grains

ISTANBUL—Russia and Ukraine agreed Friday to resume exports of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea for the first time since the Russian invasion, a deal aimed at freeing up vital supplies amid fears of a global food crisis. The deal is the product of months of diplomacy led by the United Nations and Turkey, both of which are signatories to a pair of parallel agreements with Russia and Ukraine. It raises hopes that grain stocks could soon be shipped out from Ukrainian ports, after the war caused a…

Growing fears of a global recession and easing concerns over world food shortages are reversing a sharp rally in grain markets, but pressure on food supplies could linger for years, executives and agricultural economists say.Prices for agricultural commodities such as corn and wheat have tumbled in recent weeks following a monthslong surge touched off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. War between the two agricultural giants drove futures prices for wheat at the Chicago Board of Trade up by $4 a bushel in…

Scientists can use various clues to figure out what's under Earth's surface without actually having to do any digging – including firing super-fine lasers thinner than a human hair at minerals found in beach sand.  This technique has been used in a new study that points to a 4-billion-year-old piece of Earth's crust about the size of Ireland, which has been sitting under Western Australia and influencing the geological evolution of the area across millions of millennia.It might be able to provide clues to how our planet…

ANKARA, Turkey—Turkish and United Nations diplomats are discussing a new proposal for extracting grain currently blockaded in Ukrainian ports, by escorting freighters through a safe passage among the defensive mines that protect Black Sea ports amid the war with Russia.The proposal is the latest effort by Turkey and the U.N. to transport Ukrainian grain out of the country. Russia’s invasion has left about 20 million metric tons of grain stranded in Ukraine, heightening fears of a global food crisis after months in which…

A three-dimensional visualization shows how rock gouge can arrest a rupture (in red) but, with a combination of dynamic stressing and dynamic weakening, will ultimately re-nucleate the rupture shortly thereafter (in blue). Credit: Rubino et. al., Nature, 2022 By simulating earthquakes in a lab, Caltech engineers have provided strong experimental support for a form of earthquake propagation now thought responsible for the…

There’s more than just pollen riding on a springtime breeze. Just as some human viruses spread when humans reproduce, plant viruses can use pollen to hitch a ride from flower to flower. A study in Nature Communications shows how plentiful pollen-borne viruses are—and suggests that human activity may help them spread. University of Pittsburgh evolutionary ecologist Tia-Lynn Ashman and her colleagues used genetic sequencing to catalog viruses on wildflower pollen from four different environments: California grasslands, the…

Countries around the world have enacted a wave of export curbs on food since the start of the Ukraine war, a trend that economists say risks aggravating shortages and global food-price inflation.On nearly every continent, nations have put new restrictions and bans on products ranging from wheat, corn and edible oils to beans, lentils and sugar. Lebanon has even banned the export of ice cream and beer. The cascade of restrictions marks another setback for unfettered global trade, which has been dented in recent years by…

Farmers are in a race against the clock to get their crops in the ground this week, with planting of corn, soybeans and wheat well behind their usual pace.Wet and cool temperatures in key parts of the Midwest have delayed farmers’ planting plans, leaving them days to get crops in the ground before they start to lose out on a bigger harvest. If they don’t, some grain traders say that already high prices for agricultural commodities could rise even more, with supplies thinning as farmers world-wide grapple with tough…