The U.S. has traditionally been an agricultural powerhouse with a healthy trade surplus. But global dynamics are changing due to a confluence of political and economic factors. U.S. agricultural imports now exceed exports, and the trade deficit is projected to worsen in the coming years. In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Texas Tech University discuss recent developments affecting the U.S. trade in row crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton.

Christopher Sneed, an associate professor and consumer economics specialist in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) at the University of Tennessee, has received the 2025 Excellence in Extension Award for an individual.

The prestigious national award was presented at the recent Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Conference by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Cooperative Extension and the APLU. The award recognizes one Cooperative Extension professional who has demonstrated outstanding scientific programming, visionary leadership and positive community impact. 

Engineering students developed an AI-powered irrigation solution rooted in intelligence, earning them first place in the “Building a Better Future Through Business and AI” competition.

A pioneering two-year field study has revealed that biodegradable microplastics, often hailed as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, are quietly reshaping the chemistry of farmland soils in unexpected and complex ways. Published on August 22, 2025, in Carbon Research as an open-access original article, this research was co-led by Dr. Jie Zhou from the College of Agriculture at Nanjing Agricultural University, China, and Dr. Davey L. Jones from the School of Environmental and Natural Sciences at Bangor University, UK—a powerful Sino-British collaboration bridging soil science, microbiology, and climate resilience. The team investigated how polypropylene (PP)—a common conventional plastic—and polylactic acid (PLA)—a widely used biodegradable plastic—affect soil organic carbon (SOC) in real-world agricultural conditions. Both were added at realistic concentrations (0.2% w/w) to topsoil (0–20 cm), with an unamended plot serving as control. While neither plastic changed the total amount of carbon stored, the story beneath the surface was dramatically different.