Agriculture

A bunch of things are considered agricultural science, from planting crops and raising sheep for wool to food safety and developing fertilizers. This week, we’re skimming the surface of agriculture, with a little detour into animals that sort of farm too. What accidental evolutionary pressures turned weeds into popular crops? Why are seed vaults so important to humanity? And what made Big Mike basically go extinct, and are we worried about it happening with other crops? (Big Mike is a banana, by the way.) Want to know more about our topics? Check out these links: [Truth or Fail] https://india.mongabay.com/2018/10/farmer-termites-bury-invaders-alive-to-protect-fungus-farms/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10886-017-0902-4 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00040-010-0092-3 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0156847 [Fact Off] Vavilovian mimicry: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/weed-science/article/vavilovian-mimicry-nikolai-vavilov-and-his-littleknown-impact-on-weed-science/1B0263622E208DA4548BF0BCB918F255 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02858881 http://labs.eeb.utoronto.ca/barrett/pdf/schb_54.pdf https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1752-4571.2010.00140.x Leningrad seed vault: [Ask the Science Couch] Bananas: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/25/banana-farming-danger-cavendish-crop-genetics https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/18/scientists-scramble-to-stop-bananas-being-killed-off http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2017/12/27/banana-fungus-panama-disease/#.XIgdQFNKhxw https://www.apsnet.org/about/newsroom/releases/Pages/03Banana.aspx https://fusariumwilt.org/index.php/en/about-fusarium-wilt/ https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44712034 [Butt One More Thing] Night soil: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/05/07/182010827/is-it-safe-to-use-compost-made-from-treated-human-waste Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .