With corn needing nitrogen, and pigs and cattle producing a lot of it, anything that offers a better way to use their waste to fortify crops should intrigue farmers. [node:read-more:link]

A purple rice with the potential to combat cancer, heart disease and diabetes has been genetically developed by scientists in China. The rice gets its purple colouring from the high levels of antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins, which are also found in blueberries and red cabbage.Reporting their findings in the Molecular Plant journal, lead researcher Dr Yao-Guang Liu revealed that he and his team found a way to "stack" the eight genes needed for anthocyanin production and activate them in rice's "endosperm" - a tissue produced inside the seeds of the rice. [node:read-more:link]

It started with rotting flesh. Slicing into the green skin of a Hawaiian papaya ordinarily yields juicy, salmon-colored fruit that's almost custard-like in its consistency and sweetness. But in the early 1990s, one Hawaiian farmer instead found bits of whitish, dried-out flesh in his recently harvested fruit. On the skin were discolored spots resembling tiny rings. [node:read-more:link]

A North Dakota regulatory board has accused a security firm hired by the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline of operating in the state without a license.In a complaint dated June 12, attorneys for the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board said the agency denied an application to James Patrick Reese, the founder of North Carolina-based TigerSwan, to become a licensed private security provider earlier this year. [node:read-more:link]

Thomas Jackson aimed to bring fresh produce to Toledo, but he may end up bringing much more. Mr. Jackson’s long battle with the city may prompt it to finally draft regulations for urban farming.Motivated by Mr. Jackson’s court case — he has been fined by the city for keeping mulch on three central-city parcels he owns — a few Toledo citizens are working with city officials to draft what they call a “Right to Grow” ordinance for Toledo City Council to consider.Mr. [node:read-more:link]

We know that the orange is in fact green. The fruit changes to its namesake color when exposed to cool air. Yet, when the temperature drops below 28 degrees for longer than four hours, ice will form within an orange. The peel will show no injury, but the frozen flesh will turn mushy and the orange will fall from the tree, inedible. When the force that makes us can also ruin us, when a lethal irony is at play, we call the story a comedy or a tragedy, depending on the ending. Even if it is just an orange.  [node:read-more:link]

First, and this is important, the people at Hopdoddy did everything they could to make it good. They seared the Impossible Foods patty on the griddle, enough that it had a dark, crunchy crust. They cooked it to an exact “medium rare,” a blackened char gradient leading to rosy red. They constructed the sandwich well, a thick spread of mayo underneath lettuce and a fresh, crispy onion, and a half-melted and good slice of Tillamook cheddar. [node:read-more:link]

Shoppers don’t have to go far to see the latest food trends.Grocery stores are filled with labels like non-GMO, organic and gluten-free.But the shift toward chicken grown without the use of antibiotics is posing some problems for Delmarva poultry growers.“A 1950s disease came back because we were made to change the way we grow chicken,” said Dan Bautista, a poultry health expert and director of the Lasher Laboratory at the University of Delaware’s Carvel Research & Education Center.“If this was the ’90s, we wouldn’t even be talking about necrotic enteritis,” he said at a June 19 commerc [node:read-more:link]

A bill designed to heighten preparedness of the nation’s food, agriculture and veterinary systems has been sent to President Trump’s desk for his signature. The U.S. Senate passed the Securing our Agriculture and Food Act unanimously on May 24, and the U.S. House voted last week to send this legislation to the president to be enacted into law. Sponsored by Rep. David Young (R-Iowa), the legislation addresses concerns highlighted by the 2015 avian influenza outbreak that wiped out millions of layer hens, turkeys and backyard flocks. [node:read-more:link]