The less intensively you manage the soil, the better it can function. This is the conclusion from a research team led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). The surprising finding applies to both conventional and organic farming. These important insights for making agriculture more sustainable were published in the scientific journal Science today.

One of the biggest challenges facing agriculture is producing enough food without compromising the soil. Healthy soil has many functions, known as multifunctionality, which must be preserved for sustainable agriculture. A multifunctional soil is essential for sustainable food production, as plants get their nutrients from it. Soil also plays indispensable roles in water storage, climate change mitigation, and disease suppression.

Research on farms across the Netherlands shows that the intensity of tillage determines whether the soil can retain all its functions. Interestingly, the difference between conventional and organic farming has less influence. In both types of agricultural systems, a lot of variation is found in soil tillage and management.

The good news is that conventional agriculture, which makes up most of farms, has a lot to gain from adopting less intensive practices. On all farms, including organic ones, it’s essential not to cultivate the soil too intensively. For example, ploughing less often can be beneficial. Inverting the soil during ploughing is a significant disruption for soil life.

Not only should farmers plough less frequently, but they should also make more use of mixtures of grasses and plants from the bean family, such as clovers. These can be alternated with growing cereals like wheat, barley, spelt, or rye. The research team took samples and carried out measurements at over 50 Dutch agricultural farms on both clay and sandy soils.

The organic carbon present in the soil proved to be the best predictor of soil multifunctionality, and for biological indicators, this was bacterial biomass. The researchers saw the same picture in both soil types – a wide array of soil properties was measured, and farmers shared their farming practices.

A popular term, sustainable intensification, is contradictory to these results. More intensive soil management leads to reduced soil functions and is thus less sustainable. Therefore, the researchers propose a new goal: productive de-intensification. If successful, this will result in more functions from a less intensively cultivated soil while retaining crop yields as much as possible.

These findings are the final result of the Vital Soils project, subsidised by NWO Groen and coordinated by NIOO and Wageningen University & Research. The researchers propose adopting productive de-intensification to make agriculture more sustainable while maintaining or even increasing crop yields.

The world’s oldest and most commonly used spice, cinnamon, has been found to have a surprising impact on our bodies. A recent study from the National Center for Natural Products Research indicates that cinnamaldehyde, a primary component of cinnamon, can interfere with some prescription medications. This compound activates receptors that control the metabolic clearance of medication from the body, which means consuming large amounts of cinnamon could reduce the effects of drugs.

According to Shabana Khan, a principal scientist in the center, health concerns could arise if excessive amounts of supplements are consumed without the knowledge of a healthcare provider or prescriber. Overconsumption of supplements could lead to rapid clearance of prescription medicine from the body, making it less effective.

While cinnamon has been used for centuries in traditional medicine and is known to help manage blood sugar and heart health, its actual function in the body remains unclear. Sprinkling cinnamon on your morning coffee is unlikely to cause issues, but using highly concentrated cinnamon as a dietary supplement might.

Not all cinnamon is equal; Cinnamon oil, commonly used topically or as a flavoring agent, presents almost no risk of herb-drug interactions. However, Ground Cassia cinnamon bark, which contains high levels of coumarin, a blood thinner, carries a higher risk. True cinnamon from Sri Lanka has lower coumarin content, making it a safer choice.

The researchers recommend that anyone interested in using cinnamon as a dietary supplement check with their doctor first, especially those suffering from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, asthma, obesity, HIV, AIDS, or depression.

As Amar Chittiboyina, the center’s associate director, stated, “By definition, supplements are not meant to treat, cure or mitigate any disease.” More research is needed to fully understand the role that cinnamon plays in the body and what potential herb-drug interactions may occur.

The world’s strawberry and tomato production is facing a pressing challenge – finding enough laborers to manually harvest these in-demand crops. While high-bed cultivation has eased some of the physical strain, the need for robots to take over this task is becoming increasingly apparent. Enter Osaka Metropolitan University Assistant Professor Takuya Fujinaga, who has pioneered an algorithm that enables agricultural robots to autonomously navigate and harvest among raised beds with unprecedented precision.

Fujinaga’s groundbreaking research uses lidar point cloud data to create a detailed map of the environment, allowing the robot to move accurately while maintaining a consistent distance from the cultivation bed. This technology is already used in high-end smartphones and autonomous vehicles, making it a reliable solution for agricultural applications.

The implications are vast – with robots capable of performing tasks beyond harvesting, such as monitoring for disease and pruning, farm efficiency will improve significantly. According to Fujinaga, “Once this type of agricultural robot becomes more practical to use, it will make a significant contribution to improving work efficiency and reducing labor, especially for high-bed cultivation.”

Published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Fujinaga’s research is a crucial step towards revolutionizing the farming industry and ensuring that strawberry fields forever remain a staple of our fruit supply.