Civil Eats

DECEMBER 17, 2024

In the heart of Louisiana, about 100 miles north of Baton Rouge, lies the rain-soaked farm that lured Konda Mason away from California in 2020. Right now, its too wet for us to get into the field with a tractor, she explained the night after a thunderstorm this summer. Land access was the first step.

Plantation 121

Plantation Acre Farming Farming 121

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familys farm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown Family Farms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.

Plantation 144

Plantation Farming Farming Acre 144

Food Environment and Reporting Network

DECEMBER 20, 2024

flatland of small, half-abandoned towns surrounded by large, mechanized farms. The farms mostly grow commoditiessoybeans, corn, cotton, and rice. The history of how this happenedhow one of the countrys most fertile farming regions became a knot of poverty, hunger, and racial injusticeis complicated and painful.

Acre 99

Acre Crop Farming Farming 99

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Its a rare sunny day in January, and about a dozen people gather on a farm in Snohomish County, Washington. The farmer, Brett Aiello of Reconnecting Roots Farm, wants to suppress the weeds around some newly planted fruit trees without disturbing the soil, and hes enlisted some help. Let’s prove that this works.

Farmland 86

Farmland Acre Farming Farming 86

Civil Eats

JANUARY 18, 2024

Herlinda Huipe and her husband Carmelo Rojas operate Tierra HR Organic Farm on California’s Central Coast. It’s small, so they both still work part time on larger farms, primarily picking strawberries. Brown also learned that among the 121 alumni farmers who responded to a survey, 77 are still operating a farm business.

Farming 144

Farming Farming Acre Marketing 144

Civil Eats

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Satellite imagery of Topaz Solar Farm, a massive solar installation inland from San Luis Obispo in Central California, depicts an oasis of blue panels surrounded by sun-scorched earth. But also, at the farm scale, I see agrivoltaics as the technology that can maximize our farmers’ and growers’ output from their lands.”

Farming 145

Farming Farming Technology Acre 145

Agwired

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

There were 212,714 farms with 53.1 million irrigated acres, which included 81 million acre-feet of water applied in the United States, according to the 2023 Irrigation and Water Management Survey results, published today by the U.S. In 2018, the irrigation survey results showed that there were 231,474 farms with 55.9

Logistics 45

Logistics Acre Seeding Tractor 45

Civil Eats

MARCH 5, 2024

However, based on current air quality monitoring data, much of California—and notably all of the most intensively farmed counties including San Joaquin Valley—will likely not meet the newly updated standard anytime soon. Mountain ranges trap emissions from highway traffic, locomotives, municipal composting facilities, tractors, and burning.

Farming 135

Farming Farming Tractor Agriculture 135

Civil Eats

OCTOBER 2, 2024

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. The farm also teaches local students about agriculture and conservation—and donates much of the fruits and vegetables it grows to people in need.

Acre 145

Acre Farming Farming Compost 145

Agribusiness Blog

DECEMBER 6, 2022

The case dealt with a part-time framer near Creston, Iowa farming about 500 acres. The farmer worked full-time as an UPS driver and did farming in the off hours. Instead of buying new tractors, the farmer elected to purchase 40-50 year tractors and place them with implements attached at each of their five farms.

Tractor 52

Tractor Farming Farming Acre 52

Modern Farmer

MARCH 7, 2024

Visitors to Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island just outside of Portland, Oregon last October didn’t encounter a corn maze but rather a kid’s maze cut through a field of sorghum. It’s easier on the soil, explains Kat Topaz, who owns the farm along with Jim Abeles. We call ourselves an ‘experience farm,’” says Topaz.

Farming 127

Farming Farming Farmland Agriculture 127

Civil Eats

MARCH 18, 2024

But even during these dormant months, across 17 rolling acres just 30 miles east of Washington, D.C., Three acres of meadows provide habitat for insects. Compared to staple crops like corn and rice, wine grapes barely occupy a speck of the world’s farmland, at about 18 million acres. the landscape is filled with life.

Farming 142

Farming Farming Crop Meadow 142

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

“I loved the process of moving the tractor, getting them food and water and raising them,” he says. The experience led him to start learning about regenerative agriculture and the benefits raising chickens could have for the soil fertility and sustainability of his nine acres. But, starting the farm didn’t come easy at first.

