Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health.

It is clear that the escalating epidemic of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes has reached a crisis level in the United States, that overweight and obesity are drivers, and that diets and the food system have major roles. It is also clear that nutrition and medical research point to increased healthful fruit and vegetable intake as a key part of any strategy to manage the crisis. But although increasing healthful intake entails both expanding production of fruits and vegetables and improving their healthful characteristics, horticulture has generally been sidelined or taken for granted when strategies are envisioned.

Biocontrol Potential of Essential Oils in Organic Horticulture Systems: From Farm to Fork.

In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to food safety and organic horticulture. Thus, people are looking for natural products to manage plant diseases, pests, and weeds. Essential oils (EOs) or EO-based products are potentially promising candidates for biocontrol agents due to their safe, bioactive, biodegradable, ecologically, and economically viable properties.

Organic or conventional production system and nutrient rate affect the nematode community in carrot production.

Organic and conventional production are common in horticulture crops and each system may exert a different influence on the soil ecosystem, particularly the nematode community. Crop nutrient rate is an important choice in both production systems. The objectives of this study were to assess the impacts of (i) organic and conventional production systems and (ii) nutrient rate in both systems on the nematode community in carrot production.