Véronique LaCapra

Science Reporter

Science reporter Véronique LaCapra first caught the radio bug writing commentaries for NPR affiliate WAMU in Washington, D.C. After producing her first audio documentaries at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies in N.C., she was hooked! She has done ecological research in the Brazilian Pantanal; regulated pesticides for the Environmental Protection Agency in Arlington, Va.; been a freelance writer and volunteer in South Africa; and contributed radio features to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in ecosystem ecology from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and a B.A. in environmental policy and biology from Cornell. LaCapra grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and in her mother’s home town of Auxerre, France.

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Agriculture - biofuels
4:06 pm
Wed June 15, 2011

USDA to pay Mo. farmers to plant biomass energy crops

Credit (Wikimedia Commons)
A two-year-old stand of the Miscanthus giganteus variety "Freedom." Dr. Brian Baldwin of Mississippi State University developed this variety (pictured).

The USDA has chosen two new areas in Missouri to participate in a program promoting biomass energy crops.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the program will pay farmers to plant giant miscanthus, a perennial grass that can be used for energy production.

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Agriculture
4:35 pm
Tue June 14, 2011

Novus to host international animal agriculture roundtable

Credit (via Novus International)
Novus International headquarters in St. Charles, Mo. Novus will host a roundtable on June 15 about animal agriculture and feeding the growing world population.

Close to 30 representatives of the animal agriculture industry are meeting in St. Louis tomorrow to discuss the challenges of feeding the world’s growing population.

The international roundtable is being hosted by St. Charles-based Novus International. Novus produces animal feed additives and nutritional supplements.

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Cicadas - entomophagy
6:30 am
Tue June 14, 2011

Cicadas. Love 'em. Hate 'em. Eat 'em?

(Have a cicada sighting to report? Share it with us on our interactive map - photos and videos welcome, too!)

Billions of periodical cicadas have emerged over the past few weeks in more than a dozen states across the Southeast and Midwest.

A food bonanza for predators

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Cicadas - entomology
6:35 am
Mon June 13, 2011

Cicadas: the science behind the invasion

They’re back. And if they’re out in your neighborhood, they’re pretty hard to miss.

I’m talking about the periodical cicadas. In the past few weeks, they’ve emerged by the billions in states from Maryland to Georgia to Oklahoma.

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Tourism - China
4:32 pm
Thu June 2, 2011

Missouri Botanical Garden to host Chinese lantern festival

Credit (via Karen Hill/Missouri Botanical Garden)
Lantern sets representative of those that will be in the exhibition at the Missouri Botanical Garden next year. You can see artist renderings of the actual lanterns to be featured in the exhibition in the slideshow in the story below.

The Missouri Botanical Garden will host a Chinese lantern festival next year.

The exhibition—the first of its kind in the United States—will feature 26 large, brightly-colored lantern displays from China's Zigong province.

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