Science In Your Shopping Cart

Did you know that some wonderplants can be used to control and even kill annoying flies and mosquitoes? Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

These days, we are all more conscious of pesticide spraying, especially growers who rely on this method for keeping pests off their crops. ARS scientists have developed a revolutionary laser-guided sprayer to apply precise amounts of pesticide to their crops, cutting down significantly on the amount of pesticide sprayed onto fruits and vegetables. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS researchers Nancy Keim and Wally Yokoyama are looking to turn wine waste – mainly pomace or what the researchers call marcs – into healthy food products that end up in our shopping carts. Keim is studying the health benefits of combinations of chardonnay grape pomace and chardonnay grape extract. As expected, the enriched flour is high in fiber and has a lot of bioactive material, which means it will react favorably with organs, tissues, or cells in the human body. How this material interacts with the gut microbiome could be key to seeing these nutrients translate into actual health benefits. While Keim is looking at the health benefits of white grape pomace, Yokoyama is studying the health benefits of waste from red wine grapes. Red wine grapes are high in polyphenols, which are compounds found in plants that act as antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties. Polyphenols have been linked to lowering cholesterol and protecting against certain diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. But Yokoyama is studying whether polyphenols from red grapes can reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Wendy Shaw, a registered dietitian formerly with the National Agricultural Library, discusses the importance of nutrition, from the world’s elite athletes to the weekend warriors. Give it a listen. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Wheat is a big crop in the United States. Stripe rust is one of the most important diseases for wheat. ARS Research Plant Pathlogist, Xianming Chen and researchers with ARS’s Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit in Pullman Washington are testing and developing new varieties of wheat that are resistant to the crop’s major disease threats, including stripe rust. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS scientists are coming up with new ways to produce clean energy by developing a large filter-type application out of discarded almond shells that could capture and then store hydrogen, as well as other components for energy purposes. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Apple growers have a mystery on their hands. Something is killing popular dwarf apple trees, but researchers are unsure if the cause is environmental, viral, soil-based, or something else. ARS scientists are on the case! Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS researcher Bradley King, a research agricultural engineer at ARS’s Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research lab in Kimberly, ID, is utilizing AI technology to help wine growers determine the best times to water their vineyards. King and his colleagues developed a validated, automated model that uses artificial intelligence to remotely calculate the daily crop water stress index so wine growers know when to water their vines, and how much, to achieve maximum results for great tasting wine. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

The U.S. imports around $5 billion in cocoa and chocolate products annually, and we produce millions of pounds of chocolate for consumers. The health benefits of dark chocolate are well known, mainly it has more antioxidants than milk chocolate because it contains more cacao solids. But dark chocolate can be brittle and taste bitter. What if we could make milk chocolate as healthy as dark chocolate, without sacrificing taste? And what if we could do it by adding a low value agricultural byproduct, such as peanut skins? Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Meet ARS researcher Jacob Corcoran, a research molecular biologist at ARS’s Biological Control of Insects Unit in Columbia, MO. Corcoran and his team are working on a new age, next generation approach to biological control to slow down the reproductive process to protect wine vineyards from dreaded vine mealybugs. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Nanoparticles help protect your body from germs and other microbials, it also fights body odor, especially from sweating. ARS researchers have figured out a better way for for attaching nanoparticles to clothing. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Hydration is so important to our bodies during exercise, perhaps more important than the exercise itself. Not properly hydrating during athletic competitions or every day exercising – even walking – can have damaging effects on our bodies. Of course, there are the physical effects, such as fatigue, exhaustion, and heat stroke. But there are also psychological factors that you may not be aware of. Learn more about how hydration affects your body in this podcast. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Get the inside story of how ARS researchers created an automated, objective method for detecting imperfections on a hide - a method that greatly benefits U.S. leather producers. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS scientists are turning agricultural waste (Biomass) into environmentally friendly products that can replace non-biodegradable plastics. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS researchers have developed an in-field apple sorting machine that not only improves apple picking efficiency, but also scans and grades apples. Think of it as a 21st century solution to apple picking and harvesting. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS researcher Lance Cadle-Davidson, a research plant pathologist at ARS’s Grape Genetics Research Unit in the finger lakes region in Geneva, NY, is helping protect wine vineyards that produce European style wines in the U.S. Cadle-Davidson and his team have created an automated process utilizing high resolution cameras with illumination to see fungal disease easily from LED lighting with artificial intelligence to quantify disease and robotics that capture images quickly in an automated system that speeds up the process of detecting and treating disease to keep wine growers one step ahead of deadly pathogens in upstate New York. Check out the Blackbird robot in action at the link below. https://youtu.be/zqjGxJp3rk0 Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Ancient grains refers to a category of grains – particularly pseudo-cereals – that possess a very unique health benefit that provide essential nutritional requirements for our health. ARS Research Leader, Dr. Sean Liu at the Functional Foods Research Unit in Peoria, Illinois is researching ways to make ancient grains more nutritional, and he wants to make them more attractive to consumers. Click on the link below to view our Cooking With Science videos on Buckwheat and several other tasty recipes. https://aglab.ars.usda.gov/sights-and-sounds/cooking-with-science Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

Wouldn’t it be great if the oils and margarines you cook with were actually healthy for you and still enhanced the flavor of your foods? Researchers at ARS’s Functional Foods Research Unit in Peoria, Illinois, are mixing common cooking oils with natural waxes to create oleogels – which you can say is the secret sauce behind a healthier cooking oil. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

“I’m your huckleberry.” Learn about the origins of the Huckleberry Gold Potato and other interesting facts about potatoes. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars

ARS Research Geneticist, Dr. Dolores Mornhinweg at the Peanut and Small Grains Research Unit in Stillwater, OK is developing new Barley crop lines that are resistant to pests such as the Russian Wheat Aphid. Barley is an important part of the U.S. economy, bringing in over a billions dollars in crop value. The Russian Wheat Aphid is a major pest to barley production in the U.S. Connect with us: @USDA_ARS@AgriculturalResearchService@usda-ars