Anti-nutrients naturally occur in food and can block the amount of other nutrients available for your body to use. But their effects aren’t all bad, which is why they’re undergoing an image makeover.
A woman in Timor-Leste surveys her chili crop.
(Creative Commons)
Masting is what biologists call the pattern of trees for miles around synchronizing to all produce lots of seeds − or very few. Why and how do they get on schedule?
Libraries are offering new and innovative things that belie their historic image as silent places to read.
With advancements in technology, libraries are offering much more than something to read. A library researcher offers a sampling of some unexpected items that library patrons can check out these days.
A Ugandan family works on their farm near the capital Kampala.
EPA/Khaled Elfiqi
Sharing seeds was common practice among farmers throughout history until the rise of agribusiness. Now seeds are trademarked and regulated, but there’s a new place to get them for free: the library.
Soybean seeds treated with neonicotinoids (blue) and treated corn seeds (red) versus untreated seeds.
Ian Grettenberger/PennState University
US farmers are planting more and more acres with seeds coated with neonicotinoid pesticides. An ecologist explains why this approach is overkill and may be doing more harm than good.
Affordable tractors improved food security in Nigeria
Mugisha Don de Dieu/Flickr
If you want to live on Mars, you’re going to need to grow food. Seeds are naturally equipped to handle challenging Earth environments, but how well can they survive what they’ll encounter off-planet?
Once the coat around the seed is moistened, the embryo cells expand and burst out in a process called germination.
shutterstock/NUM LPPHOTO
A seed contains nearly everything a tree needs to get growing. Just add a dash of water, a bit of warmth and the right location, and you’ll be seeing green in no time.
Seed-eating birds like this male king parrot enjoy birdbaths - but they like food even more.
Glenn Pure
Is providing birds with food and water making them too dependent? Or are gardens just the new frontier of Australia’s urban landscape? New research aims to find out.
There are fewer than a thousand Graveside gorge wattles in Kakadu National Park.
Parks Australia
Since 2000, the growth of the commercial seed market has almost tripled. More than 63% of the world’s commercial seed is now owned by six corporations.