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Turning Food Waste into Products That Protect People and the Planet
The moment you toss your leftovers into the garbage may be the last time you think about them, but it’s far from the last time they will affect you. The items you throw away usually end up in a landfill, where they may slowly degrade into climate-warming greenhouse gas.
Now, a team of ARS scientists have proposed a new industrial process that will divert organic waste from the landfill by turning it into nanocellulose, a brown, fibrous material that can be used in multiple products from cardboard boxes to food packaging.
Cattle are fitted with global positioning system collars to track their grazing behavior and pasture use. (Peggy Greb, D2106-1)
A Holistic Approach to Cattle Production May Mean Better Burgers
Scientists have found that integrating ecological, economic, and social principles is one of the most effective tools to help farming systems move toward greater resilience.
According to Mark Boggess, center director for the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) in Clay Center, NE, improving facets of animal production that deal with genetics, nutrition, health, and reproduction is a key part of a “systems-based approach.”
“Systems biology focuses on the scope and scale of a specific production system from a holistic perspective,” he said. “These systems… focus on the relationships and interactions between genetics (G), the local environment (E), the management system (M), and relevant socio-economic effects (S) – or ‘GEMS.’”
In other words, systems biology looks at how all the different factors interact. For example, optimal animal genetics must match the local environment; management systems must be appropriate to maximize efficiency; and all meat animal systems must address healthfulness, animal care, and wellbeing.
Boggess noted that farmers and ranchers can implement many of USMARC’s findings immediately. Examples include genetic tests for beef industry producers, including one for detecting bovine congenital heart failure.
Tick Tactics: Scientists Are Finding New Ways to Fight an Old Foe
Ticks are one of the most troublesome insect pests, attaching themselves to humans, livestock, pets, and other animals. They can transmit many diseases, including Lyme disease, which can have devastating health effects. Currently, ticks infect over 300,000 Americans a year with Lyme disease, and infections are on the rise. One of the major ways that ticks travel is via unsuspecting deer, which can carry them long distances as they move around and search for food.
At ARS, researchers are working on new approaches to limit ticks’ ability to spread. One strategy is to target them while they’re traveling via deer. Watch this video to learn more about how researchers are using classic techniques applied in creative new ways to neutralize ticks.
ARS Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems
Research Unit Outreach Event
The ARS Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research Unit established a new apiary in Stoneville, MS with honey bee colonies decorated by students in the local community! The unit used this opportunity to engage with their community by connecting them through art by partnering with local art alliances (Delta Arts Alliance and Greenville Arts Council), bringing a splash of color to the apiary.
Dr. Pierre Lau and Sarah Dietrich gave presentations on bee biology, pollination, and agriculture at public, alternative, and private schools in the Mississippi Delta. Students, ranging from grades K-12, were instructed and tasked to paint honey bee boxes with something they learned or were inspired by in the presentations. The classes were also invited to tour the facilities. This was an activity used to involve the community and bring awareness of the ongoing research and opportunities in STEM.
Photos From the Event
Slideshow
Biological science technician Amy Ray holding a brood frame.
Support scientist Sarah Dietrich has a head of bees!
These bee boxes, structures that house bee colonies, were painted by students from local schools.
The student did a great job! The researchers are looking forward to adding this pop of color to the new apiary.
Research ecologist Dr. Pierre Lau is holding up a frame of bees while setting up the bee boxes in the Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystem Research Unit's bee yard.
Research chemist Weiqiang Zhang wearing a full bee suit stands next to three of the hives.
ARS research chemist Gabe Patterson hands a container of nanocellulose material to project leader Jim McManus. The brown, fibrous material is the result of a novel process their team has developed to transform organic waste into a high-value product with many applications, from cardboard boxes to food packaging. (Photo by USDA ARS)
Turning Food into Fibers
ARS scientists have invented a new way to keep waste out of landfills, make consumer products safer, and reduce dangerous emissions – all at the same time.
