New Waitrose Training programme – ENROL NOW
The Waitrose Postgraduate Professional Training Programme ‘Food Challenges for the 21st Century’ is now open for enrolment.
Report explores Paris-compliant healthy food systems
The Global Food Security (GFS) programme has published a new report considering healthy food systems that could function within the boundaries of the Paris Agreement, following a workshop in September 2016. Key findings include the high importance of mainstreaming messaging on the connection between food and climate change to encourage positive food system change, and […]
Demonstration Farm video: Savid Organic Bananas
A new video has been uploaded to the Sustainable Agriculture Comms Portal – click here to learn about Savid Organic Bananas, a Waitrose Demonstration Farm in the Dominican Republic.
Why the whitefly is such a formidable threat to food security
Researchers have sequenced the genome of the whitefly (Bemisia tabici), an invasive insect responsible for spreading plant viruses worldwide, causing billions of dollars in crop losses each year. The genome study, led by Associate Professor Zhangjun Fei of the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI; USA), offers many clues to the insect’s remarkable ability to resist pesticides, […]
Corn yield modeling towards sustainable agriculture
With an innovative modeling approach, researchers set out to examine corn and soybean yields and optimal nitrogen (N) fertilizer rates. In their study, recently published in Frontiers in Plant Science, they uses a 16-year long-term dataset from central Iowa, USA, with a state-of-the-art simulator that modeled corn and soybean yields, improving predictions of optimal N […]
Forming a second line of plant defense — capturing disease-resistant DNA
Scientists have developed a new improved method for capturing longer DNA fragments, doubling the size up to 7000 DNA bases that can be analysed for novel genes which provide plants with immunity to disease.
Flowers use physics to attract pollinators
A new review indicates that flowers may be able to manipulate the laws of physics, by playing with light, using mechanical tricks, and harnessing electrostatic forces to attract pollinators. The New Phytologist review describes the latest advances in our understanding of how plants use their flowers to ensure reproductive success. Flowers use light to attract […]
GOBII releases open-source tools for faster plant breeding
Crop breeders in developing countries can now access free tools to accelerate the breeding of improved crop varieties, thanks to a collaboration between the GOBII project at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) and Cornell University (USA), and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) in Scotland. The collaboration works with breeding centers around the world to identify unmet needs and […]
New Video from Waitrose: Culture of Quality
At Waitrose, we believe passionately in quality – the quality of service we provide to our customers, through all the Partners that work in every part of our business, the quality of the environment we provide by giving a great physical shopping experience that’s really compelling for all our customers to shop in, and – […]
Waitrose to take a lead role in managing research on food security and sustainability
Waitrose has become the first retailer to successfully apply to lead the delivery of a major investment in doctoral training by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The money will be invested in 15 separate PhD projects focusing on food security and sustainability.
