Researchers find that diversifying crops and integrating livestock improves farm efficiencies and ecosystem services in the US Midwest. 

UC Riverside scientists have created a small-scale system that transforms food waste into high-protein animal feed and fertilizer using black soldier flies, offering a sustainable solution to a major environmental problem.

Following the path towards innovation in education and health, the Department of Education and Specific Didactics of the Universitat Jaume I is developing Hort4Health. Under the direction of Mireia Adelantado Renau, lecturer in the Department of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, this leading project seeks to analyse and investigate in an interdisciplinary way the impact of integrating an eco-educational garden in the classrooms where students learn about health, sustainability and emotional well-being, thus offering a solid scientific basis on the benefits of these practices.

The Hort4Health project emerges in response to the growing need to promote healthy habits among young people, especially in an era where technology and sedentary lifestyles predominate and generate worrying figures. Through practical activities in the garden, students not only study about agriculture and ecology, but also experience the benefits of physical activity and contact with nature for their mental and physical health. Researcher Mireia Adelantado points out that in this way "scientific results will be obtained on the current healthy habits of the university community, completing the scarce previous literature on this subject in this population". This initiative has already involved more than a hundred pupils from the Early Childhood and Primary School Teacher degrees, who have participated in sessions designed to improve their emotional wellbeing, their connection with the environment and their understanding of the importance of an active and healthy life. Early results indicate a significant positive impact on the physical health of the participants and underline the potential of the garden as an innovative space for learning and wellbeing.

A land-based Benizake (sockeye salmon) aquaculture project in Fukushima—jointly led by Okayama University of Science, NTT East, and local retailer Ichii Inc.—is moving from pilot operations toward full-scale commercialization in Namie Town after being selected for a national subsidy program supporting recovery and job creation in areas affected by the 2011 disaster. About 1,500 fish are currently being raised in a 20-ton tank, with initial shipments expected after next summer and a new facility targeted for completion by 2026.

Wildfires may disappear from the landscape within weeks, but their hidden effects on the soil can persist for decades. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen, together with partners in Tübingen, Berlin and Chile, has shown how wildfires in humid temperate rainforests and mediterranean woodlands of central Chile lead to very different pathways of soil recovery and ecosystem resilience. The study shows that soil structure and nutrients continue to change for more than a decade after a fire. The results were published in the journal Catena.