What if insects disappear in a century? (The Guardian): Insects are going extinct eight times faster than mammals, birds and reptiles, according to a global scientific review that suggests that, at current rates, insects could disappear in a century, and that says agriculture is the main driver of this phenomenon, with urbanization and climate changes as contributors
Klobuchar announces as centrist for president (Los Angeles Times): Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the second member of the Senate Agriculture Committee to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, is running as a pragmatist and a coalition builder.
Picking up the pace with potatoes (Science): Potato breeding is slow work, measured in years, so researchers are excited about a new approach, called hybrid diploid breeding, that could cut in half the time needed to add desirable traits to a new variety and allow farmers to plant seeds, rather than planting chunks of a tuber.
Delicious names for plant-based food (NPR): The path to consumer demand for plant-based foods is through adoption of a vocabulary that talks about flavor and taste rather than emphasizing virtuous dining, says a World Resources Institute report.
If you can’t catch fish, catch DNA (AP): In an effort to help the elusive Arctic char, a landlocked fish found only in Maine, scientists are collecting water samples from the lakes and ponds where the char live and studying their DNA.