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The ranching industry’s toxic grass problem

Food Environment and Reporting Network

Fescue toxicity is the most devastating livestock disorder east of the Mississippi,” said Craig Roberts, a forage specialist at the University of Missouri (MU) Extension and an expert on fescue. Instead, in 2012, they converted 90 acres of pasture to native warm-season grasses, using their own money and cost-share funding from the U.S.

Ranching 101
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When Not Farming is the Best Use of Land

Modern Farmer

In return, they are paid a yearly rental rate per acre of land enrolled in CRP programs. In 2023, he USDA Farm Service Agency made more than $1.77 billion in payments to agricultural producers and landowners enrolled in all CRP programs, and more than 23 million acres of private land in the US was being conserved.

Farming 83
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Inflation Reduction Act Conservation Dollars Are a Vital Bulwark Against Climate Change

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Practices That Sequester Carbon and Increase Resilience Within EQIP and CSP in particular, the practices that receive funding through the IRA tend to accomplish multiple ecological goals. Such practices can also reduce nitrous oxide emissions, in part by reducing the need to apply synthetic fertilizers.

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How Crop Insurance Prevents Some Farmers From Adapting to Climate Change

Civil Eats

Just over a decade ago, he began converting his 11,000-acre farm to perennial native grassland to rebuild the health of his soil. Irrigated crops receive higher payouts than dryland crops, while farmers often risk their coverage to engage in some of the most ecologically sound practices.

Crop 116
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Fifty years of nurturing nature

Sustainable Food Trust

SFT CEO Patrick Holden and his wife Becky Holden farm 300 acres in West Wales and produce a raw milk cheddar called Hafod with the milk from their herd of Ayrshire cows. The diversity that the cows graze and eat as forage and the cereals in the parlour, is the ‘blas y tir’ or ‘terroir’ that makes their milk taste sweet and our cheese unique.

Farming 52
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Our 2023 Food and Farming Holiday Book Gift Guide

Civil Eats

Our Staff Reporter Grey Moran has a delightful article about foraging , published in Grist, included in the book. smith Slow Drinks: A Field Guide to Foraging and Fermenting Seasonal Sodas, Botanical Cocktails, Homemade Wines, and More By Danny Childs Danny Childs studied ethnobotany in college. To make an amaro (relatively easy!)

Food 112
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Farmers Can Adapt to Alternating Droughts and Floods—Here’s How

The Equation

But for now, to offset flood risk from rising water levels, the State Water Resources Control Board has agreed to send more than 600,000 acre-feet of water (pretty much what Los Angeles consumes in a year) to areas where it can soak into the ground and replenish the aquifer beneath the San Joaquin Valley.