Caff

AUGUST 7, 2023

In this episode we delve into all things on-farm composting, from its production to its use and relevant agricultural policies. We hear from Abel Ruiz at CRECE Farming Collective in Santa Ana about their use of various composting methods at a small scale.

Compost 52

Compost Farming Farming Production 52

Food Tank

OCTOBER 11, 2023

The brand’s Star Hill Farm is the first distillery farm to receive certification from Regenified for its commitment to soil, water, and ecosystem longevity. The company composts all fruit scraps, tea, herbs, cultures, and paper towels while also saving over 1,100 gallons of water per day through their recapture system.

Beverage 119

Beverage Ecology Compost Cultivation 119

Caff

MAY 1, 2023

Emily Ayala and Hanna Kahl introduce CAFF and the Ecological Pest Management Program. Photo by Nolan Kirby) The Community Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF) held a Biologically Integrated Orchard System (BIOS) field day at Chinchiolo Farms on April 20th.

Orchard 52

Orchard Farming Farming Ecology 52

Civil Eats

JANUARY 8, 2024

He found this disconcerting, not only for himself but the future of small-scale grain farming in California, once known for its golden hills of grain. This specialized, often professionally operated equipment—and all farm equipment , for that matter—can be prohibitively challenging for many farmers to buy and maintain.

Grain 140

Grain Orchard Farming Farming 140

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

This funding is split into two separate opportunities: $50 million for CIG On Farm Trials and $15 million for CIG Classic. Half of the funding for the On Farm Trials competition was provided through the historic Inflation Reduction Act. The 2018 Farm Bill mandates $25 million per year for on-farm trials.

Farming 98

Farming Farming Forestry Technology 98

The Lunatic Farmer

FEBRUARY 1, 2024

Our farm is surrounded by land owned by Virginia (yes, I know, this discussion is about federal lands, but bear with me) as a North Mountain Wildlife Management Area. Not only would such use, if expanded to the government land, be an ecological stimulant, it would completely eliminate the need for factory hog houses.

Ecology 89

Ecology Acre Compost Ranching 89

Sustainable Food Trust

APRIL 10, 2024

We now all well know how plastic is devastating our seas, but we’re only beginning to realise how damaging it is to our soils and how widely used and poorly disposed of it is in farming. In 2021, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) published a major report on plastic use in farming. What happens to farm plastics?

Straw 98

Straw Farming Farming Ecology 98

Sustainable Food Trust

JUNE 5, 2024

“Since 1977, we have been pioneers in sustainable development, promoting organic and biodynamic farming as a key solution to global challenges including food security and climate change. Studies have shown that organic farming practices can store significant amounts of carbon in the soil, helping to mitigate climate change.

Acre 111

Acre Ecology Agriculture Agriculture 111

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

NOVEMBER 19, 2024

Photo credit: Matt Ryan/Sandra Wayman Editor’s Note: This blog post is a guest post authored by Gordon Merrick, Senior Policy and Programs Manager at the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and Mark Schonbeck, Research Associate, also at OFRF, which is an NSAC member.

Food 111

Food Seeding Poultry Crop 111

Caff

OCTOBER 22, 2024

On September 19th, Community Alliance with Family Farmers held a field day at Vitis and Ovis farm in Capay Valley, CA. Gisèle Herren of Vitis and Ovis Farm alongside their flock of grazing ducks. Hans Herren showing attendees an on-farm device as he discussed their experience in making compost tea.

Orchard 52

Orchard Farming Farming Construction 52

Sustainable Harvest International

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Our thousands of partner farmers are among many worldwide who are making the transition to regenerative farming techniques. With regenerative farming, nature’s balance gets reintroduced into the ecosystem, allowing the farmer to grow nutritious and sustainably produced food. In nature, everything leans towards balance.

Compost 59

Compost Fertilizer Crop Food 59

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Agroforestry—the integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems—has been used since ancient times to produce fruits, nuts, coffee, cocoa and medicinal herbs. Wendy Johnson’s ‘natural savannah’ Wendy Johnson and her husband, Johnny Rafkin, own Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, in Charles City, Iowa. Johnson laughs.

