What makes the perfect avocado?
In a world-first, University of Queensland scientists have completed mapping the genome of the popular fruit, a resource that can drive future research and innovation opportunities for Australian avocado growers.
Reducing the consumption of sugary drinks in remote Indigenous communities and creating business opportunities are the twin aims of University of Queensland PhD candidate Jessica Cartwright’s research.
The collectivist practices of Aboriginal communities over tens of thousands of years could help solve the problems facing global food production systems, according to author, farmer and educator, Bruce Pascoe.
Researchers have developed a test to distinguish the gender of jojoba plants to help in crop planning, with the female of the species shown to significantly outlive the male.
More than half of the world’s current banana crop originates from a single seed that emerged from natural hybridisation hundreds or thousands year ago.
Australia’s increasingly diverse food culture is benefitting from the wider recognition of Indigenous bush foods, which University of Queensland Professor Henrietta Marrie AM said must be brought to the mainstream in ways that combine traditional knowledge systems with science.
By 2050, experts predict that climate change could kill off the 2 main coffee varieties we drink daily while also jeopardising 60 percent of the planet’s 124 wild coffee plants.
Professor Paul PG Gauthier is looking to the future. Specifically, how to help feeding the world, a problem exercising the brain of scientists globally.