Every year, tons of food waste from homes and farms ends up in landfills, where it turns into methane – a dangerous gas that is 84 times as powerful as carbon dioxide in its harmful effects on the climate. Now, ARS researchers have developed new uses for that waste material. Instead of heading to the landfill, it can be processed using an innovative technology that turns it into nanocellulose. This fluffy fiber can do everything from lining cardboard boxes to food packaging, and more! Even better, it could replace current packaging liner material, which often contains chemicals that are known to cause a variety of harms to human health. Read Bringing Your Food Full Circle to learn more.
People aren’t eating as much American-grown catfish as they did at the turn of the century. Studies show this is due, in part, to naturally occurring chemicals that create an off-flavor in the meat. Researchers at the ARS Food Processing and Sensory Quality (FPSQ) research unit in New Orleans, LA, are conducting research to ensure better quality of U.S. catfish.
Chemicals from blue-green algae blooms are the primary culprit in producing the off-flavor, but it can also come from other microbes. Fish largely collect these chemicals through their gills, but researchers have found an oral route as well.
The researchers are trying various management practices to reduce the amount of the off-flavor compounds, including “depuration” (placing fish in holding tanks of clean water to allow them to purge whatever off-flavors they may have absorbed), applying food-safe acids that are known to break down some off-flavors, and using ultraviolet-C (UVC) light during packaging. UVC kills some bacteria and reduces spoilage.
Landing a solution to the off-flavor problem is a work in progress, but scientists have plenty of reason to keep trying; studies show that retail sales of U.S. catfish have increased 22% in the past 5 years.
It's that time of year when mosquitoes are everywhere. Their feasting on your blood can be an itchy nuisance and, in some cases, a serious danger. But a team of enterprising ARS scientists are looking to turn the tables on mosquitoes and other insect pests like house flies by making them into lunch for other animals.
The idea of farming insects as an animal food source was already the subject of an ARS initiative but this project added a new dimension, by specifically proposing the use of nuisance insects like mosquitoes, which are abundant in agricultural settings, as the insect food source – not so much killing two birds with one stone as feeding many birds with one pest. In fact, chickens seem to vastly prefer mosquitoes to their current feed. What to know more?
Do different types of apples have the same number of seeds? Join student and future scientist Lexlyn Cravens of the Chesapeake Math and IT Elementary School in Laurel, MD, to find out. Let's get counting!
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest and most productive estuary in the United States and third largest in the world. Approximately half the water in the Bay comes from its 64,000 square mile watershed. A watershed is an area of land that can contribute water into a stream, river, lake, or bay. The Chesapeake Bay's watershed includes land in all or part of six states, from New York to Virginia. That's a lot of land, and as you can imagine over time urban development, agriculture, and industrialization in those areas have affected the water quality of the Bay's watershed.
The Bay has regional, national, and global importance—providing food sources, recreational opportunities, and access to major shipping routes. It is vitally important to protect it from the harmful effects of pollution and climate change. ARS scientists are conducting research to better understand the Bay's ecosystem (e.g., water quality, soil health, wildlife habitat, food production). This will benefit not only the United States, but also conservation efforts in the other global estuaries, like the Baltic Sea.
This mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is just starting to feed on a person’s arm.
ARS entomologist Elaine Backus is improving our understanding of how mosquitoes feed. Using a technique known as electropenetrography (EPG), Backus attaches an electrode to both a human host and a mosquito. When the mosquito bites, a circuit forms, allowing researchers to measure all kinds of information about the bite, from how long it lasts and what the stages are to differences between male and female mosquitoes’ bites.
Although the technique was originally developed to examine how pests feed on crop plants, Backus and her colleagues expanded it to understand blood-sucking insects, including mosquitoes, ticks, and more. They hope that their research will aid in the fight against the negative effects of mosquito bites, from itchy irritation to disease transmission. Watch this video to learn more about their work.
