Agriculture News and Research

RSS

Sinovac third quarter sales increase 60.8% to $15.4 million

Sinovac Biotech Ltd., a leading provider of biopharmaceutical products in China, announced today its unaudited third quarter financial results for the period ended September 30, 2011.

14 Nov 2011

AB SCIEX acquires mass spectrometry business of Labindia Instruments

AB SCIEX, a global leader in life science analytical technologies, today announced that it has acquired the mass spectrometry business of Labindia Instruments Pvt. Ltd., a leading life science solutions service provider in India.

14 Nov 2011

Former U.N. SG Annan criticizes G20 for not taking more action on climate change that affects food security

Speaking at the launch of Stanford University's Center for Food Security and the Environment at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies on Thursday, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan "criticized world leaders ... for failing to take bold action on climate change, which he said threatens to worsen the food crisis that has already left a billion people hungry," ABC News reports.

11 Nov 2011

Johns Hopkins to establish new global center for childhood obesity

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been awarded a $16 million U54 cooperative agreement from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a global center of excellence to address the childhood obesity epidemic.

11 Nov 2011

Too much at stake to scale back U.S. global engagement

Frank Carlucci, former national security adviser and secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan; Lee Hamilton, a retired Democratic congressman and former vice chair of the 9/11 Commission; and Tom Ridge, former homeland security secretary under President George W. Bush -- all members of the Advisory Council for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition -- write in this Washington Times editorial, "At a time of economic distress and huge deficits that demand tough choices, it is tempting for elected officials to scale back this country's engagement around the globe, in particular by making cuts to programs that support diplomacy and international development. Yet too much is at stake to diminish America's leadership and competitiveness in a world that is growing more interconnected and interdependent -- as well as more turbulent -- virtually every day."

10 Nov 2011

UC Riverside professor to co-lead '1000 Fungal Genomes' project

Jason Stajich, an assistant professor of plant pathology and microbiology at the University of California, Riverside, is a member of an international research team that, in collaboration with the Joint Genome Institute of the U.S. Department of Energy, has embarked on a five-year project to sequence 1000 fungal genomes from across the Fungal Tree of Life.

10 Nov 2011

State roundup: Kansas Medicaid announcement; pilot projects for nursing homes, C-sections; Calif. marijuana clinics

Gov. Sam Brownback, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer and three Cabinet officials have scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Tuesday to describe details of their plan for making over the Kansas Medicaid program. ... The plan is expected to include a significant expansion of managed care.

9 Nov 2011

Suggestions for making a difference in fighting hunger, food shortages

Kristi York Wooten, founder of SustenanceGroup.org and an advocate for fighting hunger and poverty, "canvassed a panel of colleagues and experts for thoughts on how corporations and governments and the rest of us can make a difference to ensure a sustainable future," and presents her findings in this post on the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

8 Nov 2011

Global food prices drop but still high; market remains volatile, food indexes show

"The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization FAO index of global food prices hit an 11-month low in October, reflecting sharp falls in grain, sugar and oils prices, the U.N. food agency said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

5 Nov 2011

NEJM publishes 'The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?'

USDA's interest protects that of Industry -- not the American public, conclude leading researchers Water C. Willett, MD, PhD, and David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD in their article, "The 2010 Dietary Guidelines -- The Best Recipe for Health?" published in the prestigious peer-reviewed The New England Journal of Medicine.

4 Nov 2011

New, poison-free approach to malaria control

With a new, poison-free approach to malaria control, researchers in the Solarmal project have expressed not only the hope to eliminate malaria in Africa at local level, but also to provide the local population with a source of sustainable energy. Research into this combined approach was facilitated due to a donation to Wageningen University Fund by the COmON foundation.

2 Nov 2011

Industry becoming more involved in ensuring food security, conference attendees hear

"Food security concerns as the world's population surpasses seven billion have prompted global companies to become more actively involved in ensuring future supplies, participants at an agricultural conference said on Monday," Reuters reports.

2 Nov 2011

World population reaches 7 billion amid warnings about health, natural resources

"Countries around the world marked the world's population reaching seven billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone and warnings that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources," the Associated Press/MSNBC.com reports.

2 Nov 2011

Bacteria rapidly exchange genetic information related to human disease and antibiotic resistance

Much as people can exchange information instantaneously in the digital age, bacteria associated with humans and their livestock appear to freely and rapidly exchange genetic material related to human disease and antibiotic resistance through a mechanism called horizontal gene transfer (HGT).

2 Nov 2011

Seven billion humans and counting

According to the United Nations Population Fund, the seven-billionth child is most likely to be a boy born in India or China, this week. However the trend of fertility or growth of population in the longer term is in a different direction toward slower population growth, says Dudley Poston, a professor of sociology and demographics at Texas A&M University.

31 Oct 2011

Researchers shed light on inner workings of endocycle

An international team of researchers led by investigators in the U.S. and Germany has shed light on the inner workings of the endocycle, a common cell cycle that fuels growth in plants, animals and some human tissues and is responsible for generating up to half of the Earth's biomass.

31 Oct 2011

Balanced approach can combat Central Africa's food insecurity

The polarized debate over the use of organic and inorganic practices to boost farm yields is slowing action and widespread farmer adoption of approaches that could radically transform Africa's food security situation, according to a group of leading international scientists meeting in Kigali this week.

29 Oct 2011

Targets for Somalia aid likely to be missed in 2011, U.N. draft report says

"Despite a massive increase in humanitarian operations and international funding since famine was formally declared 100 days ago, the relief effort in Somalia is expected to miss almost all its key targets for 2011, a draft United Nations report reveals," the Guardian reports.

29 Oct 2011

Researcher's compound disables bacteria instead of killing them

After 70 years, antibiotics are still the primary treatment for halting the spread of bacterial infections. But the prevalence of antibiotic resistance is now outpacing the rate of new drug discovery and approval. A microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has discovered a different approach: Instead of killing the bacteria, why not disarm them, quashing disease without the worry of antibiotic resistance?

29 Oct 2011

Gates Foundation, China sign MOU to work together on global health, agriculture advances

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and China's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form a partnership to support new research and development (R&D) and production of new products for global health and agriculture, Agence France-Presse reports.

28 Oct 2011