Yet pigs are a crucial petri dish in which influenza viruses evolve. Swine are susceptible to avian human
The CDC also has a bunch of recommendations about hand-washing and not eating in pig barns
if you just nabbed yourself some funnel cake you might be tempted. Don't do it! Nobody recommends avoiding agricultural fairs altogether.
You can't get H3n2v from eating pork. The study did find the virus was pretty widespread.
Agronomist Frank Forcella is blasting weeds with a spray of ground-up corncobs walnut shells corn gluten meal and other plant material.
and pepper plants the Star Tribune reports. Propelled Abrasive Grit Management needs more research before it's ready for commercial farms Forcella
Instead of using inert materials such as corncobs Forcella has tried blasting crops with corn gluten meal which is gritty
if it's a bit like getting smacked really hard in the face with chocolate cake. Star Tribune U s. Agricultural research service c
#How Droughts Are Drying up Your Breakfastbelow are some of the breakfast favorites whose prices will rise as droughts
Breakfast prognosis: There are still other areas of the world that produce coffee but climate change experts are predicting that over the course of the next decade warmer temperatures could impact coffee growers around the world leading to even more coffee shortfalls.
For now coffee production levels are rising but it s still too early to tell
Avocados tomatoes and peppers grown in sunny California have been getting a bit too much sun and not enough rain recently creating shortages of these delicious veggies
Breakfast prognosis: If you re a fan of domestic vegetables the outlook is grim. California-grown produce is likely to be expensive
Breakfast prognosis: Prices of flour are still in flux but with much of the world s breadbaskets in turmoil (environmental or political) your whole wheat toast could get more expensive.
Where's the shortage? Californiadetails: California s drought means less alfalfa for dairy cows forcing farmers to import feed from other states.
This makes dairy farming an expensive enterprise. Breakfast prognosis: Milk prices have declined this year from a high of $3. 74 per gallon in May to $3. 65 in July.
But overall prices have been climbing since mid-2009 when milk dipped below $3 a gallon.
Interestingly an article from ABC earlier this year points out that other dairy products like yogurt or cheese aren t quite as volatile as they don t tend to have the same short shelf life as fresh milk.
Where's the shortage? Turkeydetails: In this case cold not drought is the main issue for hazelnuts one of the key ingredients in the chocolatey goodness that is Nutella.
Turkey which produces 70 percent of the world s hazelnut crop was hit hard by an unseasonable frost and hailstorms wiped out a huge portion of their supply;
these episodes caused hazelnut prices to rise by 60 percent according to the Guardian. Breakfast prognosis:
For Nutella in particular the prognosis is good. The brand consumes about 25 percent of the world s hazelnut crop
but in July their parent company Ferrero announced that they d purchased one of Turkey s largest hazelnut producers effectively buying out the middleman.
There will still be fewer hazelnuts all around but the world isn t likely to completely run out of Nutella.
Details: A nasty virus that causes severe diarrhea in pigs has killed off an estimated 5-10 percent of pigs in the United states causing prices to rise dramatically.
The virus is incredibly unlikely to spread to humans and pork is still safe to eat
but the disease is deadly to piglets. Breakfast prognosis: Pricier pork products are definitely here
but as Bloomberg Businessweek reports the higher prices haven t deterred bacon fanatics from their morning ritual.
And some groups are even estimating that prices could fall this autumn as producers adjust to the new reality.
Where's the shortage? Brazildetails: In addition to drought affecting coffee Brazil has other problems. Back in February the FDA banned imports of frozen concentrated orange juice from Brazil because they found traces of fungicide in the product.
The fungicide was in low enough concentrations so the orange juice is still safe to drink
but that wasn t enough to stop it from being banned. Breakfast prognosis: Grim. In addition to the shortfall from Brazil orange growers in Florida and elsewhere are facing the disease known as citrus greening
which is already forcing some of them out of business
#Lessons From The Panama canal, 100 Years Agowhen it opened in August 1914 the 48-mile Panama canal provided a vital shortcut between the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans transforming trade transportation and even wartime strategy. France began construction on the canal in the 1880s
and flies literally swarmed over the food. The conditions were little better in Panama city and in the intermediate towns.
