Agriculture's

Now in his late 60s, one of American agriculture's notable contrarians is more rumpled and thicker in the waist than he was as a Kansas farmboy, coasting through what he calls one of the most misspent youths in the history of the planet.

It's the oldest tree seedling nursery run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service.

At the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research center near Washington, D.C., plant physiologist Lewis Ziska said weeds — defined as any unwanted plant — appear to be thriving in today's atmosphere, which is richer in carbon dioxide, or CO₂. And Ziska said agricultural research studies show that if climate trends continue, allergy sufferers will have to endure longer and more intense pollen seasons in the decades ahead.