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COLOMBIA (WITI) — “My mom told me that if I didn’t want to get pregnant, I should put a potato up there, and I believed her,” the woman said. And that’s just what the woman did! According to Colombia Reports, the 22-year-old woman sought medical attention after experiencing abdominal pains, and medical staff discovered a potato growing inside the young woman. The woman apparently had the potato inside her body for about two weeks before she began to experience abdominal pains. The potato had germinated, and grew roots inside her body. Initially, the nurse who examined the woman thought the...

Agriculture business giant Monsanto Co. reported a wider-than-expected loss Wednesday for its fourth quarter on higher expenses, including a one-time legal settlement. The company’s earnings forecast for 2015 also fell short of analysts’ expectations as Monsanto said it expects “continued industry headwinds.” […] The loss came despite higher sales of the company’s two key business units, genetically-engineered seeds and herbicide. …

Unregulated genetically modified wheat... in a second location in the United States... in Montana, the Agriculture Department said Friday. The department said it is investigating the discovery of the Montana wheat, which is a different variety than the genetically modified wheat found in Oregon.

French vegetable farmers protesting against falling living standards have set fire to tax and insurance offices in town of Morlaix, in Brittany. The farmers used tractors and trailers to dump artichokes, cauliflowers and manure in the streets and also smashed windows, police said. Prime Minister Manuel Valls condemned protesters for preventing firefighters from dealing with the blaze. The farmers say they cannot cope with falling prices for their products. A Russian embargo on some Western goods - imposed over the Ukraine crisis - has blocked off one of their main export markets. About 100 farmers first launched an overnight attack...

The 21st-century back-to-the-farm movement stems from our yearning to escape the artificiality of modern urban life. Yet the domesticated plants and animals now found in most gardens and farms are themselves artificial, the results of extensive human meddling, cross-breeding and genetic manipulation. Mankind began engineering what we now call “farm animals,” including cattle, all the way back in the Neolithic period, between 10,000 and 5,000 B.C. Try as you might, you won’t find an untamed Jersey cow that originated naturally in the wild, because no such thing exists — just like there’s no such thing as a wild labradoodle. Cattle...

If you are taking vitamins, there is a good chance that they were imported from China. An aging population and growing focus on health in the United States has fueled the growth of a $28 billion vitamin and nutritional supplement market, and it is expected to continue to grow at about 3 percent a year. Over half of American adults are popping vitamins and supplements. They may not be aware they are eating products made in China, or made using raw materials from China. China has captured over 90 percent of the Vitamin C market in the United States, according...

Next time you pour a nice cold glass of milk, you could have a robot to thank. That's because automated milking machines are showing up at more and more dairy farms in Vermont and New Hampshire. The technology is cutting down on labor costs, increasing yield and teaching farmers more about the health and productivity of their herds. Just ask Nate Tullar, of Orford, New Hampshire. Cows have been giving milk at his family’s farm, Tullando, since 1956. That’s when his grandparents started the dairy business, and they have often been open to innovation over the years. There are now...

Fifty-eight years old. That was the average age of principal farm operators in the U.S. in 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture. Over the past 30 years, the average age of principal farm operators in the U.S. has increased as fewer young people have taken up farming. For many farmers' children, leaving home means leaving the business. Nikiko Masumoto grew up working the peach harvest every year on the Masumoto Family Farm in California. Though she was a fourth-generation farmer in the making, when she went to college, she thought she was leaving the farm...

So I was reading an online review of the book "“The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism” that was critical of the assertions made in said book that slavery was significant in the growth of the US economy. The next day I came to look at it again and found out it had been removed. The reason because apparently quite a number of people had found it racist and offensive. This is the review itself in its entirety before it was removed: “FOR sale: a coloured girl, of very superior qualifications…a bright mulatto, fine...

Eating too much protein could be as dangerous as smoking for middle-aged people, a study has found. Research which tracked thousands of adults for nearly 20 years found that those who eat a diet rich in animal protein are four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein diet. The risk is nearly as high as the danger of developing cancer from smoking 20 cigarettes each day. Previous studies have shown a link between cancer and red meat, but it is the first time research has measured the risk of death associated with regularly eating too...

