Many people have lettuce in a salad at the beginning of a meal. The ancient Egyptians and Romans had it at the end. Either way, gardening experts say lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow in a garden. There are hundreds of kinds of head and leaf lettuces besides the most popular choices, like […]
Foreign investment in African land is growing. Countries like China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are leasing or buying millions of hectares to grow food for their people. Research shows that many large land deals lack protections for small farmers. Contracts may guarantee leases for up to ninety-nine years, leaving local people without land for generations. Better […]
A discovery in a laboratory could help lead to new generation of drought-resistant crops. Drought conditions cause plants to produce a stress hormone called abscisic acid. This chemical activates a set of protein molecules called receptors. These receptors then activate a series of changes to help the plant survive. The natural reaction of the receptors is to […]
Pigweed is a weed that spreads fast and grows up to two meters tall. It can overpower cotton and other crops. It comes from the amaranth family and is also known as Palmer amaranth or Palmer’s pigweed. A cultivated version of amaranth is grown for food and medicine in Africa and Asia. In the United […]
Aquaponics is the idea of producing vegetables and fish in the same closed system. It combines aquaculture, or fish farming, with hydroponics, a way to grow plants without soil. Supporters see aquaponics as a way to increase world food supplies and reduce climate change, groundwater pollution and overfishing. Sylvia Bernstein says the idea is as old as nature. […]
People have been growing chrysanthemums for more than two thousand years. Mums make bright and colorful gardens. People in China and other Asian cultures make tea with the flowers. Giacomo Puccini, the great Italian composer, even named one of his works after chrysanthemums, “Crisantemi.” One basic kind of mum is the hardy or garden mum. The other […]
This June in Brazil, delegates will mark the twentieth anniversary of what is commonly known as the Earth Summit. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development took place in Rio de Janeiro in nineteen ninety-two. One of the issues that the delegates plan to discuss in June at Rio+20 is the role of agriculture in climate […]
Companion planting is the idea that some kinds of plants can help each other grow. Plants that are compatible together generally have similar needs in terms of nutrients, soil and moisture levels. Advice about which plants are compatible is sometimes based more on tradition than proof. But experts say there is evidence to support certain […]
Old properties and empty lots in cities and towns around the United States are finding new life as urban farms. EcoCity Farms in Edmonston, Maryland, is located near shopping centers, car repair shops and homes. The neighborhood is a working-class community. People do not have very much money, and they have limited access to fresh food in markets. Over the past […]
Seth DeBolt is a plant scientist at the University of Kentucky in the United States. He and other scientists wanted to find a source of fuel that poor people in rural areas of developing countries could use to make electricity. The United Nations Development Program says a billion and a half people have no electricity. A billion others have […]