Acre 107

Acre Farming Farming Pasture 107

Caff

JANUARY 26, 2022

Introducing… the 2022 Farm Champion awardees! To make it as a small farm and to affect real, lasting change in our food system, it requires unwavering determination, hard work, ingenuity, and a deeply rooted sense of purpose with a view extending a thousand growing seasons. We look forward to watching this farm grow!

Farming 52

Farming Farming Orchard Food 52

Caff

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Since 2017, CAFF’s Ecological Farming team has been conducting an on-farm demonstration project in collaboration with California no-till farmers to better understand small-scale biointensive no-till farming’s effect on soil health.

Ecology 52

Ecology Crop Rotation Agroecology Farming 52

Food Tank

JUNE 5, 2024

The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) is a Nairobi-based research institute that elevates the role insects play in the creation of environmentally and socially sustainable food systems across Africa. Founded in 1970, icipe aims to understand how insects can best be introduced across the food system.

Technology 101

Technology Food Production Compost 101

Kavya Organic Farm

JULY 29, 2023

Click Here to buy Bird Feeders to attract Birds to your lawns Chemical Control: Pros and Cons Chemical control measures for worms in lawns do exist, but they should be used with caution due to potential environmental and ecological impacts. Can I compost earthworm castings for my garden?

Compost 97

Compost Fertilizer Ecology Pesticide 97

ATTRA

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

My little mad farm helps me do that. And since cover cropping is scalable to just about any size farm or garden, it made sense to conduct some field experiments of my own. Until then, it seems to me a comprehensive, ecological approach is what’s needed. If you missed them, you can read them here and here. It keeps me honest.

Crop 52

Crop Farming Farming Crop Rotation 52

Modern Farmer

MARCH 20, 2024

Urban ag is any kind of food production space within a city, inclusive of commercial farms that grow and sell directly to consumers, non-profit farms that serve a broader mission, community gardens, school gardens and even vacant lots turned into thriving personal gardens or homesteads. Oxford Tract research farm at UC Berkeley.

Agroecology 84

Agroecology Yield Food Farming 84

Food Tank

APRIL 2, 2024

Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem that aims to regenerate custodial land ownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the American South.

Cultivation 86

Cultivation Food Marketing Distribution 86

The Lunatic Farmer

APRIL 20, 2021

Just like Jesus presented Himself as "the bread of life" so those of us in the authentic food and farming tribe present our protocols and production as life-giving rather than sickness-giving--economically, emotionally, and ecologically. Church becomes mechanical, just like the factory farmed pig.

Food 52

Food Mechanics Ecology Manure 52

ATTRA

NOVEMBER 5, 2024

Voices of farm workers, young people in shorts and muck boots and wide brimmed straw hats drift across the fields. I see myriad varieties of vegetable crops one after the other in planned succession–seedlings and vegetative and fruiting–and I can smell the musty earthiness of the compost pile in the center of the field plots.

Farming 40

Farming Farming Meadow Compost 40

Caff

APRIL 22, 2021

This Earth Day, CAFF is proud to endorse this bill on behalf of our members as part of the solution to the climate crisis, recognizing the invaluable role that ecologically-focused farmers and ranchers can play. 100 million a year would be available for compost infrastructure.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Manure Compost 52

UnderstandingAg

JANUARY 6, 2025

Michael referred to this type of farming as Holistic Orcharding, and he wrote the book The Holistic Orchard. I attended one of Michaels intensive workshops at the Eco Farm Conference in CA around 2008. He then wrote the book Mycorrhizal Planet , which is one of the most elaborate books interweaving science, art, and poetry.

Orchard 91

Orchard Crop Food Farming 91

Caff

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Are you interested in implementing cover crops, compost, mulch, hedgerows and other Healthy Soils practices on your farm? No farm is too small, all farm sizes welcome! Requisitos del programa: Las prácticas de gestión de suelo (cultivos de cobertura, compost, mulching, etc.) Latinx Farmers encouraged to apply.

Compost 40

Compost Farming Farming Crop 40

ATTRA

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Where are we in the ecological succession? Trees exist in a different ecological succession stage than pioneering stage plants, also known as weeds. Ecological succession is the process by which plant communities change over time, eventually yielding a climax community. I did my graduate work in cotton.