Poultry 128

Poultry Farming Farming Processing 128

Daily Yonder

AUGUST 13, 2024

Research underway at a Madison County solar farm promises to shed light on how well multi-use farming can work at a large scale. The answers will help shape best practices for future projects, while addressing some concerns raised in ongoing debates over siting large solar projects in rural farm areas.

Farming 98

Farming Farming Forage Acre 98

Civil Eats

JANUARY 15, 2024

John Zander’s family has owned a stretch of land along New Jersey’s southern coast for 30 years, but he only recently dubbed the farm “Cohansey Meadows.” John Zander, project manager at Cohansey Meadows Farms in Fairfield Township, New Jersey. New Jersey’s farms, just to the north, have not yet seen this degree of impact, and the U.S.

Farming 139

Farming Farming Meadow Greenhouse 139

Daily Yonder

MAY 14, 2024

Paul Sweetland brings a bucket-like object with him to work on a blueberry farm in Rockport — not to collect Maine’s hallmark fruit, but to protect his head. That’s because this farm is a little unusual: Looming over the narrow rows of wild blueberries are 8-foot-tall solar panels.

Farming 115

Farming Farming Construction Agriculture 115

Caff

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Meet the trailblazing women who are revolutionizing technology for small farms, one ingenious solution at a time. Three women are paving the way forward and helping to define what appropriate technology innovation means for the small farm. Rachel is a winner in the Do It Yourself (DIY) category of the Small Farm Innovation Challenge.

Technology 98

Technology Farming Farming Harvest 98

UnderstandingAg

DECEMBER 31, 2024

In the following discussion, I would like to share some thoughts on how to add net profit into a grazing operation, as well as share my own experiences reducing hay inputs with the grass-finished beef herd that roams across our northern Michigan family farm. Each year provides new opportunities to incorporate more regenerative practices.

Pasture 105

Pasture Forage Livestock Manure 105

Caff

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

While farm tech may conjure images of GPS-driven tractors, robot harvesters, and biotechnology, a new competition in California is calling on innovators to refocus their attention away from scaling up Industrial Ag and towards empowering small farms. But the Innovation Challenge is about more than just tractors.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Tractor biotechnology 52

Modern Farmer

JUNE 30, 2023

Prime farmland, it attracted countless farmers, including the Black farmers seeking to fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the American Civil War. But Black farm ownership has dropped dramatically over the years, with just 1,500 estimated to remain in Arkansas today. His brother and late father, Harvey Sr.,

Acre 98

Acre Sharecropping Processing Farming 98

Daily Yonder

APRIL 11, 2023

Despite incentives to establish more sustainable – even organic – farming practices, most farmers are caught in an industrial system of chemicals, hybrid seed, and genetically modified (GMO) seed. For every acre planted in winter cover, the conservation district would pay the farmers $50.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Acre Seeding 52

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 23, 2023

Beyond just improving crop yields and reducing input costs, farms can monitor their fields from across the world. They can use drones to get aerial views without trekking through acres and acres. For each of these endpoints on the farm, there is a vulnerability that can be exploited by malicious actors.

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Supply Chain Food Technology Manufacturing 96

Civil Eats

MARCH 19, 2024

And while each of those uses could provide revenue potential for mushroom farms, the expanding piles of spent substrate also represent a mounting logistical challenge. “If Stempel currently takes most of the material to a nearby compost facility, but local farms, gardeners, and florists also take a portion. It wasn’t a tough sell.

Compost 137

Compost Farming Farming Logistics 137

Caff

JANUARY 20, 2022

With community-scaled ingenuity at heart, the winners of this year’s Small Farm Innovation Challenge offer solutions for local agriculture. In its second year, the Challenge sought submissions from around the world for innovations that can help solve the unique challenges facing small farms and local food systems.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Tractor Ranching 52

Caff

MAY 2, 2022

This month we asked Patrick Mitchell from Windy River Farms to be a part of this series. I work about one and half acres that I rent. I never felt like the larger agriculture organizations really cared about farms at my scale. Then I discovered CAFF, which seemed to have an eye out for small, local diversified farms.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Acre Seeding 52

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 4, 2023

The Rodale Institute , a nonprofit research institution for organic farming, cites that every acre of land farmed with plastic mulch creates upwards of 120 pounds of waste that typically end up in landfill, or otherwise break down into the soil or nearby watersheds. and clean up the mess 20, 30, 40 years later.”

