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.” That’s what’s going to help drive your fertilizer prices where they should be between supply and demand. pounds per acre in 2013.

Fertilizer 145

Fertilizer Acre Farming Farming 145

The Equation

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

While development, forestry, and climate change all contribute to wetland loss, draining for agriculture has been the single biggest cause since the 1800s. Agricultures devastating toll is evident in the Prairie Pothole Region of the Upper Midwest, where it caused 95% of wetland loss between 1997 and 2009. STACY WOODS: Yes.

Pesticide 52

Pesticide Agriculture Agriculture Industrial Agriculture 52

Civil Eats

MARCH 13, 2024

Many cancers are linked to nitrates , which are found in drinking water contaminated with manure or nitrogen fertilizer, and advocates are concerned about the link. And for good reason: Cattle is the top-ranked agricultural commodity in the U.S. Northeast Iowa’s Driftless region has not seen glacial drift in over 2 million years.

Manure 145

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 119

Agriculture Agriculture Pesticide Ruralism 119

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.

Farming 97

Farming Farming Manure Agriculture 97

Sustainable Food Trust

AUGUST 6, 2024

Joyce’s book, Remembering Peasants , sets out to document this fast-vanishing population, which has been devastated by social change, war and the relentless expansion of industrial agriculture.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Processing 98

Food Environment and Reporting Network

OCTOBER 24, 2024

Around that time, Strey and her husband and cofounder, Robert, were teaching farmers in Gambia how to make organic fertilizer through a nonprofit they had started called Green Desert. At home, they ran in local punk circles, and a trace of anti-establishment nonconformity has colored their work in agriculture. billion in 2012 to $51.7

Pesticide 86

Pesticide Crop Agriculture Agriculture 86

World Agri-Tech

JANUARY 3, 2024

The last 10 years have also shown that, despite being a 15,000 year-old industry, agriculture is still vulnerable to fads and fashion. Kiersten Stead, Managing Partner, DCVC BIO: “ Farmers don’t like “paying by acre”, incentives are perverse.

Technology 59

Technology Marketing Finance Production 59

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 15, 2023

But just like industrial agriculture on land, such operations can harm the environment – and given the role kelp forests play in sequestering carbon, the climate. Seaweed is a “zero-input crop,” meaning it doesn’t need any additional food, fertilizer, or freshwater to grow. supply of edible seaweed. Since most U.S.

Cultivation 96

Cultivation Harvest Harvester Harvesting 96

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.

Agriculture 82

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Manure 82

The Equation

MAY 9, 2024

Those lesser-known companies tend to operate up the supply chain, and include Bayer and Syngenta, which sell the seeds farmers need and the pesticides they’ve come to rely on, and Nutrien and CF Industries Holdings, which manufacture synthetic fertilizers. Big Oil has been particularly egregious when it comes to climate disinformation.

Farmland 142

Farmland Food Seeding Fertilizer 142

Food Environment and Reporting Network

MAY 28, 2024

Heavy lobbying, campaign contributions, and revolving doors have cemented institutional cultures where US-made agricultural biotechnologies are understood as benevolent extensions of US foreign aid and trade policy, as well as essential to the project of “feeding the world.” It’s a powerful pitch.

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Maize Science Food Crop 144

Civil Eats

JULY 9, 2024

It was the annual field day at The Mill , a popular Mid-Atlantic retailer of agricultural products including seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides. Last summer, two men shouted friendly greetings from golf carts as they zipped around a field-turned-parking lot, fetching farmers at pick-up trucks and dropping them in front of a barn.

Pesticide 145

Pesticide Marketing Seeding Crop 145

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. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has been ringing the alarm bell about agricultural pollution for years.

Fertilizer 128

Fertilizer Pesticide Agriculture Agriculture 128

The Equation

JANUARY 3, 2024

But industrial agriculture—the second-largest source of damage to US wetlands—celebrated Sackett , because the decision opened millions of acres of wetlands to agricultural development and unmitigated pollution. million acres of wetlands. What are wetlands and why do they matter?

Industrial Agriculture 117

Industrial Agriculture Acre Agriculture Agriculture 117

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.

Plantation 126

Plantation Acre Cultivation Crop 126