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 111

Ruralism Farming Farming Ranching 111

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

Modern Farmer

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Just a Few Acres Farm in Lansing, NY has nearly 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, where seventh-generation farmer Pete Larson posts videos with titles like “The basics of cutting hay” and “Playing in the Dirt with Pregnant Pigs”. Photography courtesy of Pete Larson and Just a Few Acres Farms.

Farming 105

Farming Farming Acre Marketing 105

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

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

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 140

Plantation Farming Farming Acre 140

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 105

Farming Farming Farmland Real Estate 105

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

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 111

Family Farming Acre Grain Greenhouse 111

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 72

Family Farming Acre Farming Farming 72

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 135

Cattle Ranching Supply Chain Forage 135

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 108

Farmland Ruralism Acre Real Estate 108

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 131

Pasture Production Marketing Supply Chain 131

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 108

Acre Farming Farming Pasture 108

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 117

Pasture Crop Orchard Farming 117

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 102

Food Agroecology Agriculture Agriculture 102

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 91

Cultivation Food Marketing Distribution 91

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 88

Manure Farming Farming Production 88

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

Daily Yonder

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

His recent book, Love For the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place , is a portrait of two changing Tennessee counties and the people who populate them – those who’ve chosen to stay in their changing hometowns in the face of development pressures and agricultural agglomeration. Brooks Lamb on his family’s farm.

Ruralism 116

Ruralism Farming Farming Agriculture 116

Food Tank

JANUARY 5, 2024

Eric Boor took over his great-grandfather’s nine-acre farm in southern Iowa four years ago. When they first started, many in their family and community doubted that they could successfully farm this way. Today, the Boors’ farm “looks completely different,” according to Mikala.

Ranching 128

Ranching Farming Farming Acre 128

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 94

Food Ranching Ecology Fertilizer 94

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 97

Food Farming Farming Agroecology 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

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 95

Acre Sharecropping Processing Farming 95

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 124

Fertilizer Farming Farming Acre 124

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 92

Livestock Farming Farming Cattle 92

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

JULY 28, 2023

The awardees – which include many National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members – proposed national, regional, and local projects that cover 40 states and territories including Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Marketing 96

Marketing Farmland Distribution Real Estate 96

Sustainable Food Trust

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Of course, the situation in the EU is marginally different from the UK, mainly because they have the Common Agricultural Policy with the proposed green reforms, whereas we have post-Brexit subsidy packages which are moving in an environmental direction. However, in essence, the issues are similar because the background to this is common.

Food 141

Food Farming Farming Tractor 141

ATTRA

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Hartland, Vermont, farmer Kerry Gawalt of Cedar Mountain Farm and Cobb Hill Cheese was chosen to receive the third annual ‘Fantastic Farmer’ title and a significant award of $5,000 from the A. Pizzagalli Family Farm Fund.

Acre 40

Acre Family Farming Farming Farming 40

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 77

Farming Farming Ranching Farmland 77

NASDA

JULY 25, 2024

We write to express our gratitude for your efforts to advance the 2024 farm bill within your jurisdictions and to seek your continued support for passing this critical legislation before the end of the year. Georgia Wildlife Federation Ginkgo Bioworks Golden Sands Resource Conservation & Development Council , Inc.

Farming 130

Farming Farming Seeding Ruralism 130

Caff

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

NEW FARMer OF THE YEAR: Chris Fields, Fields Family Farm Chris Fields is not just a farmer, he is a board member of the African American Farmers of California where he’s helping support the continuation of the legacy of African Americans in California agriculture. We look forward to watching that farm and his impact grow!

Farming 98

Farming Farming Marketing Food 98

Civil Eats

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Half the largest herd—which lives in a 2,900-acre reserve with a fence that protects nearby ranches—died mostly due to insufficient forage. The Park Service recently proposed removing the fence, allowing the elk to join the two smaller herds that can already roam the seashore’s more than 71,000 acres of beaches, forests, and ranchlands.

Ranching 117

Ranching Acre Food Farming 117

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 75

Orchard Crop Family Farming Farming 75

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

AUGUST 28, 2024

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth post in a multi-part blog series analyzing the Farm Food and National Security Act of 2024 (FFNSA), which was reported out of the House Agriculture Committee on Friday, May 24. public, across party lines, is concerned about the impacts of climate change on agriculture and food production.

Farming 97

Farming Farming Agriculture Agriculture 97

Daily Yonder

APRIL 11, 2023

Despite incentives to establish more sustainable – even organic – farming practices, most farmers are caught in an industrial system of chemicals, hybrid seed, and genetically modified (GMO) seed. One way to reduce agricultural chemicals is planting cover crops in the Fall after the cash crop is harvested.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Acre Seeding 52