Remove Acre Remove Cash Crop Remove Pesticide
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Black Earth: A Family’s Journey from Enslavement to Reclamation

Civil Eats

Patrick Brown, who was named North Carolinas Small Farmer of the Year by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University this year, grows almost 200 acres of industrial hemp for both oil and fiber, and 11 acres and several greenhouses of vegetablesbeets, kale, radishes, peppers, okra, and bok choy.

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Crop Diversity Benefits: Why Variety is Key to Sustainable Farming

Modern Farmer

Farms come in all shapes and sizes, from a thousand-acre field planted in corn to a quarter-acre parcel supporting thirty different types of vegetables. One of the key differences between these two examples is the amount of crop diversity present. In turn, this led to an increase in yields.

Crop 40
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From Symptoms to Solutions: Addressing the Underlying Causes of Water Quality Degradation – Part 4

UnderstandingAg

This sets up a situation where a pesticide treatment may be needed, which knocks out beneficial biology that could keep pathogens in check, which leads to a downward spiral of degradation. Improving nitrogen management would reduce our reliance on pesticides, and the entire system would function better. Most N demand is in midsummer.

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Can Taller Cover Crops Help Clean the Water in Farm Country?

Civil Eats

Iowa farmers, for example, apply it on 87 percent of their fields at a rate of 149 pounds per acre. Annual crops take up only about half of the nitrogen applied, and the rest often ends up polluting groundwater in the form of nitrate. ” Mark Stokes has been using no-till cropping for 26 years.

Crop 140
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Hungry and Seemingly Unstoppable: Grasshoppers Invade Canada’s Prairies

Modern Farmer

Their meals of choice are: barley, oats, corn, soy, wheat, rye and alfalfa, the mainstay commercial crops of prairie farmers. Unfortunately, prevention isn’t as easy as spraying the larvae with pesticides. This means farms have to keep the crop alive and use up precious water resources in an already water-restricted environment.

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The Future of Resilient Agricultural Communities in California Is Alive in Allensworth

The Equation

Over the next 15 years, California will have to repurpose about 1 million acres of cropland, most of it out of the 5.5 million irrigated acres in the San Joaquin Valley. In the case of Allensworth, the town is surrounded by hundreds of acres of pistachios that belong to a trillion-dollar insurance company. Source: SEEN.

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California Agriculture Could Use an Ancient History Lesson

The Equation

The intense use of pesticides in the San Joaquin Valley has contributed to air pollution so much that the region is among the top three places with the worst air quality in the United States. Toxic chemicals from pesticides are in the soil polluting community aquifers, and they are almost impossible to clean.