Sustainable Harvest International

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

.” ” — Rattan Lal, professor of soil science + 2020 World Food Prize Laureate Conventional, or industrial, agriculture uses chemicals to defend crops from weeds, certain insect species, and diseases. However, these chemicals harm the very thing the crops rely on: soil. In Panama alone, 2.1 million hectares (5.1

Compost 59

Compost Fertilizer Crop Food 59

Modern Farmer

JULY 10, 2023

After a winter of record snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a sudden warm spell melted the lower reaches, unleashing nearly 40,000 acre-feet of water —a volume equal to more than a tenth of Las Vegas’ annual supply—in 48 hours. His 580-acre farm grows enough forage to supply the herd, so “I’m good with where I’m at,” he adds.

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Farming Farming Manure Agriculture 98

Daily Yonder

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

But for decades, states have allowed farmers to overpump groundwater to irrigate corn and other crops that would otherwise struggle on the arid High Plains. Now, the disappearing water is threatening more than just agriculture. Minnix, who raises cattle and farms both dryland and irrigated crops, said cities and farms alike must adapt.

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Agriculture Agriculture Farming Farming 98

The Equation

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

By destroying wetlands, industrial agriculture robs communities of natural flood protectionsjust as climate change fuels more frequent and severe floods, like those in the summer of 2024 that devastated communities, destroyed crops, and claimed lives in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. STACY WOODS: Yes.

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Pesticide Agriculture Agriculture Industrial Agriculture 52

Civil Eats

JULY 8, 2024

Just blocks from the traffic-clogged bustle of Rio’s boulevards, the Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro is a remaining 130-acre patch of the rainforest from which the city was carved three centuries ago. Locals and tourists alike go there to enjoy the bounty of Brazil’s legendary abundance of plant and animal life. Numerous U.S.

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Seeding Food Production Technology 143

Civil Eats

JULY 9, 2024

At those tables, farmers could grab an Advanced Acre Rx hat from WinField United, Land O’Lakes’ seed and chemical company, and a water bottle emblazoned with the logo for Truterra , its carbon market platform, in one fell swoop.

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Pesticide Marketing Seeding Crop 145

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

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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Plantation Farming Farming Acre 144

Civil Eats

APRIL 8, 2024

When farmer Joshua Manske heard about the acquisition of an Iowa fertilizer plant by Koch Industries in December, he saw it as a “microcosm of what’s going on nationally.” Because corn requires nitrogen fertilizer to grow, Manske is concerned that further consolidation of the fertilizer industry will drive his input prices up more.

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Fertilizer Acre Farming Farming 145

Food Environment and Reporting Network

JULY 13, 2023

billion to hundreds of agriculture organizations, corporations, universities, and nonprofits for climate-smart projects. These practices include reducing or eliminating tilling of soil, planting “cover crops” that grow during the off-season and are not harvested, improving how farmers use fertilizer and manure, and planting trees.

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Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Manure 97

The Equation

MAY 15, 2023

But with the heavy rain came floods that damaged lives, property, and crops. With fields waterlogged, many farmworkers were unable to work and pick produce, signaling that crops like strawberries might see lower yields and higher prices in the near future.

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Industrial Agriculture Crop Agriculture Agriculture 103

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. ppm for nitrates. Fertilizer as Poison The U.S.

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Fertilizer Farming Farming Acre 145

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Using robots to milk cows and drones for the precision irrigation of crops will save labor costs and conserve water. But in the Vaud, the fields were relatively small, a few dozen acres at most, and people were careful to plant fruit and nut-bearing trees alongside the edges.

Food 143

Food Pasture Livestock Poultry 143

Modern Farmer

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

In an age of mechanized and industrialized agriculture, they face many challenges in operating a sustainable cattle farm—and there’s federal assistance to help with that. EQIP and CSP are working lands programs so they are doing conservation on land that is continuing to produce crops,” Coppess said. The NRCS awarded $2.1

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Cattle Family Farming Farming Farming 111

Food Environment and Reporting Network

OCTOBER 24, 2024

Their app, called Plantix, could near-instantaneously diagnose a crop pest or disease simply by looking at a photo of the plant. A farmer uses the Plantix app to diagnose crop pests and disease. Plantix’s algorithm consults a database of crops, pests, and diseases sorted by geographic region and provides a diagnosis within seconds.

Pesticide 103

Pesticide Crop Agriculture Agriculture 103

Civil Eats

MARCH 13, 2024

(Photo credit: David Thoreson) Chris Jones, a retired University of Iowa research engineer and the author of The Swine Republic , explains that because of this difference in the soil, the region has never been well suited for large-scale industrial agriculture. So, when we try to farm at these very large scales.

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Manure Cattle Construction Farming 145

The Equation

MARCH 4, 2024

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. Farms that use extractive agriculture usually are outside the official community line, and therefore they pay no taxes to the communities they pollute.

Agriculture 125

Agriculture Agriculture Pesticide Ruralism 125

World Agri-Tech

JANUARY 3, 2024

The heroes are new cover crops, nitrogen producing microbes for crops and gene editing to produce never-been-possible-before products and traits.” Ag-tech that is smart, innovative and actually improves or increases the quality, productivity or profitability of crop and livestock production will find a market and eager adopters.”

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Technology Marketing Finance Production 59

Sustainable Food Trust

AUGUST 6, 2024

Birds, bats and insects live in balance on the farm, creating a healthy ecosystem where pests pose fewer problems, and the naturally poor-quality soil is able to produce sufficient varied and delicious crops to keep a successful veg box scheme running.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Processing 98

Food Environment and Reporting Network

MAY 28, 2024

What happens is this: The genetic code of Bt seeds are programmed to produce toxins that attack the stomach linings of crop-munching caterpillars. But the US government’s insistence that GM crops are safe because they have been planted and consumed by US farm animals 25 years does not hold up. But those days have ended.

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Maize Science Crop Food 144

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 3, 2024

Prioritizing ecological integrity and community health over yield, these farmers stay profitable by diversifying their crops, producing value-added products like jams and sauces, and building community support and social capital. In the end, From the Ground Up paints a hopeful picture of how agricultural practices could evolve for the better.

Food 137

Food Farming Farming Agriculture 137

Civil Eats

JUNE 20, 2024

But Mars believes that a regenerative paradigm shift can heal much more than the soil, transforming all parts of an industrial agricultural system that both contributes to and risks disruption from the climate crisis. The couple decided to grow, in addition to vegetables, an heirloom variety of wheat called Sonora.

Food 145

Food Farming Farming Forage 145

The Equation

MAY 14, 2024

They aimed to maximize profits by exploiting humans and the environment through cheap labor, human commodification, and maximizing yields of a few commodity crops that degraded the soil. They began entering contracts to access small plots of farmland in return for shares of their crop yield, establishing the new sharecropping system.

Food 106

Food Plantation Sharecropping Farming 106

The Equation

DECEMBER 12, 2023

According to the EPA, it applies about a half million tons of pesticides, 12 million tons of nitrogen, and 4 million tons of phosphorus fertilizer to crops in the continental United States every year. That makes the fertilizer industry a double threat to the climate. Big Ag is a major polluter.

Fertilizer 129

Fertilizer Pesticide Agriculture Agriculture 129

Food Environment and Reporting Network

DECEMBER 31, 2024

To make way for those industrial fields of palm trees, some 30,000 acres of rainforest were cut down, a swath of destruction that one Indigenous leader called an act of “eco-genocide.” He marveled at the efficiency of the African oil palm, which can produce five times as much edible oil per acre as corn or soy.

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Plantation Acre Cultivation Crop 126