Rotting vegetable and animal matter offal and garbage were burned. The life and habits of the men were regulated carefully Government dining halls furnished good meals well cooked
and protected by screens; sleeping quarters were clean and neatly screened and comfortable; the hours of rest
and conscienceless food adulterators were spending money by the millions to defeat the purpose of the people to establish a health bureau in Washington to prevent disease
#Ticks That Can Make People Severely Allergic To Meat Are Spreading In The U s . But a few hours after dinner Abley started itching like mad.
He burst into hives his tongue swelled and he eventually passed out prompting his wife to call 911.
The hamburger had triggered the reaction. And it wasn t just the beef he was allergic to;
it was practically all red meat. I ve always said I think it s karma says Abley now 73 a lifetime resident of Virginia.
My family have been cattle ranchers for generations. Abley is one of at least 1500 people in the United states who suffer allergic reactions after eating meat
and doctors interviewed by Popular Science believe such cases are on the rise. But what s even more bizarre is the source of the allergy.
And as the tick spreads more and more cases of meat allergies are being reported. In one area of Long island New york for example one doctor we spoke with has seen an increase of 200 cases in the past three years p from practically zero in 2011.
The connection between Lone Star ticks and meat allergies in America first came to light in 2008.
The doctors eventually learned that Immunoglobulin e (Ige) antibodies in their patients were reacting with a sugar in the drug called alpha-gal.
Around the same time more and more healthy patients began reporting meat allergies (one of them being Abley.
The symptoms began three to four hours after eating meals that contained beef or pork.
and Commins to figure out the allergies were connected nd that the link was alpha-gal sugar.
Humans don t make the sugar and we all have some form of immune response to it.
the sugar found in the animals organ tissues triggers rejection in humans. Yet most people have no biological reaction to eating livestock
which makes the tickborne meat allergy so surprising. Moreover the patients of Commins and Platts-Mills weren born t with the condition
In a series of revealing experiments they sampled blood from their patients with meat allergies
meanwhile the same antibodies from people without the meat allergy did not glom onto the tick proteins.
Despite identifying the vessel for the mysterious meat allergy Commins and Platts-Mills say many questions remain unanswered about the condition.
A rising deer population may also explain the tick s spread as they are also big carriers of the parasites.
Meanwhile many of the meat allergy sufferers have had to adjust to a new normal. Abley initially refused to accept his diagnosis experimenting with different meats to see
if he could tolerate them. He tried pork and lamb but both caused reactions. He finally narrowed down his list of acceptable meats to chicken
and seafood but all others he had to avoid consistently lest he wind up in the hospital.
So he decided to become a vegetarian for the most part ot by choice but to save his life.
Now whenever Abley and his wife go out to eat he must be very forthright with his waiters:
His food can t contain red meat of any kind or he could have another attack.
Even foods like JELL-O are off the table because they contain gelatin which is made from meat byproducts.
It s been really really difficult'cause I am a meat eater says Abley. Fortunately I live in an area where seafood is plentiful.
But I love beef and I love pork so I missed it for years. However there is a spot of good news for those who fall prey to the Lone Star tick s bite.
The effects seem to be temporary lasting a few months or a few years s long as you don t get bit again.
For Abley that s not really an option given his location but he says the pros outweigh the cons. It s possible that
if we move some place where I didn t get tick bites I could eventually get over this.
But I live on a small farm in the middle of the woods in Surry County Virginia and I d rather have the allergy than leave that
#Can Biohackers Succeed At Making'Real Vegan Cheese'?'A group of Oakland California-based biohackers believe they can create real vegan cheese.
Their goal-a cheese made with no animal products that fully evokes the real dairy deal has struck a nerve:
Real Vegan Cheese's crowdfunding campaign Indiegogo has surged many thousands of dollars past its initial funding goal of $15000.
It ends on August 10. Here's how the group intends to do it as reported in the East Bay Express:
The team will insert bovine DNA which is synthesized chemically and does not come from an animal into living baker's yeast cells temporarily turning the yeast into a so-called protein factory that produces milk protein.
and combine it with water vegetable butter and vegan sugar (instead of lactose) to make a milk substitute.
Finally this vegan milk can be turned into Real Vegan Cheese in the same way that normal cheese is produced from cow milk.
The final food product will be a semihard cheese like Gouda. It will be totally vegan and lactose-free.
