The latest artificial intelligence tools will allow researchers to develop digital twins of individual crop plants and entire farm fields, helping plant breeders improve crop varieties and farmers boost production. The researchers behind a new artificial intelligence research institute say their work can accelerate the productivity and sustainability of agriculture at a time when the…

Ames, Iowa, has recently become a national research epicenter for a rapidly emerging field: plastics “upcycling.” Researchers at Iowa State University, in tandem with Ames Laboratory — a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory — received multiple awards over the 2020 calendar year, totaling millions of dollars in research funding. Contrary to traditional recycling,…

A new study shows diversifying agricultural systems beyond a narrow selection of crops leads to a range of ecosystem improvements while also maintaining or improving yields. But a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University who co-authored the study said some marketing and agricultural policy considerations will have to change for farmers to adopt diversification…

Hugo Villegas Pico, driving during the summer of 2019 from Colorado to his new faculty job at Iowa State University, eyed all the wind turbines spinning over Iowa’s farm fields. Iowa, after all, now generates more than 40% of its electricity from wind. So, what would happen, he wondered, when even more wind capacity is added…

Heavy rain events that occur only a few days a year can account for up to a third of the annual nitrogen runoff from farmland in the Mississippi River basin, according to a new study from Iowa State University scientists. The research, published Friday in the academic journal Communications Earth & Environment, uses innovative computer modeling…

A recently published analysis of data on tagged monarch butterflies migrating from the United States to Mexico emphasizes the importance of creating new habitat to ensure the future of the species’ iconic migratory pattern. The study, published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, drew on data collected on 1.4 million monarch…

A new federal grant will allow a research team led by Iowa State University, Penn State and Roeslein Alternative Energy to develop new methods of turning biomass and manure into fuel. The five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture will power the Consortium for Cultivating Human and…

After decades of growing corn and soybean yields across the Midwest’s Corn Belt, per-acre yields are approaching their theoretical limits. But there’s still a need for more grain to feed people and livestock. Where can that grain come from? How can farmers and fields produce even more? Is there a new, sustainable way to boost…

Iowa State University’s Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) is hosting its inaugural Conference on Agriculture, Technology and Innovation March 25-27, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. The conference – themed “Why are we missing the boat on biogas?” – is designed to bring together experts from agriculture, energy, government, science and society…

Dense urban areas use up more energy, water and food resources than they can produce themselves, forcing them to rely on external sources. But a team of researchers is imagining bold new ways to make Midwestern cities more self-reliant. The Sustainable Cities Research Team recently received a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop…