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Science In Your Shopping Cart

USDA Agricultural Research Service

Learn how science impacts your everyday life and how the USDA Agricultural Research Service is working to develop ways to enhance our lives and protect our planet.

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  • 32 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 11 min
  • English

Episodes 32

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  • S13 · E13
    Tuesday · 9 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 13: This Tree Is Over The (Strawberry) Moon

    Growers, landscapers, and city planners are always looking for trees that offer shade, have long-lasting ornamental appeal, and can withstand the unique stresses of the urban environment. ARS scientists at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C, recently released a new shade tree that has all these traits. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S13 · E10
    October 20 · 9 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 10: A Rosey Outlook For Red Potatoes

    We’re peeling back the story behind America’s favorite comfort food—the potato—and the science that keeps your fries crispy and your red-skinned mashed potatoes creamy and delicious. In this episode, you’ll learn how the primary disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine back in the 1800s is still a major problem for potato growers all over the world, including in the U.S. We’ll also introduce you to a new potato variety, called Becca Rose, a classic red-skinned, white-flesh potato with a secondary skin color that helps extend its shelf life. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S13 · E9
    October 13 · 12 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 9: Beans That Build Our Bodies

    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 iron that you ingest from a food or meal. We also learn how certain beans are high in flavonoids, and we introduce you to a new bean variety, USDA Fortuna, a versatile bean with exceptional drought tolerance, a short cooking time, and good variability for iron and zinc. It also has resistance to several pests and diseases – making it very attractive for farmers. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S13 · E8
    October 6 · 10 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 8: Loosening Up Vignoles Wine Grape

    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 drastically reduced their susceptibility to bunch rot disease. You’ll also learn how researchers are looking into the “Foxy” flavor found in the popular Concord grape. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S13 · E5
    September 15 · 9 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 5: In Search of the Perfect Rice

    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

  • S13 · E2
    August 25 · 9 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 2: New Orange & Avocado Varieties Shine For The Florida Citrus Industry

    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

  • S13 · E1
    August 18 · 13 min

    Season 13: Fresh, New Varieties For Your Shopping Cart | Episode 1: The History of Food Cultivation? It Starts with the Seed

    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-ars

  • S7 · E1
    August 11 · 13 min

    Season 7: Sports and Science | Episode 1: Batter Up

    The sport of baseball is woven into America’s culture like the uniforms worn by the players. Baseball has been around for nearly 150 years, and in that time we’ve seen plenty of home run sluggers, from Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron to Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey, Jr., to todays mashers like Aaron Judge and Mike Trout. Did you know that most professional baseball bats are made from either maple or ash? ARS researchers help keep America’s pastime swinging for the fences by protecting Ash trees from the Emerald Ash Borer. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S4 · E2
    August 4 · 6 min

    Season 4: Berries | Episode 2: Blackberries and Raspberries

    ARS scientists created a thornless blackberry plant along with many new varieties of blackberries for the agricultural industry and a trellis system designed to protect and help pickers harvest blackberries. ARS scientists are also working with the individually quick frozen industry to pack the great taste of raspberries into your cool treats. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S11 · E2
    July 28 · 9 min

    Season 11: Wholesome, Nutritious Grains | Episode 2: Shucking A Nasty Fungus

    Corn is grown all over our planet and is an important crop in all parts of our lives. ARS Research Entomologist Xinzhi Ni, at ARS’s Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit in Tifton, GA, is looking at how corn plants get stressed, and how those stressors invite diseases and pathogens to proliferate inside the crop. Ni is hopeful the work will help future entomologists and breeders find solutions to these perennial problems. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S4 · E1
    July 21 · 7 min

    Season 4: Berries | Episode 1: Blueberries

    Learn how a USDA breeding program was responsible for the development of the blueberry growing industry in the southeastern United States and how ARS scientists have developed and are continuing to work with farmers to create new cultivars of blueberries that we all get to enjoy. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S8 · E7
    July 14 · 10 min

    Season 8: Wearable Science | Episode 7: Back to the Future with Hemp

    Is hemp the plant of the future? See if this crop, which has been around for thousands of years, will find its place in the US agricultural marketplace. Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARS Facebook: @AgriculturalResearchService LinkedIn: @usda-ars

  • S5 · E4
    July 7 · 5 min

    Season 5: WonderPlants | Episode 4: Super Cotton

    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

Showing 1–20 of 32 episodes