No animal is tortured in the production of this said Counter culture Labs member Ahnon Milham who is vegan.
You don't have to worry about all the hormones and antibiotics. Real Vegan Cheese also claims their product could address future food scarcity concerns
since yeast are renewable and the processes to cheese are nearly limitless and could also curb dairy farming's impacts on the environment such as emissions of methane a greenhouse gas from cow farts and decomposing manure.
Could the yeast hacks and subsequent processing that Real Vegan Cheese proposes really work? Responding to our questions via blog post Dr. Ricky the pseudonymous writer behind Science Based Cuisine stated that the campaign makes some scientifically dubious promises
because cheese-making is more complex at the molecular level than Real Vegan Cheese either knows
or is letting on. Milk is chock full of a structure known as micelles Dr. Ricky writes which form a framework that holds and transports lots of calcium to mammal offspring.
This molecular structure is intrinsic to forming curds a cheese precursor which won't appear simply
as a result of mixing several ingredients into a milklike fluid. And leaving out lactose Doc writes means that the microbes that can be supported would be quite different from the conventional cheese production.
Meaning that they might come up with something edible but what to call it depends upon how you define both cheese
and vegan and whether you call yeast animals or plants. But synthetic biologist and writer Christina Agapakis a postdoctoral research fellow at University of California Los angeles thinks Real Vegan Cheese could work.
It can sometimes be tricky to express proteins at high yield in yeast she wrote in email
but the goals of the project aren't unreasonable. The project is likely to encounter the same technical and economic hurdles as any biotech endeavor in scaling up to mass production
however combined with challenges unique to cultured dairy foods. Making good cheese isn't just a matter of getting animal vs. vegetable proteins Agapakis writes
but also in the quality of the milk and the way that the cheese is made: the way it's processed the microbes that are added
and the way it's aged. But notes Agapakis there is already a food on the market that's comparable to a vegan cheese:
tofu. Tofu is made by curdling soy milk then draining and pressing the results into blocks.
Tofu can also be pressed fermented and aged to create varied textures and flavors just like different dairy cheeses.
I think it's great that they are bringing more attention to the impacts of animal agriculture
and dairy farming in particular writes Agapakis but I think it's also important (or at least interesting and relevant) to highlight the range
and diversity of vegan options that are out there already. I think it's not really fair that they are using the'vegan food sucks'narrative mostly
because there's such a huge range of things out there that are actually pretty tasty l
A larva that chows down on a Bt-crystal-producing GM plant soon stops eating.
#MERS Virus May be Able To Spread Through The Air Research strongly suggests that camels carry Middle east Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) a viral illness that has sickened nearly 700
Until now it was thought that MERS could only be spread via close contact but a new finding may challenge that assessment:
The finding implies that virus could possibly be spread in enclosed spaces such as hospitals and therefore further studies are needed urgently the scientists wrote.
#Eating Poo Helps Packrats Digest Toxic Plantsdesert woodrats are picky but not in the way you might expect:
whereas those fed rabbit food did not--showing that diet influenced the makeup of gut microbiota.
and with that in mind the scientists fed a group of juniper-eating packrats a mixture of rabbit food and feces from creosote-eaters.
Eating poo has sounded never so promising. The study was published this week in the journal Ecology Letters
Virtually all of our food crops have been modified genetically in some way. In that sense GMOS are not radical at all.
They found no evidence that the foods are dangerous. The second allows crops to tolerate the herbicide glyphosate
The herbicide kills milkweed (the larvae's only food source) in and near crops where it's applied.
And if some GMO pollen does blow into an organic field it won't necessarily nullify organic status. Even foods that bear the Non-GMO Project label can be 0. 5 percent GMO by dry weight.
Genes that help wild plants survive might spread whereas those that say boost Vitamin a content might remain at low levels
Corn cotton and soy hich together occupy about 40 percent of U s. cropland re the three crops with the highest GMO fraction by area each more than 90 percent in 2013.
The GMO fraction by area of corn cotton and soy in the top states that grow those crops.
Very few genetically modified crops end up on plates but the ones that do can be found in roughly two-thirds of processed foods sold in the U s. Genetically modified bacteria
and yeasts are also critical to the production of some foods including many wines and cheeses.
