National Farmers issued the following announcement on June 28.
USDA laboratories in fiscal year 2018. Discoveries include a repellent made from coconut oil to ward off blood-sucking insects that cost the cattle industry more than $2.4 billion annually, technology that keeps almond crops from being lost to heavy rains, and a treatment for peanut allergies.
Innovation highlights mentioned in the report include (along with corresponding page numbers in the report for each):
*Energy-saving new technology using sequential infrared heat and hot air to simultaneously dry and decontaminate wet whole almonds, a crop worth $5.33 billion a year in California. (p. 111)
*A system for removing nitrate from contaminated water and recycling it for re-use as fertilizer. (p. 131)
*A treatment for peanut allergy. (p. 115)
*A test strip for major foodborne pathogens that reduces testing time from 24-72 hours to about 30 minutes, allowing food to be tested more often at less expense. (p. 384)
*A vaccine against Streptococcus suis that may markedly improve the health and welfare of pigs while reducing the use of antibiotics. (p. 123)
*A technique that detects the dreaded Zika virus in mosquitoes by simply shining a special beam of light on a whole mosquito for less than three seconds – an approach that is 18 times faster and 110 times cheaper than the current alternative. (p. 117)
*Development of the first U.S. hard-white waxy high-yielding winter wheat, which can be used to develop novel whole grain products and is a more efficient substrate for ethanol production. (p. 141)
Original source can be found here.
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