Agriculture 145

Agriculture Agriculture Supply Chain Production 145

Daily Yonder

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

He grew up on a small farm in Marshall County, Tennessee, and lives in Memphis now. Enjoy our conversation about Wendell Berry, the fall of tobacco, and “right-sized” farming, below. Brooks Lamb on his family’s farm. Brooks Lamb: I grew up on a small farm in rural Tennessee. We always had a big garden.

Ruralism 117

Ruralism Farming Farming Agriculture 117

Modern Farmer

JULY 21, 2023

Earlier this year, I put a call out for help preparing my farm for spring. More than 20 people showed up to help build chicken tractors, put up fencing, flip beds and even sift worm castings. Across the country, farmers build community through work days, food distribution, farm-to-table events and more. Photography by author.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Acre 98

Modern Farmer

DECEMBER 20, 2024

A fourth-generation small Midwestern farmer, Hemmes works more than 900 acres entirely on her own year in and year out. This [farm] has been in my family for over 125 years, she said. So its all on me, and its my family farm. Keeping her farm well-managed is a responsibility she doesnt take lightly.

Agriculture 71

Agriculture Agriculture Food Harvest 71

DTN

AUGUST 29, 2023

The same is true for farm sustainability data. Why are we talking about the accuracy and reliability of farm carbon emissions data? Because it’s the future of quantifying sustainable farming practices — and it has a much more far-reaching effect than just agriculture.

Beverage 52

Beverage Food Farming Farming 52

RR2CS

MARCH 8, 2022

Instead, they set their sights northwest of the city and came to fall in love with 160-acres of “rough northern bush” in Barrhead County. Of the 160-acres, Jenna and Thomas steward 25-acres to grow organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers and raise honeybees.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Forage Seeding 52

Daily Yonder

DECEMBER 13, 2024

The weekend before Thanksgiving my partner Hannah-Marie and I drove to a Christmas tree farm in our little North Carolina mountain town. The USDAs Census of Agriculture , which is conducted every five years, collects data on land use, farm ownership, income, crop sales, and inventory, among other things. Just kidding.

Production 79

Production Ruralism Agriculture Agriculture 79

ATTRA

APRIL 2, 2024

By Tammy Barnes , NCAT Agriculture Specialist Ah, the season of boot-sucking, tractor sliding, truck bed smashing, brown paw-printed kitchen floors, heavy pant cuffs, human swearing mud. Mud Mitigation Mud is a challenge on any farm and all the best efforts will not prevent it from happening.

Soil Compaction 98

Soil Compaction Pasture Forage Livestock 98

Caff

JUNE 29, 2021

Caiti Hachmyer of Red H Farm in South Sebastopol started a CSA in 2020 which helped her farm survive the pandemic but the heavy workload took its toll. Rebecca Bozzelli of Lantern Farm in Cloverdale also was able to pivot to selling farm boxes but not without cost. “It She farms 1.5 It was non-stop.

Family Farming 52

Family Farming Farming Farming Water Rights 52

Food Tank

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Like a hoe or a tractor, digital tools in agriculture may offer farmers opportunities. Subranamian himself had three acres of cabbages to sell but was unable to travel to find a market. It has helped farming communities learn who is growing what and where, enabling them to buy seeds from neighboring growers.

Agroecology 143

Agroecology Seeding Technology Food 143

World Agri-Tech

JANUARY 23, 2024

The company, which already works with more than 20 of the leading permanent crop growers in the US, will use the funds to further scale its agricultural autonomous tractor and farming solutions, and expand into new markets worldwide based on its successful track record. The global market for autonomous tractors is due to reach $11.5B

Supply Chain 52

Supply Chain Tractor Finance Technology 52

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 3, 2023

Just off of State Route 20 headed west out of Burlington sits the Skagit Valley location of Viva Farms. Viva Farms is a nonprofit that helps new and limited-resource farmers with access to land, equipment and more, and this site is home to 18 incubator farms and a half-acre student farm.

Farming 98

Farming Farming Agriculture Agriculture 98