Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers and turn the world's largest recipient of food aid into a regional food...

For smallholder farmers in India, agriculture has long been an unreliable source of income -- crops that flourish one season can fail the next, thanks to heat, pests and disease. But climate risk is now making the profession nearly...

Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data...

From gnocchi and salchipapas to potato chips and french fries, it seems like every cuisine around the world has embraced the potato! And this humble tuber did not originate in Ireland or France, but near Lake Titicaca near the border of...

Have you ever walked into a grocery store and wondered where all the varieties of apples came from? You might find SnapDragon, Pixie Crunch, Cosmic Crisp, Jazz, or Ambrosia next to the more familiar Red Delicious and Granny Smith. So why...

Did you know that there were over 200 types of cows? Join Jessi and Squeaks as they discuss some cool facts about these amazing animals.

Ever wondered what makes those balls of white foam you sometimes find clinging to plants? Spittlebugs create these bubbly cocoons after feeding on a plant’s fluids; but unfortunately, their eating habits help transmit a deadly bacteria...

If you’ve heard anything about pesticides, it’s probably about how toxic they are. But they make growing food more cost-effective, so when some make it into your groceries, how bad can they be?

Many people across the world don't have access to healthy food -- while in other places tons of food go to waste. Social entrepreneur Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli thinks we can take bold steps to fix this problem. She lays out what it would...

Ditches and drain pipes help crops survive but can negatively impact the broader landscape.

About 10,000 years ago, humans began to farm. This agricultural revolution was a turning point in our history and enabled the existence of civilization. Today, nearly 40 percent of our planet is farmland. Spread all over the world, these...

Why are GMOs bad? They aren't. They just aren't, not intrinsically, and certainly not for your health. We've been eating them for decades with no ill effects, which makes sense, because a genetically modified organism is simply an...

Our planet was once populated by megafauna, big top-of-the-food-chain predators that played their part in balancing our ecosystems. When those megafauna disappear, the result is a "trophic cascade," where every part of the ecosystem...

On November 26, 2020, trade unions in India reported that over 250 MILLION people took part in a strike. What could prompt such massive protest? Farming. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at GMOs, which are organisms whose DNA has...

Dive into the world of aquaculture and see how restorative ocean farming could play a vital role in helping our coastal communities, our oceans and our climate. -- For billions of people, seafood provides a significant source of...

In which John Green teaches you about the massive immigration to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th century. Immigrants flocked to the US from all over the world in this time period. Millions of Europeans moved to the...

You might have clothes, like a hat or a warm, cozy sweater, that are made of wool. You might even know that a lot of wool comes from sheep! But do you know how wool goes from growing on a sheep to being made into a sweater?

In which Adriene Hill and Jacob Clifford teach you about one of the fundamental economic ideas, supply and demand. What is supply and demand? Well, you'll have to watch the video to really understand it, but it's kind of important for...

So, during times of inflation or deflation, why doesn't the government just set prices? It sounds reasonable, but price ceilings or floors just don't work. Adriene and Jacob explain why. Subsidies, however, are a little different, and...

Well, it wouldn't be too long after we started developing Ecology that we would try to control the environment. In some ways this was helpful and likely prevented a lot of people from starving. But, there have been a few downsides.

Thanks to my grandmother for inspiring this story, and to my mother for helping make it.



Bird poop was the gateway fertilizer that turned humanity onto the...

What does farming have to do with invention and innovation? Permanent residences, division of labor, central government, and complex technologies--all essential for advancing civilizations--could not have been developed without the move...

At the end of our journey through modern European history, we're taking an episode to look back at how the practice of history developed and what the aim and goals and purpose of history have been. We'll also take time to consider how we...

Potato spindle tuber disease wasn't a life-or-death situation, but it led to the discovery of viroids: infectious, replicating bits of RNA