Biosentients - Science Biology… etc

I came upon this lovely bunching of little white flowers when Seth and I were taking a break from trying (without much success) to cut the fallen cedar out of the ………

Thank you to Dougeee@Flickr of Georgia, USA, for contributing today’’s photograph to BPotD (via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool | original). Much ………

Why the “Cheap Food Revolution” hasn’t reached poor countries. Most people don’t think twice as they pass spring apples from the southern hemisphere as they enter the supermarket, but they are participating in a cheap food revolution that has swept the industrialized world over the past couple of generations. The supermarket is the last step in a complicated global process that has changed every aspect of how we produce and consume food. In theory, the arrival of supermarkets in a country should bring with it the “cheap food” that we have enjoyed for so a number of years……..

New research on the commodity coffee market in Uganda finds that when prices percolate, coffee windfalls don’t fully reach the growers. Coffee is the world’s largest agricultural commodity, and is also one of the world’s most volatile. Large global coffee price fluctuations mean coffee has seen a number of periods of rapidly increasing prices. But new research shows that when global coffee prices rise, farmers do not see the same rise in the price they receive. In their new study for Economic Development and Cultural Change, Marcel Fafchamps and Ruth Vargas Hill look to the long-time coffee producing nation of Uganda to attempt to answer this riddle. The country’s economy is fully liberalized, and the large coffee market makes up nearly the entire bulk of its agricultural exports. “The story we tell,” say Fafchamps and Hill, “is unexpected. Normally as economists we think that competition is good, yet here it does not achieve the desired result.” To their surprise, they observed that the influx of seasonal buyers-the so-called “ddebe boys”-that attends higher prices actually means price increases are not fully passed on to the growers……..

A costly deadline looms for a number of growers in the Midwest, as every day of waiting for the weather to cooperate to plant corn and soybeans reduces potential yields. Illinois growers who plant corn or soybeans near the end of June can expect a 50 percent reduction in crop yield, as per a University of Illinois agriculture expert……..

New research suggests that the average supermarket shopper is willing to pay a premium price for locally produced foods, providing some farmers an attractive option to enter a niche market that could boost their revenues. The study also showed that shoppers at farm markets are willing to pay almost twice as much extra as retail grocery shoppers for the same locally produced foods. Both kinds of shoppers also will pay more for guaranteed fresh produce and tend to favor buying food produced by small farms over what they perceive as corporate operations, as per the study……..

What causes tropical life to thrive: temperature, or sunlight? The answer is not necessarily both. As per a research studypublished online this week in PNAS Early Edition, the explosion of species at the tropics has much more to do with warmth than with light. The diversity was uncorrelation to productivity (from photosynthesis), but it was strongly correlation to temperature, said University of Southern California biologist Jed Fuhrman, who led a group that analyzed bacterial samples from warm and cold oceans……..

Scientists have discovered the secrets to enhancing youth participation in school- and community-based garden programs. A 3-year study entitled Greener Voices proves that children will engage in learning more readily when given responsibility for decisionmaking and planning. Childrens gardens have mushroomed during the past two decades. Gardens are popping up in schools, communities, public venues, and informal settings. Despite recent interest in gardening with children, little credence has been given to what children think about the experience: what interests them, how they may be involved in decisionmaking and planning, and how they can benefit from their involvement. Adults make a number of assumptions about children and gardening, and instead of enlisting the creativity and innovative thinking of young people, they often involve children in the more mundane tasks of planting, weeding, and watering notes Marcia Eames-Sheavly, lead researcher and Senior Extension Associate at Cornell Universitys Garden-Based Learning Program (http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl)……..

As per the 2000 census, Americans office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks or work stations. A number of recent studies on job satisfaction have shown that workers who spend longer hours in office environments, often under artificial light in windowless offices, report reduced job satisfaction and increased stress levels……..

The inland areas of the Pacific Northwest, where rainfall averages only 4 to 12 inches per year, present growing challenges for vineyard owners and wine grape producers. The arid conditions in this part of the country have not been conducive for vineyard owners who produce and market high-quality wine grapes……..