Research News

Bees boost crops and could steady food prices

Supporting and enhancing pollinators could help stabilize the production of important crops like oilseeds and fruit, reducing the sort of uncertainty that causes food price spikes, new research has shown. Scientists at the University of Reading analyzed years of data on the poorly understood effect of pollinators on crop yield stability. They found there was […]

Being near pollinator habitat boosts soybean size

Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that soybean crops planted near pollinator habitat produce larger soybeans than soybean crops that are not planted near pollinator habitat. “Even though soybeans are not thought of as being dependent on pollinators, we found that soybean plants are still attractive to bees,” says Hannah Levenson, a postdoctoral […]

Scientists discover first effective treatment for citrus-destroying disease

New license agreement commercializes innovative, safe technology By Jules Bernstein University of California Riverside (UCR) scientists have found the first substance capable of controlling Citrus Greening Disease, which has devastated citrus farms in Florida and also threatens California.  The new treatment effectively kills the bacterium causing the disease with a naturally occurring molecule found in wild […]