Agriculture

Bioengineering professor Michael C. Jewett shares how Stanford researchers are working with the building blocks of biology to produce greener chemicals, more climate-resilient agriculture, and new ways to repurpose food waste.

Dozens of faculty members at Stanford are working to transform the way the world grows, distributes, and consumes food, with research and scholarship spanning topics including sustainable food systems, food security, health equity, culture, and diet.

Climate change and flagging investment in research and development has U.S. agriculture facing its first productivity slowdown in decades. A new study by researchers at Stanford, Cornell, and the University of Maryland estimates the public sector investment needed to reverse course.

A new prototype device demonstrates an innovative approach to producing ammonia – a key component of fertilizer – that could transform an industry responsible for about one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Water scarcity threatens the viability of hydropower and agriculture. A new study in the Andes shows sustainable irrigation and reforestation are the best responses.

Residents of the wildfire-choked San Joaquin Valley desperately want something done about their air quality – but they want researchers to approach the work in a new way.

Stanford Report highlights third-year E-IPER student Karli Moore and two other Stanford graduate students and Knight-Hennessy scholars who are using their fellowship to support Native and Indigenous communities, both on and off campus.

Stanford cofounders are betting on the farm with soil-based carbon removal.

How scientists found the leading source of high lead levels in pregnant women in Bangladesh. (Source: Stanford Medicine)

A new tool for designing and managing irrigation for farms advances the implementation of smart agriculture, an approach that leverages data and modern technologies to boost crop yields while conserving natural resources. (Source: Stanford News)

Leveraging blue foods can help policymakers address multiple global challenges, a new analysis shows. (Source: Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions)

New analysis shows the U.S. has accounted for more wetland conversion and degradation than any other country. Its findings help better explain the causes and impacts of such losses and inform protection and restoration of wetlands. (Source: Stanford News)

Plant-based and lab-grown meat substitutes are here to stay, but are unlikely to eliminate livestock agriculture’s climate and land use impacts anytime soon, according to Stanford environmental scientist David Lobell. In the meantime, Lobell says we should also focus on reducing emissions of animal-based systems. (Source: Stanford News)

Federal subsidies promote planting cover crops to store carbon in agricultural soils, among other benefits, but the approach as currently practiced can reduce yields in the U.S. Corn Belt, researchers find. Their analysis highlights the need to better implement the practice. (Source: Stanford News)

With demand for fish on the rise, Stanford food security expert Roz Naylor offers a perspective calling attention to the need for greater oversight of growing antimicrobial use that impacts the health of fish, ecosystems, and humans. (Source: Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health)

Heat waves, drought, and floods driven by climate change are already impacting access to food and driving food insecurity in many parts of the world. Stanford professor David Lobell explains how food production and access are impacted by climate change. (Source: Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health)

Few regulations exist to protect laborers from increasingly frequent extreme heat events. Stanford experts explain extreme heat’s impacts on workplace risks, marginalized communities, and the economy. (Source: Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment)

Gustavo Cezar wears two colorful hats as an engineer with SLAC’s GISMo lab. (Source: SLAC)

Southeast Asia’s most productive agricultural region and home to 17 million people could be mostly underwater within a lifetime. Researchers recommend policy solutions including strict regulation of sediment mining, limits on groundwater pumping, and coordination among countries, development agencies and other private and civil society stakeholders. (Source: Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment)