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Should Bioplastics Be Allowed in Organic Compost?

Civil Eats

Steve Ela is an organic fruit grower in western Colorado who relies on compost to nourish his heirloom tomato crop each year. Ela knows first-hand how central compost is to his organic farm—and all organic agriculture. Department of Agriculture (USDA) compost rules could dramatically change the meaning of organic compost for farmers.

Compost 141
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FDA says (quietly) CAFOs contaminate leafy greens

Food Politics

Samples were collected from irrigation waters, soil, sediments, air/dust, animal fecal material, wildlife scat, and other sources across approximately a 54 mile (7,000 acres) area of the southwest growing region.” [ It’s about time the FDA did this ]. What a surprise ]. The investigation’s findings “STEC [Shiga toxin-producing E.

Compost 299
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Can New York City Treat Its Food Scraps as More Than Trash?

Civil Eats

On an unseasonably sunny day in March, at a community garden in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick, Dan Gross and Shaq Benn moved piles of wood chips and hosed down shoulder-high windrows of compost. Tucked underneath elevated train tracks, Know Waste Lands is the home base of the compost-hauling nonprofit BK Rot.

Compost 140
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In Hawai‘i, American Farmers Believe They Do Cacao Better

Modern Farmer

Here, growers are making fresh kokoleka, or chocolate in lelo Hawaii (Hawaiian language), through mindful agricultural practices: creating their own soil and compost, contracting with locals, and using organic fertilizer. Each bean is hand sorted and graded, with the lowest turned to compost. And we grow a lot.

Compost 79
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Denali Changes10 Billion Pounds of Organic Matter into Fertilizer

Agwired

2023 Report Agriculture Highlights By The Numbers ● Denali’s recycling efforts produced enough natural fertilizer to support more than 100,000 acres of farmland and manufactured enough animal feed to nourish over 40,000 cattle across five states. The report also notes the company collected 1.7 According to US EPA calculations, converting 1.3

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EATING SOLAR PANELS 

The Lunatic Farmer

Two weeks after moving into their dream homestead on 40 acres, they learned that the surrounding 3,200 acres and another 5,000 acres just down the road were leased for solar farms. What would you do if your homestead were suddenly surrounded by 8,000 acres of solar farm? You can’t eat electricity.

Acre 127
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Good Goats Make Good Neighbors

Civil Eats

He and 100 caprine teammates can clear about an acre a day. “I Founded in 2020, Happy Goat farm sits on a 2,000-acre property in Mariposa County, near Yosemite National Park. That amounts to approximately 200 acres in addition to the 220 acres the goats take on each year back at the farm. Photo by Craig Kohlruss.

Acre 145