Agroecology 40

Agroecology Crop Ecology Processing 40

The Lunatic Farmer

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

What I do is visit farms and look for cutting edge practical ecological solutions. I spent a couple of days at a permaculture farm in East London where a guy built a gasification unit to run a generator. Couple that with anti-ecology and you have a recipe for dysfunction. Like chemical fertilizer instead of compost.

Ecology 52

Ecology Lodging Fertilizer Construction 52

CalCAN

APRIL 6, 2023

From losing seed crops as wildfires rage for weeks, to losing entire crops as a result of erratic freezes, to losing farms as drought dries up available water, farmers’ risks are rising. Farming is also an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers across the country are experiencing climate impacts as a crisis.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Food 52

The Lunatic Farmer

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

In the last couple of years, a steady stream of visitors, many in rented motor homes, have stopped at our farm to walk our fields and dream. Industrial agriculture is killing authentic farming and land stewardship as much as food processors and bureaucrats. Their most common reason: “we’re escaping and heading for the country.

Ruralism 100

Ruralism Livestock Supply Chain Meadow 100

Caff

JUNE 6, 2023

CAFF’s Biointensive No-Till Project is an on-farm demonstration project partnering with small, diversified vegetable farms in Northern California who are committed to minimizing tillage and interested in learning about how it affects soil health. As a result, it is often viewed as a good indicator of soil health.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Family Farming Agroecology 52

Kavya Organic Farm

JULY 29, 2023

Click Here to buy Bird Feeders to attract Birds to your lawns Chemical Control: Pros and Cons Chemical control measures for worms in lawns do exist, but they should be used with caution due to potential environmental and ecological impacts. Can I compost earthworm castings for my garden?

Compost 52

Compost Fertilizer Ecology Pesticide 52

UnderstandingAg

OCTOBER 29, 2023

Although no-till implies not tilling at all, many no-till market gardeners still rely on some form of light tillage to create a seed bed or apply copious amounts of compost as a mulch to create a seed bed. Soil prep increases time, labor, and overall farming costs, and potentially increases soil disturbance.

Crop 91

Crop Cash Crop Seeding Harvesting 91

The Gleaning Project of South Central PA

MAY 16, 2022

Food waste is also the millions of pounds of food that rot in the field before ever leaving the farm due to it being too large, too small or not defect free enough to be profitable for the farmer (despite being totally edible!) Composting and repurposing food scraps can make a huge impact! Where does our Food Waste come from?

Food 52

Food Greenhouse Compost Ecology 52

Kavya Organic Farm

JULY 29, 2023

Click Here to buy Bird Feeders to attract Birds to your lawns Chemical Control: Pros and Cons Chemical control measures for worms in lawns do exist, but they should be used with caution due to potential environmental and ecological impacts. Can I compost earthworm castings for my garden?

Compost 40

Compost Fertilizer Ecology Pesticide 40

The Counter

MAY 17, 2022

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted with residences, farms, and a general store. The Nisqually Tribe and researchers are trying to find a solution.

Compost 52

Compost Ecology Mechanics Fertilizer 52

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 5, 2023

But it wasn’t until he became the beverage director at Farm and Fisherman Tavern in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, that he fully combined his passions for ethnobotany and mixology. Later, he tended bar at a restaurant in Santiago where he used fresh ingredients to create seasonal craft cocktails. In “Do I Have to Give Up Chocolate?:

Food 144

Food Farming Farming Seeding 144

Sustainable Food Trust

JUNE 14, 2023

Over recent years, no-till farming has been widely advocated as one of the ways to make farming more sustainable. It is also one of the paid options under Defra’s Sustainable Farming Incentive. What he could not have known is that the processes he describes, depend, amongst other things, on the action of mycorrhizal fungi.

Ploughing 52

Ploughing Crop Yield Farming 52

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

MAY 10, 2024

On May 1, 2024 – after months of stalled farm bill negotiations on both sides of Capitol Hill – Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released a detailed section-by-section summary of her farm bill proposal. Strengthening the Farm and Food System Workforce (Sec. 11205, 12201).

Ruralism 111

Ruralism Food Farming Farming 111