03/01/14: Salt resistant rice; schools serve up more proteins and grain; Oklahoma's ice silo

A team of Chinese scientists have cultivated a variety of high yield salt resistance rice.

As part of their experimental program, two professors from Hainan University along with researchers from the Hunan Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences planted 18 salt-resistant varieties of saline-alkali land along the sea coast in Yancheng city,  Jiangsu province, China earlier this year.
Full news available here.

The USDA's temporary flexibilities that allow schools to serve larger portions of lean protein and whole grains as part of school lunch schemes are to become permanent, reported Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services on Thursday.
Full news available here.

Using a garden hose that runs 40 feet up, ice climbers in Oklahoma, USA have turned an old grain silo into an ice-climber's dream.
Watch the video on the NBCNews website here.

Rice grains (Photo credit: Wikipedia)