Cheeserennet is key in making firm cheeses pecifically an enzyme called chymosin in the rennet helps harden cheese.
Traditionally cheesemakers use rennet from the lining of cow stomachs to get their chymosin ut an estimated 80 to 90 percent of hard cheeses in the U s. are made with bacteria modified with the rennet-producing cow gene.
Corntrait: Tolerates herbicides; resists insects Total U s. crop by acreage: 85%herbicide-tolerant; 76%insect-resistant Found in:
Processed foods such as crackers and cereals; corn on the cob; livestock feedcottontrait: Tolerates herbicides; resists insects Total U s. crop by acreage:
Processed foods including salad dressings; livestock feedpapayatrait: Resists ringspot virus Total U s. crop by acreage: More than 50%Found in:
Processed foods such as cereals and breads; food additives such as lecithin; livestock feedsquashtrait: Resists various viruses Total U s. crop by acreage:
12%Found in: Whole vegetables and other productssugar beets*Trait: Tolerates herbicides Total U s. crop by acreage:
Refined sugarwinecertain wine yeasts have been modified to make wine production easier and prevent the production of harmful fermentation byproducts.
Gene editing may also provide fodder for fresh controversy. Current GMO methods leave a trace behind
Due to an editor's mistake a previous version of this story misstated several details about genetically modified wines and cheeses.
The only way to gain immunity to the deadly miasma is by consuming spirulina called the Viridis a blue-green algae loaded with protein and nutrients.
Now as you might imagine there are competing bees afoot--naturally you're not the only species looking for pollen and nectar.
Let's say you've found a nice cluster of flowers a good source of food.
Sometimes it is best to conspicuously communicate the location of a food source to your friends eavesdroppers be damned!
A new study found that in the presence of competitors several species of stingless bees make a big stink about the location of their food (somewhat literally:
When one species finds a good food source or flower they tend to defend it heavily against other bees.
On the other hand food sources with fewer pheromones were visited readily by competing bees. Until now it was thought that eavesdroppers select against conspicuous signals for example by more easily finding
and bamboo stalks may not seem very durable compared to bars of steel. But a new series of experiments finds making metals mimic those materials could improve metals'endurance and strength.
Taken as a whole a cooked cadaver would yield about 81500 calories worth of food says James Cole a lecturer on human origins at the University of Brighton in England.
From these he built something like a beef chart for human beings with caloric content listed for every cut of person-meat.
The lungs liver and alimentary canal each provide roughly 1500 calories while the brain spinal cord and nerve trunks together account for 2700.
whether they did so for ritual and social reasons (so-called cultural cannibalism) or as an occasional source of nutrients (gastronomic cannibalism).
The marks look identical to those found on the bones of animals consumed as food.
It s also worth considering that about half the calories in human meat come from adipose tissue.
#Breeding Bald Poultry To Withstand Global Warmingrising global temperatures pose a major risk to world food supplies.
When it comes to chickens geneticist Carl Schmidt is working to prepare the most-dined-upon North american breeds to withstand greater heat stress in coming decades.
Schmidt s team s work is part of a five-year $4. 7 million climate change grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
in order to determine the best approach for getting those good heat-resistant genes into American chickens without taking along all the genetic baggage as Schmidt calls it that s unnecessary to duplicate in the hybrid chickens.
It could take around 10 generations of chickens carefully bred to arrive at new heat-resistant breeds that can successfully reproduce on their own.
Poultry production is booming worldwide as Rothman reports with global food experts projecting that it will top 100 million tons in 2015 and 143 million tons by 2030 An interruption in this supply could cause a humanitarian disaster.
#How Soon Might We Have modified Genetically Meat? There are no genetically engineered animals sold for human consumption right now.
As you might guess the lack of genetically modified meat on the market isn't because of a lack of technology.
It's because of politics M foods are deeply unpopular and GM food animals especially so.
Still I was surprised at how far along the development of GM meat is after I read this new feature from the biologists'magazine The Scientist.
or provide people with extra nutrients. Research projects underway include goats whose milk is designed to prevent deadly diarrhea in children and chickens in
which bird flu viruses don't reproduce. In spite of public opposition and a lack of funding GM meat research has continued to advance.
