Food & Agriculture

The $4.75 million research effort will use remote sensors on drones or airplanes and other technologies to help farmers better identify nutrient surpluses or deficiencies in a timely manner.

WSU scientists have helped identify 10 genetic markers and promising parent varieties that could boost the quality of alfalfa hay, making it more digestible and nourishing.

Participants will work in teams online Oct. 1–5 to answer questions centered on issues facing the agriculture industry.

For the first time, a team of scientists led by WSU’s Jon Oatley have created pigs, goats and cattle that can serve as viable “surrogate sires,” male animals that produce sperm carrying only the genetic traits of donor animals.

WSU researchers are studying the effects of heat and developing an electronic, open‑source cooling system to protect plants and wine quality.

Research by WSU graduate student Brenden Campbell found mealworm larvae fed polystyrene waste, discarded polymers better known by their trade name of Styrofoam, could be safe for human consumption.

Grafting joins parts from two plants together so they grow as a single plant. The researchers found grafted watermelon crops produced greater yields than non-grafted plants when there is disease pressure.

Scientists at WSU have teamed up with cherry growers to find improved defenses against a disease that devastated orchards 70 years ago and has resurfaced in the Pacific Northwest.

The development of a new apple variety, such as Cosmic Crisp®, is often the work of an entire career. WSU doctoral student Tymon James thinks he might be able to take a few steps that will speed that process up.

A growing number of fruit and vegetable growers in the Columbia Basin are working with researchers in WSU Extension to find an easier way to track and share data on water quality used for crop irrigation.

A team of scientists led by Washington State University Horticulture Professor Kate Evans found that public plant breeding programs are seeing decreases in funding and personnel.

National and state agricultural regulators report that residents throughout the U.S. have received unsolicited packages of seeds, the majority of which appear to come from China.

WSU student Harmony Stephens is the first recipient of the award. She said the scholarship will allow her to pursue her passion for sustainability and environmental preservation.

The research team is mapping and modeling alpine habitats in Glacier National Park where grizzlies forage on calorie-rich moths by the thousands in mid-summer.

One of the outcomes of WSU’s investment in the Functional Genomics Initiative is a national task force on gene-editing in livestock, an idea first proposed by Jon Oatley, director of WSU’s Center for Reproductive Biology.

WSU Extension Forester Sean Alexander will introduce USFS research scientist Paul Hessburg, author of the TED Talk Living (Dangerously) in the Era of Megafires, and DNR wildfire protection specialist Guy Gifford.