When confronted with the imprecise notion of “sustainability†in agriculture, most people's thoughts drift to ideas of ecologically-mindful land management practices. I'll dub these concepts “the classicsâ€: rotate your crops, use less fertilizer and pesticides, always employ cover cropping. While these ideas are not wrong, they are incomplete in that they tend to omit some
As I was making plans for my spring garden this year, I decided to include fruit trees and began researching various species of native Georgia fruit trees. I came across an article projecting that certain species of banana trees will soon be able to flourish right here, in our own Georgia backyards. Bananas are not
It's never a good sign when the deer in real life appear more gruesome than those depicted on the infamous zombie apocalypse TV series, ‘The Walking Dead'. On October 3, 2016 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that the flesh-eating New World Screwworm had infested endangered Key Deer in the National Key Deer
Anyone who knows me knows my love for blueberries. Besides being a nutrient-packed super fruit, blueberries are also a major agricultural commodity for Georgia. Our state recently beat out Michigan to become number 1 in blueberry production in the nation. Because of this, I decided to take a part time job helping an ongoing study
We all know February is the shortest month of all, but this month and all its holidays are flying by even faster than usual this year! Punxsutawney Phil already didn't see his shadow, you've either endured Valentine's Day with tons of chocolate or enjoyed the day with your significant other (hopefully still with lots of
We need to do more, faster. The food crisis is permanently harming millions of children. They need our help. This is about even more than alleviating human suffering; it is about global peace and stability. –Ban-Ki Moon, UN Secretary General, 2009 Globally, we are food insecure. Rampant food waste, coupled with climate change and unrestricted
Farmers today face a number of challenges, old and new. Global climate change is exacerbating harsh growing conditions, invasive species are devastating crops, and consumer demands are shifting toward sustainable farming practices. Farmers also have to balance the increasing cost of fertilizers and pesticides with a need for high crop yield. An estimated 877 million
Links: Sunflower Domestication, Corn Domestication, Wayne Parrott’s GMO Talk, Scientific Article 1, Scientific Article GMO and Crop Domestication, Scientific Article 3 (paywall),UN Food and Agriculture Organization Book Chapter, Nonfiction book partially covering this topic Rishi R. Masalia is a Ph.D graduate student in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia studying the
[Water in the 21st Century series, part 1] Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 Rishi R. Masalia is a Ph.D graduate student in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Georgia studying the genetics of drought resistance. He is a biologist, bioinformatician, artist, comedy gold mine, smooth dance machine and all around nerd.