One major trend: Scientists have developed incredibly precise techniques for genetic engineering. For example they're now able to change just one base pair in an animal's DNA code ne pair of letters in an animal that has billions of such pairs.
I don't think those who don't wish to eat GM foods will find GM pigs-with-pig-genes any better than pigs with mouse genes.
However you may feel about genetically modified foods we thought you would enjoy this foray into the science of it all.
We all share a Cusquena a ubiquitous Peruvian beer that nevertheless tastes delicious before going to see a fist-sized tarantula that lives in a nearby hole.
and steal food rather than making complex webs of their own he adds. And sometimes they become the females food.
They are also usually much smaller than females. These male Cyclosa which can be spotted by their hairy punching bags
when the pair photographs what they'd thought were spider eggs laying within the decoy.
Those aren't eggs Reeves says as he zooms in on the photo he's just taken.
I was going to say--that looks oddly like a spider for an egg Pomerantz says.
While it's not unusual for spiders in this family to lay eggs in their stabilimenta the technical name for these web decorations the spiderlings usually make a break for it shortly after hatching.
When he returns to the jungle before long he will explore the eating habits of damselflies to see
and circumstance didn't allow for studying silk-henge small webby towers built by an as yet-unknown type of spider perhaps to defend eggs against wasps).
It also represents a looming crisis for the largest drinking-water reservoir in the U s. one that has prompted the most ambitious water-construction project in recent history.
Many residents water bills will remain disconnected from their actual usage eliminating any financial incentive to conserve until a new state law goes into effect in 2025.
which requires the cutter head to pressurize a pocket of air at the rock face to keep water from forcing its way through So far it s encountered 14.5 bars of hydrostatic pressure.
S. Thermophilus L. Bulgaricus L. Acidophilus Bifidus and L. Casei Chicory root Fiber Black cherries Water Cherry Juice Concentrate Evaporated Cane Juice Pectin
Natural Flavors Locust bean Gum Monkfruit Extract Stevia Leaf Extract. You will notice items like pasteurized nonfat milk a variety of nonfat milk that comes not from the pasteurization process but from the Pasteur Cows of the Lower Himalayan Range.
No it's from pasteurization. There is also evaporated cane juice a substance so rare it must be bartered for from one of the eight living practitioners of the cane juice evaporation process an ancient family trade lost to the sands of time.
No it's basically sugar it's processed like sugar and the labeling got Chobani slapped with a lawsuit for not calling it sugar.)
Goddess Demeter whose dominion over agriculture is absolute got@Chobani to 100 calories. Not your pitiful mortal'science.'#
'#howmatters Material science metallurgy and geology to obtain aluminum needed to make foil lid on containers#howmatters@Chobani Dear@Chobani As a natural products chemist
I can honestly say I love eating chemicals.##howmatters Cheers@kzrt I thought that@chobani notoriously got to 100 calories by reducing serving size from 6 oz. to 5. 3 oz.?#
#Giant Beetle Threatens Palm trees Of Hawaiino one knows exactly how the coconut rhinoceros beetle made its way to Hawaii
Since the beginning of the year coconut rhinoceros beetles have been caught in over a dozen traps. Officials initially identified a particularly productive breeding site in a mulch pile on the base's golf course
Officials are now in a race against time to quell the spread of the beetle which can destroy palm tree date palm sugarcane and banana tree populations.
There's a number of insects like the coconut rhinoceros beetle that you can't see when they get into tree trunks.
As a result the beetles spread to most areas of the island and now the invasive population is controlled through community efforts.
In Hawaii trapped coconut rhinoceros beetles are destroyed in compost bins heated to temperatures between 140-180 degrees Fahrenheit.
In fact if observers could have taken a drink for every time Mccarthy said word flexibility everyone would have been buzzed by the end of her speech.
To do that requires a tremendous amount of genetic engineering says Lewis. Until scientists achieve a profound understanding of human and animal genomes superhuman hybrids will remain little more than a cinematic confection.
whether by gestating in eggs or via genetic algorithms could benefit from the same diversity and convenient mutations that make some living species so resilient.
It s an interpretation that s correct in spirit: Genes can mutate spontaneously or be manipulated in the lab to create new traits.
While humanity owes a debt to that mystery mutant cheese-eating is a minor ability compared to the laser beams
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