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EartherThis Week’s Derecho Screwed Iowa’s Farmers
Earlier this week, the Midwest got absolutely pummeled by a powerful derecho. But the impacts were most severe in Iowa where winds cranked to 112 mph and torrential rain fell. Now, it’s becoming clear it was a disaster for farmers’ corn and soy fields that were flattened by the destructive storm. The damage comes at … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherEnvironmental JusticeCorn Pollution Kills Thousands of Americans a Year, Study Finds
Midwestern states better buckle up because a new bad guy’s in town. I’m not talking about any gun-toting cowboys, though. I’m talking about corn. A study published Monday in Nature Sustainability shows how deadly this crop can be. And eating it isn’t the killer; growing it is. Turns out that the air pollution from growing … Continued
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Tech NewsA Battle Over the Safety of Iowa’s Corn Is Unfolding on Facebook
If you’re in Iowa, it may be time to arm up. It’s beginning to look like an all-out war is brewing online over the security of your corn. Jokey Facebook events like “huffing freon while listening to slipknot” have quickly become a staple of the internet, but a plan threatening Iowa’s iconic crop has set … Continued
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Tech NewsResearchers Just Solved One of the Biggest Problems for World Hunger
Planet Earth is doomed with a fast growing global population and a limited amount of farmland to produce food for everyone. That means that we’re going to need to figure out how to maximize what we’ve got—and researchers just made a major breakthrough in getting the most from our crops. Biologists from Cold Spring Harbor … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
The Crop That Will Skyrocket Most This Century Isn’t Really a Food at All
The world at the end of this century won’t look the same as it does today. It will be hotter and drier, with far less available space in which to grow food—and the crop that will be doing the best under that new system won’t be a food crop at all. The USDA put out … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech NewsGMO Food Isn’t Coming to Get You—It’s Been Here All Along
Worried that genetically-modified foods could be quietly, secretly, making their furtive way towards your plate even as we speak? Don’t be—you’ve already been eating them for a long time now. A lot of the consternation over GMOs—particularly amongst those calling for wide-spread labeling—has centered around the idea that GMOs are something brand new and unknown. … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
No, America Doesn’t Grow As Much of the World’s Corn as You Think It Does
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. wasn’t just the top producer of the world’s corn, it was the corn market.As of today, it’s less than half.What happened? The change isn’t a product of the U.S. growing less corn to send out—with the exception of a dramatic dip around 2013, due to the drought—it’s that other places … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
The Next Global Spy Wars Won’t Be Over Weapons—They Will Be Over Food
In the clandestine world of spies and double agents, there are some constants: mysterious strangers, drop-off points, stolen secrets. But it’s not missile plans these spies are seeking. Ted Genoways has a story in The New Republic today on the strange case of Mo Hailong and Mo Yun, currently awaiting trial for charges of conspiracy … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
It’s a weed whose height rivals that of many NBA players, it’s increasingly herbicide-resistant, and it’s spreading. The Des Moines Register has the story of “superweed” Palmer amaranth’s spread through Iowa which they say could knock out 2/3 of the state’s corn and soybean crops if it continues.
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming
Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at … Continued
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Tech News
The US Grows the Most Productive Plants in the World, Says NASA
Remember learning about America’s “amber waves of grain?” Well, it turns out that the United States’ bread basket—a.k.a., the Corn Belt—is even more productive than previously thought. In fact, during its growing season, it’s the most productive land on Earth, according to new NASA data. For the past couple years, satellite sensors have been gathering … Continued
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Tech News
Sex-Changing Frogs, Corn Espionage, and a Time-Traveling Greenhouse
Rising and falling in this week’s landscape news: the rise of artificial snow and the fall of a Chinese agricultural spy, the rise of corn and the fall of male frogs. The End of Ski Resorts? All right, let’s get the laughs about snow and Sochi out first. While the Russian city can probably hoard … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
io9
Eating too much corn turns you into a vampire (without the blood drinking)
A diet of too much corn, and not enough everything else, can give you the condition that inspired vampire legends. Learn about the corn-fed vampires who stalked the American west at the turn of the last century. Corn has proved itself to be very useful. Over the last century, people have learned to use it … Continued
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Tech News
Holy Shit This Is Real Fucking Corn
This is corn. No, it’s not photoshopped. Yes, it’s real. It’s a corn variety called Glass Gem Corn and though it may look like jelly beans or beads, it’s real, actual, edible corn. What in the world? Seeds Trust, a family seed company, got the seeds for glass gem corn from Greg Schoen who got … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9
Bugs from your colon could produce the world’s next great energy source
For years, the energy industry has been looking to seaweed to become the next big source of biofuel. But the algae plant has its drawbacks. Much of its energy is stored in a form of sugar that is difficult to tap into; this snag drives the cost of biofuel produced from seaweed up, and its … Continued
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io9
Pesky insects becoming resistant to genetically modified corn
One of the big advantages of genetically modified corn was its built-in pesticides, as it produces a toxin that kills destructive bugs. Now its resistance to pests is wearing off. Just as Jurassic Park taught us, life found a way. Back in 2003, a strain of genetically modified crop known as Bt corn was introduced. … Continued
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Tech News
You Could Be Eating Genetically Modified Corn—and Not Even Know It
Monsanto, the oft-vilified company known for hawking genetically modified seeds and suing farmers, is putting genetically modified sweet corn on supermarket shelves this fall. Monsanto’s corn will look like any regular corn on the shelf, but it will be genetically altered to carry Bt toxin, which messes with insect’s digestive systems and kills them, allowing … Continued
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Tech NewsObi Wan Cornobi, the Maizesaber
Kids these days are so unhealthy! All they want to eat is junk food and fried things. Ideas man Shed Simove wants to address this problem by making healthy eating more fun. Witness his latest creation, the Cornobi. Although still in the prototype stage, Simove is seeking business partners to bring it to market. I … Continued
By Michael Zhao -
Tech News
The “Misunderstood” Sweetener Formerly Known As High-Fructose Corn Syrup
Before we start talking about the evils of high-fructose corn syrup, let’s consider that it might just seem like it’s bad for us because of its name. So let’s just call it “corn sugar” instead and all will be well. Sounds good? Yeah, I didn’t think so either, but apparently that’s the idea the Corn … Continued
By Rosa Golijan
