Science In Your Shopping Cart

Mar 25 2025 79 ep. 12 mins 6

Science In Your Shopping Cart Podcast artwork

Learn how science impacts your everyday life and how the USDA Agricultural Research Service is working to develop ways to enhance our lives and protect our planet.

Science Society & Culture

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Season 11: Wholesome, Nutritious Grains | Episode 4: The Emperor’s Rice

Mar 25 2025 9 mins

At the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas, ARS geneticist Shannon Pinson studies specialty rice that is beneficial to human health. Her work includes research on colored rice that has traditionally been given to pregnant women for the nutritional benefits it provides during pregnancy.Connect with us: Twitter: @USDA_ARSFacebook: @AgriculturalResearchSe

Season 11: Wholesome, Nutritious Grains | Episode 3: Nutrient Packed Ancient Grains

Mar 18 2025 9 mins

Ancient grains refers to a category of grains – particularly pseudo-cereals – that possess a very unique health benefit that provide essential nutritional requirements for our health. ARS Research Leader, Dr. Sean Liu at the Functional Foods Research Unit in Peoria, Illinois is researching ways to make ancient grains more nutritional, and he wants to make them more attractive t

Season 11: Wholesome, Nutritious Grains | Episode 2: Shucking A Nasty Fungus

Mar 11 2025 9 mins

Corn is grown all over our planet and is an important crop in all parts of our lives. ARS Research Entomologist, Xinzhi Ni at ARS’s Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit in Tifton, Georgia is looking at how corn plants get stressed, and how those stressors invite diseases and pathogens to proliferate inside the crop. Ni is hopeful their work will benefit future entomologists a

Season 11: Wholesome, Nutritious Grains | Episode 1: Kicking Off The Rust In Wheat

Mar 04 2025 11 mins

Wheat is a big crop in the United States. Stripe rust is one of the most important diseases for wheat. ARS Research Plant Pathlogist, Xianming Chen and researchers with ARS’s Wheat Health, Genetics, and Quality Research Unit in Pullman Washington are testing and developing new varieties of wheat that are resistant to the crop’s major disease threats, including stripe rust.Conne

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees

Feb 25 2025 106 mins

Honey bees and their pollinating cousins are essential to human life. Without honey bees, we cannot grow a lot of the food we love. Honey bees have been around for millions of years, but they face many challenges in today’s environment, and their populations ebb and flow. So how do bees fit into this podcast, Science in Your Shopping Cart? Well, if it wasn’t for honey bees and

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees | Episode 11: Breeding A Better Bee

Feb 18 2025 10 mins

Humans have been breeding honey bees for centuries to help them adapt to new environments, and with technology improving at a rapid pace, breeders may now have the tools to build a perfect bee. Join us at the Honey Bee Lab in Baton Rouge, LA, where bee experts discuss the challenging and exciting art of bee breeding.Find out how you can help honey bees by clicking on the extension

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees | Episode 10: A Perfect Symbiosis

Feb 11 2025 9 mins

ARS research entomologist Dr. Shawn Steffan works in cranberry country, USA – aka Madison, WI. Here, bees are vital to cranberry production, so keeping them healthy and happy are crucial. Steffan is studying the relationship between bees, their microbiome, and the environment in which they live and work. Listen how building a perfect symbiosis may be the key to long-term health o

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees | Episode 9: The Hunt For A Predator

Feb 04 2025 10 mins

Join us at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where we talk with ARS researcher Matthew Buffington, who explains how a deadly predator to the honey bee recently arrived in the U.S. Is the Norther Giant Hornet still a threat to our precious honey bee population? Listen to find out.Find out how you can help honey bees by clicking on the extension service link

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees | Episode 8: Bee Diversity

Jan 28 2025 9 mins

How many different types of bees can you think of? Bumble bees, honey bees, mason bees. There’s actually a lot more bee diversity than you think, a lot more. Find out about the different types of bees and their need for diversity for survival, with Dr. Diana Cox-Foster, research leader at the Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research Unit in Logan, UT.Find out

Season 10: The Buzz Around Bees | Episode 7: Honey Bees And Pesticide Exposure

Jan 21 2025 6 mins

Pesticides are an important tool for managing hungry and destructive insects and invasive species. But there is little known how pesticides affect the bees that pollinate our crops. ARS researcher Dr. Julia Fine discusses how exposure to different pesticides may affect honey bee behaviors.Find out how you can help honey bees by clicking on the extension service link below.https://e