and is committed to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit usda.gov.