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Of course cows, pigs, and chickens belong on farms, and nobody looks askance at a farm full of llamas or buffalos. But there are some farm animals you might not expect. And when I say "not expect," I mean holy crap WTF - why are these animals being farmed? More »
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While waiting around in their pens, swine can get ornery and restless. To placate the porkers, a group of Dutch designers are devising a basic video game that allows humans to square off against pigs (and vice versa). It's an extremely cute idea until you realize your porcine opponents are bacon-bound.

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One of the runners-up for the recent Animal Architecture Awards is also one of my favorites from the competition: "Farmland World" by Allison Newmeyer and Stewart Hicks of the Chicago-based Design With Company. More »
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A generation ago, most farms were still relatively small and independent, but the past 20-30 years have seen factory farms become a quasi-monopoly. What will farms look like a generation from now? More »
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Humans like to think we invented agriculture, but a single-celled organism might have us beaten by several million years. An amoeba species known as "Dicty" finds bacteria, moves them to the best location, and harvests them like crops. More »
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Meet the Astronaut A4 milking system, a robotic milking contraption that allows cows to decided when they want to be milked. Here's a flat-out bizarre video of the A4 in action, complete with an emotionless voice and porno soundtrack. More »
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Anthropologists have long debated how farming spread from parts of Asia to Europe. Was it cultural transmission, or did farmers immigrate and settle down with European hunter-gatherers? A new study of ancient DNA reveals that intermarriage created agrarian Europe. More »
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By engineering a strain of symbiotic fungus, researchers have massively increased the growth rate of rice, and may help stave off the specter of global shortages of phosphates, which are essential minerals for plants. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5558232&view=rss&microfeed=true The U.S. Supreme Court has been hearing arguments on whether a genetically engineered pesticide-resistant alfalfa violates the National Environmental Policy Act. The case pits organic farmers against Monsanto, whose genetically altered alfalfa could spread its genes to neighboring crops, via cross-pollination and prevent them from being able to label them as "organic." This is the first time the Supreme Court will address the issue of GM foods. [New York Times] More »
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If you've ever thought that selling your kidney, ova, or sperm sounded like a handy way to make some cash, it's time to consider body farming. Michael Burton's photographs show how advances in biotech will change the way humans treat and relate to their bodies. After all, if we can sell our organs, gametes, and hair, what's to stop us from growing extra ones all over our bodies? More »
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Kibera, a dense, 2.5 square km shantytown outside Nairobi, is the largest slum in Kenya. It's estimated that possibly a million people live its maze of houses and outdoor markets. Now a group there has figured out a fast, efficient way to convert piles of trash into compost — and to convert areas that were once trash heaps into instant organic farms using just recycled PVC piping and other easily-accessible materials. One farm, which now feeds 30 people, was operational in just 3 months. This low-tech form of land reclamation could be a model for rapidly-growing urban populations. More »
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Click to view For years, farmers have been growing genetically-engineered cotton plants that exude an insecticide known as Bt. But now, a pest called the bollworm moth has evolved a resistance to Bt — and the altered bugs have already spread across part of the southern United States. This is the first-known example of bugs evolving resistance to an insecticide in the wild. It proves that natural selection can outrun genetic engineering in terms of its ability to transform a species quickly. More »
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