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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.

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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.

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Best Practices for Managing Plant Nutrients

Farmbrite

Adjust Fertilizer for Area Multiply the fertilizer requirement per acre by the size of your field to determine the total amount of fertilizer needed. Compost: Compost improves and adds nourishment to the soil. Turning : Regularly turn the compost pile to ensure nutrients are evenly distributed and broken down.

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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.

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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.

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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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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