Banish the phrase "plain vanilla" from your lexicon. Why? Because vanilla is one of the most complex spices around, boasting at least 250 different flavor and aroma compounds, only one of which is vanillin, the stuff that can be made artificially in a lab (and is used in a lot of processed foods). And as we discovered in a round-the-world tasting tour of single-origin vanilla beans — the real stuff — the plant has evolved distinctions in flavor and, dare we say it, terroir, at each stage of its turbulent, globetrotting history. You've likely heard of Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. It's...

A Nova Scotia mainland moose checks out the surroundings. An additional 198 hectares of land is being added to protected holdings in the region connecting New Brunswick to Nova Scotia with the goal of making it easier for the mammals to migrate and find mates. (CONTRIBUTED) AMHERST — The mighty moose. Large, gangly, antlered, awkward-looking twig eater. Amorous and sexy, not so much. But the so-called Moose Sex Project and the land conservancy that makes it possible were at the forefront of a land protection announcement at the YMCA in Amherst on Thursday. “In terms of capturing people’s imaginations...

When you and I were 12, we were really lucky to make $10 selling lemonade on even the hottest of days. But one very special 12-year-old isn’t making the big bucks on shilling drinks — she’s just sold a grand champion steer for a whopping $100,000.

So here's a story and you can tell me if I am bat s*** crazy or you can laugh or whatever. My wife and I walk along a rural paved road in the evening about a half mile and turn around and come back. We have corn and bean fields on each side and nice wide ditches. One evening about 2 weeks ago on a Monday we were walking back and noticed a dead deer in the ditch on the far side. At first we thought it must have been hut by a car. The strange thing was that it...

Now, the population of the cormorants on East Sand Island has burgeoned from about 100 breeding pairs to 14,900, and a federal agency wants to have thousands of the seabirds shot to protect the fish, including some that are protected or endangered. The birds eat lots of endangered wild fish, as well as hatchery stocks — an estimated 11 million a year — mainly in May as the young fish head for their years in the ocean. In June, the corps released its plan to kill 16,000 of the birds. A public comment period has been extended to Aug. 19....

A Massachusetts homeowner was arrested Monday for “open and gross lewdness” after passing motorists spotted him--leaf blower in hand--doing yard work in the nude, according to cops. As Richard Capra, 69, worked on the curb appeal of his Shrewsbury home, “several vehicles were slowing down taking photographs,” according to the Shrewsbury Police Department. Responding to 911 calls, Officer Timothy Charland spotted Capra “completely nude, blowing off his driveway with a leaf blower.” Capra was “intoxicated and belligerent towards police” when questioned. Capra, arrested on a misdemeanor charge, was later released from custody after posting $500 bail. He is scheduled for...

A set of studies based on three years of research concludes that by 2040, the need for drinking water and water for use in energy production will create dire shortages. Conventional electricity generation is the largest source of water use in most countries. Water is used to cool power plants to keep them functional. Most power utilities don’t even record the amount of water they use. “It’s a huge problem that the electricity sector do not even realize how much water they actually consume,” says Professor Benjamin Sovacool of Denmark’s Aarhus University, one of the institutions involved in the research....

With honeybees on the decline because of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and Varroa mites, a virus-transmitting parasite, Harvard engineering and applied sciences professor, Robert Wood invented Robobees, bee-size robots “inspired by the biology of a bee and the insect’s hive behavior.” […] Despite the hype surrounding these amazing robobees, before farmers go out and try to buy them, they should note that researchers anticipate robobees won’t be functional for at least another 20 years. …

Large-scale groundwater extraction for irrigation, drinking water or industry has resulted in an annual rise in sea levels of approximately 0.8mm - this works out at one quarter of total annual sea-level rise (3.1mm). The remaining total can be attributed to thermal expansion (50%) and run off from glaciers and ice caps (25% approx.).

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced this week the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET Act), which aims to institute a tax of one cent per teaspoon—4.2 grams—of sugar, high fructose corn syrup or caloric sweetener. The measure (HB 5279), introduced Wednesday says, “A 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars. Yet, the American Heart Association recommends that Americans consume no more than six to nine teaspoons of sugar per day.” Even though the manufacturers of the sweet drinks are targeted to pay the tax, the text of the bill itself notes that the goal is to reduce public consumption...