US meat products with sustainability labels do cost more, but price premiums vary greatly - from an average 7% increase for "organic" labelled chicken, to an average 33% increase for "grass-fed" labelled beef

Researchers identify a genetic mechanism that coordinates flower development and fruit formation, paving the way toward tomato varieties with more reliable winter harvests.

Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, used a machine-learning approach to study not just which genes a bacterium has, but also where those genes sit next to each other. That “genetic neighborhood” helped researchers distinguish disease-causing strains of Enterococcus cecorum, a poultry pathogen, from nonpathogenic strains. The same approach could eventually be applied to bacteria affecting humans, livestock, wildlife and plants, provided enough genomic data are available.

A new archaeobotanical study by researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Kiel has revealed that increases in cereal grain size at the dawn of agriculture, more than 11,000 years ago, were initially driven by plants' plastic responses to favourable growing conditions, rather than by genetic selection under cultivation as previously thought. To test competing explanations for early grain enlargement, the international team applied an integrated analytical approach combining morphological, weed ecological and stable carbon isotope analyses of charred barley and emmer wheat remains recovered from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic settlements of el-Hemmeh and Sharara located in the Wadi el-Hasa, Jordan. The study, now published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) shows that developmental plasticity played a key role in shaping the evolutionary trajectories of cereals before they became domesticated.

A renewable polymer with agricultural potential

Modern agriculture faces a difficult balance: raising productivity while reducing dependence on petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics. In a review published in Carbon Research, authors led by Hongliang Wang of China Agricultural University examine how lignin, the most abundant natural aromatic polymer, could serve as a versatile platform for eco-friendly agricultural inputs. The article positions lignin valorization within a broader push toward low-carbon, circular agriculture.

The review explains that lignin’s appeal comes from a combination of structural and functional traits. Its phenolic and aliphatic hydroxyl groups, aromatic backbone, antioxidant activity, UV-shielding capacity, antimicrobial behavior, and tunable degradability make it suitable for multiple agricultural uses. Rather than treating lignin as a low-value industrial by-product, the authors describe it as a candidate feedstock for materials that can improve nutrient efficiency, crop protection, and soil performance while reducing pollution.

A research team has identified MaLBD50 as a key positive regulator of banana ripening that accelerates starch breakdown by directly activating the β-amylase gene MaBMY1.