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Over time, some of the links will have lapsed, so we cannot guarantee they all work. Please note that you can download our Media Database (Excel Worksheet) which contains a full description of most articles and allows searching by subject, date, source, etc. We can also provide hard copies of some items. Please contact us for further information. Serious Drought Threatens Southern Africa Associated Press | by Alexandra Zavis | January 28, 2004 The worst drought in more than a decade is sweeping through southern Africa, destroying crops, driving up food prices and leaving millions hungry. South African Drought Pushes Wild Game Prices Down Reuters | by Ed Stoddard | January 27, 2004 A drought gripping much of South Africa may send the price of key crops such as maize soaring but game farmers are expected to get less for their wild animals. Corn's Cold Tolerance Improved AgNet | January 26, 2004 A tobacco gene can improve corn's notoriously poor frost-resistance, biologists report. ken Wang and colleagues inserted the tobacco gene NPK1 into corn plants and found that the transgenic plants survived temperatures 2 degrees celsius colder than plants without the gene. Although small, the difference could help corn survive late-spring and early-fall frosts and could permit planting of the crop in more northerly regions or on high plateaus. Corn, an important food staple, is a tropical plant that originated in Southern Mexico has been coninuously bred and planted in colder climates on all continents. The crop requires extended warm periods to ripen. NPK1 activates a cellular pathway that stimulates production of certain proteins, such as heat shock proteins, that stabilize and protect cells in times of stress from heat, cold, or water loss. The pathway that NPK1 activates is found in all eukaryotic cells, from yeast to humans. The genes involved have been remarkably well-conserved throughout millions of years, which makes cross-species transfers such as this one between tobacco and corn likely to succeed. The researchers suggest that linking NPK1 to a cold-responsive DNA control element in corn genome could result in a plant that is more frost-resistant. Changing the future means changing priorities CNews | David Suzuki | January 21, 2004 News that global warming could push one quarter of the world's plants and animals to the edge of extinction by 2050 recently made headlines around the world. But did the stories do more harm than good? Farmers see silver lining in snowfall The London Free Press | by Debora Van Brenk | January 20, 2004 Better crop prospects are one silver lining in the cloud of snow enveloping the region. Area farmers say heavy snow cover is a healthy insulator for winter wheat and alfalfa, and insurance against summer drought. Experts disagree on whether Rio Grande Valley is in drought The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) | by Travis M. Whitehead | January 20, 2004 John Holcomb wishes the reservoirs had more water, but he hopes the rains stay away for awhile. Holcomb, 87, raises sugarcane near Progreso. Farmers brace for another dry year: Moisture conditions nearly as severe as 2002 drought The Edmonton Journal | by Gina Teel | January 19, 2004 More drought-tolerant crops and fewer feed grains will be planted in Alberta this year as farmers look for a profitable middel ground between the mad cow crisis and continuing dry conditions. Soil desperately dry The Leader Post (Regina) | by Murray Lyons | January 17, 2004 A Canadian Wheat Board official says Prairie farmers are facing nearly the same moisture deficit this January as they did in the dry winter of 2001-02. Salt-resistant rice Science | Vol. 303, No. 5656 | January 2004 Climate change is expected to cause rising sea levels in coastal rice-growing areas everywhere. A team of scientists led by Ajay Parida at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai has now taken a salinity-resistance gene an dput it into several Indian rice varieties. Scientists predict widespread extinction by global warming The New York Times | by James Gorman | January 8, 2004 An international group of 19 scientists, analyzing research around the globe, has concluded that a warming climate will rival habitat destruction in prompting widespread extinctions in this century. Climate-species Associated Press | January 7, 2004 A quarter of all land animals and plants could face extinction by 2050 unless global warming is sharply curtailed, according to a study by an international research team released on Wednesday. Draining Florida's Wetlands Has Worsened the Effects of Crop Freezes Alternative Agriculture News | Vol. 22, No. 1 | January 2004 Converting south Florida's wetlands to agricultural use, undertaken in part to escape damaging winter freezes to the north, has inadvertnetly worsened the effects of crop-damaging freezes in key areas used to grow winter produce and sugarcane, new research shows. Winter turns on flowering gene University of Wisconsin-Madison | January 5, 2004 In four months, when flower buds spring from the ground, you may wonder how plants know it's time to bloom. This question has baffled plant biologists for years. |
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