When They’re Not Busy Weaving Leaves, These Ants Make Great Insecticides
According to new research, ants can control pests as efficiently, and much more cheaply, than pesticides. Farmers spend about $4 billion on pesticides annually, according to the EPA, and its latest research from 2007 shows that 5.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used globally every year. Millions of hard working ants could potentially make a big dent in that.
 
Farming Flicks Help Teach Ag Skills Where They’re Really Needed
Farming is the occupation for roughly 70 percent of the world’s poor, and these farmers mostly live in rural areas with bad roads. That makes this a hard problem — but an important one — to solve. Improve agriculture, the economic lynchpin of these communities, and maybe you can improve people’s quality of life too. Digital Green, an international nonprofit that combines technology with face-to-face outreach, is hoping that they’ve found a way to spread knowledge more cheaply and quickly. Small groups of people produce videos that show simple, easy-to-adopt farming techniques, like better ways to prepare planting beds or sow seeds. Digital Green hopes that farmers take what they learn from the videos and apply it in their fields.
 
Denmark Might Be Winning the Global Race to Prevent Food Waste
Danes' increasing willingness to buy and consume items like just-expired dairy products has helped make them, arguably, the world champions in the fight against food waste. While buying these items might once have been considered a sign of poverty for consumers, it's now a badge of pride.

Where is the 'Electric Car' For the Agriculture Industry?
The “electric car of agriculture” might be right under our nose (or rather, under our feet): soil. Soils store three times more carbon than does the atmosphere, but this capability to store carbon has been rapidly depleted in many areas. Despite this overall decline, a variety of farming techniques including compost application, rotational grazing and low tillage have begun to emerge and offer ways to enhance the natural soil carbon sink. Collectively, this portfolio of “carbon farming” techniques offers the opportunity to prove the electric vehicles (EVs) of agriculture. Here’s how.