Science In Your Shopping Cart

We all know we should eat more beans; and yet Americans eat fewer of these superfoods than most other countries. Beans are packed with vitamins and minerals, including iron. They are also gluten free. ARS researchers are studying ways to make beans more attractive to the American public, including learning how certain bean types provide more bioavailable iron, that is, the absorbability of the iro...

Geneva, New York is one of the great destinations in the U.S. for crisp, juicy, semi-dry and semi-sweet wines. Here in the Finger Lakes region, wineries pour popular varieties like Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay, as well as unique hybrid grapes, like Niagara, Cayuga White, and Vignoles. In this episode, you’ll learn how researchers developed loosely clustered Vignoles wine grapes that dr...

Let ARS do the shopping for you! Here are some new food varieties from ARS that will certainly wet your appetite. And best of all, no delivery charge! Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Salinas Valley in Northern California is better known as the salad bowl of the world. It’s where cool coastal air meets rows of green plots, and where ARS researchers are turning some of your favorite vegetables into nutritional powerhouses. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

There are rice producers all over the country, but the main producer of rice in the United States might surprise you. In this episode, we share what makes for ideal rice growing conditions. We also discover a new type of rice that might make you wonder if you have wandered into a movie theater. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

We visit the ARS Grain Legume Genetics and Physiology Research Unit, where researchers live and breathe pulse crops—peas, lentils, and chickpeas. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

ARS Researchers are breeding peanuts that are resistant to diseases that greatly impact peanut quality and yield. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Citrus greening, also known as Huanglongbing or HLB, is a vector borne disease that has devastated the citrus industry here in Florida. There is no cure, but ARS researchers and their colleagues are developing an arsenal of solutions that will sweeten the citrus industry here in the sunshine state. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Imagine a library… but instead of books, it holds seeds, cuttings, and living plants from every corner of the world. Today, we’re stepping into a living library to tell the history and future of new food varieties – how they have been selected, improved, and delivered from the farm to your shopping cart. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-a...

ARS scientists are turning nano fibers from cotton plants into mask filters, wound dressings, and other medical applications. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Check out some amazing wonderplants at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

ARS research entomologist Dr. Shawn Steffan works in cranberry country, USA – aka Madison, WI. Here, bees are vital to cranberry production, so keeping them healthy and happy are crucial. Steffan is studying the relationship between bees, their microbiome, and the environment in which they live and work. Listen how building a perfect symbiosis may be the key to long-term health of honey bees. Find...

ARS Research Geneticist, Dr. Dolores Mornhinweg at the Peanut and Small Grains Research Unit in Stillwater, OK is developing new Barley crop lines that are resistant to pests such as the Russian Wheat Aphid. Barley is an important part of the U.S. economy, bringing in over a billions dollars in crop value.  The Russian Wheat Aphid is a major pest to barley production in the U.S. Connect with us:  ...

We travel to Byron, Georgia, to the ARS Fruit and Tree Nut Research Unit, and visit with Research Horticulturist Chunxian Chen. Dr. Chen and his group recently released three new peach cultivars: Rich Joy, Crimson Joy, and Liberty Joy. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Hydration is so important to our bodies during exercise, perhaps more important than the exercise itself. Not properly hydrating during athletic competitions or every day exercising – even walking – can have damaging effects on our bodies. Of course, there are the physical effects, such as fatigue, exhaustion, and heat stroke. But there are also psychological factors that you may not be aware of....

ARS scientists are turning plant fibers in to single-use containers to one day replace non-biodegradable plastic containers. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

ARS researchers make sure the science, chemistry, and math all add up to great wine grape production across the U.S.  Learn about ARS’s crucial roles in wine grape production as our researchers’ find answers to the biggest problems facing the nation’s wine grape industry.   For this season of Science in Your Shopping Cart, we’re hitting the virtual wine trail to learn the science behind wine grape...

ARS researcher Arran Rumbaugh, a research chemist at the Crops Pathology and Genetics Research Unit in Davis, CA, is studying how smoke from wildfires can affect the chemical composition of wine grapes.     Wildfires from 2020 hurt wine grape production and had an estimated 3.7 billion dollars of economic impact on the wine industry due to smoke exposure and fire.   Dr. Rumbaugh is working on an e...

Making Popeye proud. ARS recently released the world’s first true red spinach, called “USDA Red”. Learn about the benefits this new powerful vegetable provides to consumers. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Tips on how to grow your own blueberry and blackberry plants right in your own backyard. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Bee experts Liz Walsh and Lanie Bilodeau offer tips for making your home yards more bee friendly. Find out how you can help honey bees by clicking on the extension service link below. https://extension.org/find-cooperative-extension-in-your-state/ Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

Did you know that some wonderplants can be used to control and even kill annoying flies and mosquitoes? Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

These days, we are all more conscious of pesticide spraying, especially growers who rely on this method for keeping pests off their crops. ARS scientists have developed a revolutionary laser-guided sprayer to apply precise amounts of pesticide to their crops, cutting down significantly on the amount of pesticide sprayed onto fruits and vegetables. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @A...

ARS researchers Nancy Keim and Wally Yokoyama are looking to turn wine waste – mainly pomace or what the researchers call marcs – into healthy food products that end up in our shopping carts. Keim is studying the health benefits of combinations of chardonnay grape pomace and chardonnay grape extract.  As expected, the enriched flour is high in fiber and has a lot of bioactive material, which means...

Wendy Shaw, a registered dietitian formerly with the National Agricultural Library, discusses the importance of nutrition, from the world’s elite athletes to the weekend warriors.  Give it a listen. Connect with us:   Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars