Food Tank

MARCH 7, 2025

For decadescertainly for most of my careerdiscussions about food and agriculture systems have been pushed to the sidelines. Many of us have had to fight, over and over and over again, to get folks in power to take food and agriculture seriously. But thats changing now.

Food 107

Food Family Farming Ranching Acre 107

Caff

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Earlier this year, CAFF kicked off a massive project in the San Joaquin Valley to help support family farms there and strengthen the local food economy, in partnership with UC Agriculture & Natural Resources (UC ANR) and the Central Valley Community Foundation (CVCF), among others. Why take on such a big project?

Family Farming 98

Family Farming Farming Farming Technology 98

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familys farm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown Family Farms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.

Plantation 144

Plantation Farming Farming Acre 144

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 6, 2023

Recent statistics on American agriculture reveal a decline of 200,000 farms between 2007 and 2022. million farms —to 2 million from 6.8 The marginalization of smaller-scale farms has severe consequences. It’s even worse when the owners of large-scale farms don’t live in or meaningfully contribute to the community.

Agriculture 137

Agriculture Agriculture Ruralism Farmland 137

Modern Farmer

MAY 28, 2024

“Of 400 farms in our county, only five are organic,” says Matt Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Organics in Hutchinson, Minnesota. His 2,500-acre family farm is patchwork across 40 miles of land the family owns and leases, and grows organic corn, soy, wheat and specialty crops such as beans and peas.

Agriculture 131

Agriculture Agriculture Acre Farming 131

Civil Eats

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

Kava has endured a long history of adversity, said Lakea Trask, a Hawaiian farmer and local activist who cultivates kava and other Native crops for Kanaka Kava , his familys farm-to-table restaurant in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island. Yet by the 19th century, kava was headed toward obscurity.

Food 124

Food Plantation Acre Production 124

Food Tank

MAY 3, 2024

Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factory farm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.

Ruralism 116

Ruralism Farming Farming Ranching 116

Farmbrite

DECEMBER 12, 2024

The term data-driven decisions is becoming increasingly common in agriculture, but how committed are farmers to using data in their everyday practices? Are they truly allowing data to influence their operations, or is it just a catchphrase thrown around by people who aren't in the agricultural industry?

Farming 94

Farming Farming Technology Yield 94

Food Tank

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

By his senior year, Williams was trying to figure out how to return home and take over the family farm. Williams, his wife Hannah, and their toddler Lyle now live on Williams Family Farms, sustainably and humanely raising pigs and farming about 400 acres of cropland.

Ranching 105

Ranching Family Farming Farming Farming 105

Food Tank

APRIL 29, 2024

The exhortation by Benson and Butz for farmers to “get big or get out” finally came to fruition, with the average size of a farm nearly doubling from 650 acres in 1987 to 1,201 acres twenty-five years later. Black farmers now represent just over 1 percen t of all American farmers.

Family Farming 98

Family Farming Acre Farming Farming 98

Caff

JUNE 29, 2021

Rebecca was recently notified by the State Water Board that she may be prohibited from pumping water from a well on the three acres that she leases. Fines for violating the order are as high as $1,000 per day of violation and $2,500 for each acre-food of water diverted. She farms 1.5 One year without income can shut down a farm.

Family Farming 52

Family Farming Farming Farming Water Rights 52

Modern Farmer

MARCH 12, 2024

I’ve come to understand that despite where a farmer lives or what they grow, the lack of affordable land to farm is the number one reason farmers are leaving agriculture, the top challenge for current farmers and the primary barrier preventing aspiring farmers from getting started. The next farm bill can fix this.

Farming 122

Farming Farming Farmland Real Estate 122

Trimble Agriculture

JULY 17, 2024

Industrial agriculture is a term often used negatively, but is it the villain it’s made out to be? The debate surrounding industrial agriculture and farm consolidation is complex and multifaceted. Recently, this has become a more pressing topic of concern with the release of the 2022 Census of Agriculture.

Industrial Agriculture 52

Industrial Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture Finance 52

Modern Farmer

JANUARY 2, 2024

In one of the greenhouses on the Lundberg Family Farms acreage in northern California, there sits a binder. Rice growing in one of the Lundberg Family Farms test greenhouses. Cross-breeding rice at Lundberg Family Farms. It can all get out of control very quickly without some organization and focus.

Family Farming 131

Family Farming Acre Grain Greenhouse 131

Modern Farmer

OCTOBER 3, 2023

“When I start my own farm, I will need to have off-farm income to live a balanced, happy life.” When I started Jupiter Ridge Farm in 2017, I did—and still do, like many traditional family farms. Why is running a small-scale farm more like an expensive hobby? But why is it like this?

Farming 134

Farming Farming Family Farming Food 134

Modern Farmer

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Moving from daytime to overnight work is often presented as the most practical solution for agricultural laborers struggling with rising temperatures as a result of climate change. full_link LEARN MORE Opinion: As the heat rises, we must do better at protecting agricultural workers. Its a massive lose-lose situation.

Agriculture 77

Agriculture Agriculture Food Harvest 77

Civil Eats

JULY 2, 2024

The ice cream shop is an extension of the Nicholson family’s sixth-generation, 120-acre farm in nearby Ferndale. The PCC DBII is one of four such initiatives across the country, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service.

Pasture 141

Pasture Production Marketing Supply Chain 141

Civil Eats

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Embry’s focus on urban agriculture and food justice in Detroit drew a global audience, where he hosted audiences include the British Parliament, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and distinguished personalities such as Danny Glover, David Korten , and Joanna Macy. Yes, I’m currently actively involved in farming, but in defined ways.

Food 136

Food Agroecology Agriculture Agriculture 136

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Wendy Johnson’s ‘natural savannah’ Wendy Johnson and her husband, Johnny Rafkin, own Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, in Charles City, Iowa. They farm on 130 acres of the land on which her father and grandfather had raised hogs. John Rafkin (right) planting cedars on the farm’s enhanced windbreak project.

Acre 127

Acre Pasture Farming Farming 127

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Upon leaving her family farm to study agriculture at Stanford, she took up a work-study program investigating the economic viability of grass-fed beef. “It The same year that Carman returned to her family farm, a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, was detected in the US.

Cattle 136

Cattle Ranching Supply Chain Forage 136

Daily Yonder

OCTOBER 24, 2024

In one interview, a farmer told me that he had been offered $40,000 an acre for his land, money that would make him an instant millionaire. The subdivision in Sugarland’s song is called “Shady Acres.” Jason Isbell’s “Last of My Kind” calls out a family farm becoming a Wal-Mart parking lot. Why stay instead of sell?

Farmland 109

Farmland Ruralism Acre Real Estate 109

Food Tank

APRIL 2, 2024

These organizations are supporting local food producers and regional economies, offering educational resources and agricultural training, and working to ensure that their neighbors don’t go hungry. They also bring local government leaders together to develop plans that integrate urban agriculture into city planning processes.

Cultivation 105

Cultivation Food Marketing Distribution 105

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

US farmers and their allies should pay attention, think how to make protest part of our ongoing Farm Bill debate and take some power back when it comes to making policy. And cuts took place: From 1980 to 2021 , the total EU budget dedicated to agriculture went to below 25 percent from more than 60 percent.

Manure 109

Manure Farming Farming Production 109

Agwired

JANUARY 29, 2025

Recognizing the vital role that four-legged friends often play on family farms and ranches, Farm Bureau launched the Farm Dog of the Year contest several years ago now a popular feature of the American Farm Bureau Federations Convention. Grotegut Dairy Farm of Newton, Wisc.

Supply Chain 45

Supply Chain Livestock Farming Farming 45

Civil Eats

MAY 1, 2024

When Jeff Broberg and his wife, Erica, moved to their 170-acre bean and grain farm in Winona, Minnesota in 1986, their well water measured at 8.6 These nitrogen-based compounds, common in agricultural runoff, are linked to multiple cancers and health issues for those exposed. In 2004, a family nearby became very ill from E.

Fertilizer 145

Fertilizer Farming Farming Acre 145

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 24, 2023

Since the resurgence of regenerative agriculture, farming has never been sexier. But what does regenerative agriculture mean? It’s official: Regenerative agriculture has been hijacked. This distinction,” says Newton, “raises interesting implications about how you define regenerative agriculture.”

Food 98

Food Ranching Ecology Fertilizer 98

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 29, 2023

On the back 16 acres of Walla Walla Community College, 30 Red Angus cows stand munching on hairy vetch, ryegrass and other cover crops that were planted to help restore the soil. Those cows are just one part of the closed-loop system the college aims to highlight in its new farm-to-fork program that is rolling out this school year.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Agroecology 98

UnderstandingAg

DECEMBER 31, 2024

The Cheapest Hay Is the Hay You Never Buy *Additional management considerations for this article were provided by Kent Solberg, Understanding Ag, LLC Stockpiled Pasture Regenerative agriculture and adaptive grazing often focus on reducing inputs in an agriculture production system.

Pasture 106

Pasture Forage Livestock Manure 106

Food Tank

JULY 14, 2023

While her family has been farming for at least four generations, there isn’t enough land for all of Alaina’s siblings to return to the family farm. And these days, few new farmers can afford to buy land, according to Alaina: In the Imhoffs’ area of Iowa, farmland can sell for as high as US$25,000 per acre.

Farming 97

Farming Farming Ranching Farmland 97

UnderstandingAg

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Paradigms in Agriculture A paradigm can be described as the lens through which you see the world. One of the paradigms I had when I started farming was that the key to making more profit was getting bigger and more efficient. Are you satisfied with the current situation in the agricultural industry?

Ranching 98

Ranching Ruralism Farming Farming 98

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 28, 2023

“We started with that largely because we want to get out of commodity agriculture,” Payne said. Payne operates a 300-acre regenerative farm in Concordia, Missouri, an hour outside of Kansas City, where he raises sheep and cattle. Payne’s family farm is a microcosm of American agriculture’s monocrop past and its changing future.

Livestock 98

Livestock Farming Farming Cattle 98

Modern Farmer

JUNE 30, 2023

Prime farmland, it attracted countless farmers, including the Black farmers seeking to fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the American Civil War. But Black farm ownership has dropped dramatically over the years, with just 1,500 estimated to remain in Arkansas today. But the process hasn’t always come easily.

Acre 98

Acre Sharecropping Processing Farming 98

Modern Farmer

JULY 14, 2023

As Brian Paddock walks through his 12-and-a-half acres of almond trees, he’s taking in everything. The Almond Board of California has said the nuts use nine percent of the state’s agricultural water. They are the biggest agricultural export in the state by far. It’s one of the building blocks of agriculture.

Orchard 97

Orchard Crop Family Farming Farming 97

Modern Farmer

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in the picturesque marshes of the Kiawah River, sits more than 100 acres of working farmland. But unlike neighboring farms that focus on production for faraway markets or keep a single family afloat, the farm at Kiawah River is supporting 185 families who live in the surrounding homes.

Farmland 128

Farmland Food Farming Farming 128

Trimble Agriculture

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Farm income was at an all-time high in 2022 but not without challenges, according to the latest ag census. With multiple records broken, 2022 was a historic year for agriculture. Keep reading to learn more about the top three farm trends the 2022 ag census revealed and why it should matter to all of us.

Farming 59

Farming Farming Farmland Acre 59

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Last week’s post highlighted the stories of farmers who have used practices from the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice list to build climate resilience and mitigation solutions. This week’s post adds stories created and gathered by National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members around the country.

Pasture 101

Pasture Crop Orchard Farming 101

Modern Farmer

JULY 4, 2024

We asked each of them to tell us what makes their farm special, why they each chose farming, and what advice they would give to any future farmers out there. This story is part of our Future Farmers series , highlighting the joys and hurdles of a career in agriculture today.

Cultivation 109

Cultivation Meadow Farming Farming 109