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Nutritious frozen foods can play role in weight-loss programs
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Size matters when it comes to meal portions in weight-loss diets, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And consuming convenient, nutritious frozen dinners may be a way to control portion size. Research dietitians Sandra M. Hannum and LeaAnn Carson, who work in the laboratory of food science and […]
Information on three new agricultural pests enhances web tool for farmers
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three more pests – fruit tree leafroller, lilac borer and western bean cutworm – have been added this spring to the Illinois State Water Survey’s Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring program, a Web-based tool that provides helpful information for the state’s farmers. WARM, created in the late 1980s, helps the agricultural community […]
Arsenic removal from drinking water is focus of new projects
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – More stringent federal standards for acceptable levels of arsenic in public drinking water go into effect next year, a prospect that has resulted in four new research projects on arsenic. The research, funded by the Midwest Technology Assistance Center for Small Public Water Systems, will address the new standards, which will change […]
Unique weather a factor in record 2004 Midwest crop yields
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – If farmers talk big about 2004 crops as they get ready to head out into the fields this spring, let them talk. Believe them. Last year’s crop season saw record yields in every major crop amid the closest-to-perfect weather conditions of the last century, scientists say. “Never before have corn, soybeans, sorghum, […]
Goal of project is development of petroleum-free fuel
Developing a petroleum-free fuel from corn byproducts is one of the goals of a newly funded research project at the UI. Eight research laboratories will pool their expertise, attacking the problems from different directions in order to work to improve the efficiency of bioconversion of plant fibers into fuels and other value-added products. This is […]
Anti-cancer compound found to block late-stage breast-cancer cell growth
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A well known anti-cancer agent in certain vegetables has just had its reputation enhanced. The compound, in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, has been found to be effective in disrupting late stages of cell growth in breast cancer. Keith Singletary and doctoral student Steven Jackson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign […]
Grocery stores find security in locally produced beef
Knowing where, how and by whom your steak dinner was raised recently has become a more pressing question for Americans. Several independent grocery stores in Chicago have found a locally produced beef marketed under the label Illinois Crown Beef that they say they can sell to their customers with confidence because they know where it […]
Supersweet Sweet Corn: 50 Years in the Making
Fifty years ago, sweet corn wasn’t all that sweet and had a short shelf-life, which made it difficult for grocery stores to stock it. As a result of the persistence of some UI corn researchers, today’s sweet corn not only lives up to its name in taste, it maintains its high quality for more than […]
Efficient fertilizer use could benefit river without hurting crop yields
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. A computational study on nitrogen inputs to the Mississippi River Basin from the 1950s to the 1990s suggests that better use of the fertilizer such as not over-applying it could substantially reduce the amount of nitrates flowing down river without compromising crop yields. The study, appearing in the Nov. 8 issue of the […]
Bt corn variety study shows no adverse effect on black swallowtail caterpillars
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A Bt corn variety grown widely in East Central Illinois in 1999 had no adverse effect on black swallowtail caterpillars that thrive in weeds alongside cornfields, according to both field and laboratory studies at the University of Illinois. The study — published online Tuesday (June 6) by the Proceedings of the National […]