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Explore How Research Impacts Your Life
Good News For Coffee Drinkers

A team of ARS researchers is providing farmers in Hawaii with new apps to help manage threats to their crops.

Want to Be a Scientist?

Careers for new scientists span a variety of disciplines in agriculture. Want to know more? Check out this page.

Citrus Greening Portal

Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening, poses the most serious threat that the Florida citrus industry has ever faced.

Strawberry Fields and Research Forever

Cooking with Science Episode 3: learn about research ARS is doing to improve strawberries, watch a cooking video and get recipes.

ARS Project Supports Indigenous Seed Sovereignty

The Agricultural Research Service is helping ensure that native plants with cultural, historical, medicinal, and edible significance remain available for future generations.

Building a Better Cat Litter

A new biobased kitty litter developed by ARS scientists could be coming to a box near you—your cat's, that is.

Spud Central

Cooking with Science Episode 2: learn about ARS potato research, watch a cooking video and get recipes.

Plant Oils

ARS scientists are hard at work identifying new plant oils and new uses for existing ones, both in and outside the kitchen.

Witch Hazel, Not Just for Grandma Anymore!

Popular folk remedy witch hazel is an effective and natural alternative to conventional antibiotics.

Preventing The Problem of Plastic Pollution

One approach to eliminating plastic packaging is to use plant-based fiber to create products that are environmentally harmless but provide similar results to plastic.

Taking the Ouch Out of Oxalate

ARS scientists are analyzing spinach varieties to identify varieties that have low oxalate levels, which is sometimes linked to better health.

Turning Food Waste into Products

A new process converts organic waste into nanocellulose, a brown, fibrous material that can be used in multiple products from cardboard boxes to food packaging.

Turning Pests into Chicken Feed

ARS scientists are looking to turn the tables on mosquitoes and other insect pests like house flies by making them into lunch for other animals.

Keeping the Bay Healthy

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest and most productive estuary in the United States and third largest in the world.

Women Play Leading Role in Ag Science

The United States began honoring women’s history in 1980, but ARS has a long tradition of celebrating the role of women in science.

What's Happening in the Big Easy

It's Mardi Gras season and we’re excited to feature some of the great research happening at the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, LA!

New Cultivars Bolster Louisiana's Sugar Industry

ARS scientists use genetics to keep the Louisiana sugar industry vital.

Sugar Byproducts Help the Environment

Scientists are turning that waste into products that can refresh the soil. Two examples involve mill mud and bagasse.

Scientists Improve Rice

Rice, already the primary staple for half the world's population, is getting a makeover from a research team in New Orleans, LA. The results are a more healthful grain and many potential new products.

Cotton Helps Clean the Environment

Researchers may boost the cotton nonwoven industry and clean the environment.

Egg-splaining Egg Safety

The ARS Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit conducts research to protect both the health of consumers and the marketability of eggs.

Vertical Farming Is Moving Up

Vertical farming, the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, allows farmers to grow fresh produce indoors year-round.

If You’re Happy and You Know It, Strut Around

Raising healthy chickens requires planning, attention to detail, and fastidiousness when it comes to completing daily chores.

A Halloween Mystery

A restless plant that thrives in several cemeteries in Mississippi could be linked to a royal Gypsy family.

Bee Lives Between a Rock and a Hard Place

ARS researchers discovered a fuzzy gray bee that carves its nest into chunks of sandstone!

Hanging Out and Taking Selfies

A pair of bald eagles and their eaglet live in a tree at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Look Who's Wearing a Collar

ARS researchers undertook a five-year study to improve control of the ticks that spread Lyme disease.

Protecting Pecans with Friendly Fungi

Scientists at the ARS Fruit and Tree Nut Research Station have developed a new way to protect pecans from diseases.

Protecting Our Pollinators

Pollinators are essential to healthy, biodiverse ecosystems.

Keep Your Eyes on the Fries

Are you eating ARS-developed French fries?

Reduce Waste With Composting

Composting is an excellent way to reduce waste that’s sent to landfills while providing soil in your gardens or fields with precious nutrients.

Three Strikes and You're Out

Learn how ARS scientists are working hard to fight this pest and protect our beloved ash trees.

The Tiny World of Microscopic Imaging

The ARS Electron and Confocal Microscopy Unit is equipped with state-of-the-art microscopes capable of producing high-resolution, digital images.

Pepper Portal

ARS keeps the pep in peppers. Cooking with Science Episode 1: Learn about ARS research to develop superior peppers, watch a cooking video and get recipes.

Cracking the Mystery of How to Store Eggs

Should you store eggs in the refrigerator or let them sit out in the kitchen at room temperature?

SunButter: A Tasty Sandwich Spread

Did you know that ARS scientists developed a tasty, nutrient-rich peanut butter alternative made from sunflower seeds?

Researchers Close to Hooking Disease

Aeromonas hydrophila has ravaged the catfish farming industry in Alabama and other states since its discovery in 2009.

Growing Food in Space

ARS scientists are working with NASA to develop sustainable farming techniques and technologies to grow fresh produce while in spaceflight.

Microalgae is the Bee’s Knees

Microalgae could provide a strong, sustainably produced artificial diet for honeybees.

Can Baby Food Affect Your Adult Health?

What you eat at certain stages of life may determine your future health.

Do Bugs Bug You?

ARS entomologist Tracey Leskey, who talks about stink bugs, ants, box elder bugs and other insects.

Alternative Grains

ARS researchers are evaluating ways to use gluten-free alternatives, like amaranth, in popular products like cookies and pasta.

ARS in Your Pizza

Great pizza needs great ingredients! Did you know that two of those were developed by ARS?

What is Photosynthesis?

Learn about photosynthesis and how plants use it to feed the planet.

Grape Expectations

ARS has bred "seedless" grape varieties with seeds so tiny that you can't even detect them.

How Can an App Beef Up Cattle Production?

A team of ARS researchers is developing a web-based tool that will help cattle producers select the best bull for their herds.

Invasion of the Air Potato!

The air potato vine introduced 115 years ago from Asia has multiplied and smothered native plant communities in all of Florida’s 67 counties.

Really-Good-For-You Health Bars

ARS researchers helped formulate a tasty fruit-based bar with health-promoting ingredients.

Flawed Produce Gets Another Chance

Scientists are turning potentially wasted fruits and veggies into tasty, healthful products for you to enjoy.

Prospecting for Non-Fossil Oil and Gas

ARS scientists are helping farmers and ranchers convert farm and ranch leftovers and waste to sources of bioenergy (oil and gas), and high-value by-products.

Hope for People With Peanut Allergy

ARS scientists have come up with a very promising for peanut allergy treatment.

Living Mulch Improves Soil Health and Farmer’s Bottom Line

A team of USDA scientists is working on a double-cropping system as a way to improve a farmer’s profit margin by growing cattle feed between rows of a cash crop, in this case corn or soybean.

Microbe Turns Bread Waste Useful

ARS scientists found a way to make a valuable compound from bread waste.

Seaweed: It’s Not Just for Sushi Anymore

Seaweed farming is the fastest growing sector of American aquaculture and ARS scientists can help farmers cash in.

Behold the Power of Nanoparticles

Scientists are perfecting a technology to embed nanoparticles of silver – a known anti-microbial agent – inside of cotton fibers.