This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Rifrullo Café, a cozy farm-to-table restaurant in Brookline, Massachusetts, hums with customers on a steamy July mid-morning. Invisible’ Waste: For Restaurants, Composting Food Scraps Is Just the Beginning Cooking, refrigeration, air conditioning, water use, and packaging contribute to greenhouse gas emissions too.
Rentsch does this work for Soil Cycle , a compost-based nonprofit. Not only do Soil Cycle’s staff pick up the food scraps, but a few times a year, its customers can pick up the end result: compost for their home gardens. “I ” A few times a year, Soil Cycle is able to give the actual compost back to the customers. “We’re
Emmert, a horticulturist at the University of Kentucky, was tinkering around with how to build a cheap greenhouse. This is commonly regarded as the first introduction of plastic into agriculture, a move that would transform modern farming—and inadvertently deposit an untold amount of plastic in the soil. In 1948, E.M.
By turning “waste” into resources like compost and mulch, we can nourish our soil, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and support sustainable agriculture.
Many labels that guarantee humane treatment of farm animals (e.g., It’s unlikely, for example, that when a consumer sees one of these labels on Alexandre milk products in a Whole Foods Market, they imagine a field of dead cows being used as compost, or decaying cow corpses dangling into waterways, likely violating state water quality laws.
Photo Credit Bonnie Veblen As part of CAFF’s Ecological Farming Program , we collaborate with farmers to implement and better understand ecologically-based farming practices, which include climate smart farming and soil health practices.
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.
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.
And of course, it’s not like for every PLNT Burger sold, a factory farm gives up five acres of land, or releases a cow from the slaughter line—actually meaningful solutions to the factory meat problem. Table to Farm: Can Restaurants Serve Climate Education? Some workers are taking matters into their own hands.
This reduction is comparable to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by 185,641 gasoline-powered vehicles driven over the course of one year. Fertilizer and chemicals remain the largest on-farm expenditure accounting for 17.5% of on-farm costs, with animal feed closely following at 15.5%.
Among those benefits, growing food in backyards, community gardens or urban farms can shrink the distance fruits and vegetables have to travel between producers and consumers – what’s known as the “food mile” problem. But is urban agriculture really as climate-friendly as many people think? Our study, published Jan.
The pet food industry traditionally relies on factory farm byproducts for its ingredients, a practice the industry touts as more sustainable as it produces less waste and cheaper food. Agriculture contributes at least 11 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions , and meat is the biggest contributor among foods. Farm Hounds jerky.
Tomatoes that don’t meet product specifications get left on the vine at farms. percent of its greenhouse gas emissions on food that never gets eaten, as well as an estimated 16 percent of US cropland and 22 percent of its freshwater use. However, compost doesn’t count toward the SDG food waste reduction goals. On the farm: 16.8
347.563.6408 Release: NSAC Praises Introduction of the Supporting Urban & Innovative Farming Act of 2023 Washington, DC, July 26, 2023 – Today, Senators John Fetterman (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the Supporting Urban & Innovative Farming Act.
There are other ways apple growers are attempting to prevent loss on the farm. Globally, according to a 2022 United Nations report, food loss and waste account for 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. On the farm, weather, diseases, and overproduction dominate food loss.
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. Cahalin wanted goats to be a big part of the farm.
According to a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production and Beverages , the production of alcoholic beverages can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and water depletion. The brewery is located on a small but busy farm with apple orchards, market gardens, two greenhouses, an apiary, and a flock of chickens.
Check out our companion piece: How to Start a Backyard or Urban Farm—Whether You Own Land or Not As a renter millennial, I wanted to start farming. This is a common sentiment among many student-loan-saddled millennials and Gen Z-ers who want to work with the land but don’t have land that they own to start gardening or farming.
A bright blue tanker truck rumbles up the road to Longview Farm, a dairy operation in western Massachusetts. Methane gas digesters are used by dairy farms to convert manure into energy and reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. PFAS contamination in food waste getting spread on farm fields is a potential concern.
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.
When Briana Bosch started her Colorado flower farm, Blossom and Branch , the fifth-generation farmer—her family had a dairy and corn farm—mimicked what her family had always done: plastic landscape fabric to control weeds, plastic seedling trays, plastic netting, even plastic irrigation tubing. What can stop it?
All told, annual greenhouse gases released from plastic production, landfilling, and incineration total 850 million tons , or 4.5 According to FAO, plastic films such as black mulch and greenhouse covers account for the bulk of annual global use, at more than 8 million tons. percent of global emissions.
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.
By doing this, she discovered what farming techniques worked in her area and then began sharing this knowledge. The Institute has three seed banks, a greenhouse, ceremonial women’s house, restored adobe, and more. Roxanne Swentzell created FTPI in 1987. The Institute has facilitated seed saving and sharing for decades.
Now, Hardin wants to use the knowledge he’s gained to tackle some big challenges across the state by using biochar to clean up the Illinois River watershed, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help farmers improve the quality of their soil through his innovative initiative called the Carbon Chicken Project.
As part of regenerative agriculture practices, biochar provides a means to improve soil properties, sequester carbon, and enhance overall farm sustainability. Composting with biochar: Mixing biochar with compost before application can enhance the composting process, resulting in a nutrient-rich amendment. What is Biochar?
This is called shadow microscopy,” says Robb, the co-owner of Compostella Farm in southern Mississippi, bringing the microorganisms into focus. This growing interest in fungal networks on farms quietly challenges the underpinnings of U.S. But working to both protect and encourage fungi on farms is a way to reverse course.
I’ve been a regenerative farmer for nearly two decades, currently operating Blue Ridge Farm in a remote corner of northeastern Washington State. One of my four key farm values is a commitment to decreasing waste, especially in the form of plastic. Left: A young soil blocked collard seedling in the Blue Ridge Farmgreenhouse.
He explains that they reduce the time it takes to compost, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and they require very little water for breeding. Insects can help decrease the number of inputs typically expected in food production, Tonga says.
Armed with little more than ingenuity and entrepreneurial drive, microgreen growers are transforming the unused corners of their dwellings into profitable farming operations. After finishing college seven years ago, the “video gam- playing, beer-drinking kid” dusted off a section of his parents’ Long Island cellar to launch his micro farm.
By Chris Lent, NCAT Agriculture Specialist I’ve always found ways to turn “waste materials” into useful resources on the farm fascinating. On my farm, I tried to reuse and recycle resources as much as possible to close the off-farm input loop. I think farms can become more resilient as they rely on fewer off farm inputs.
Santa Barbara, CA This month, we’d like to introduce you to La Puma Farms. Now let’s learn a bit about La Puma Farm in their own words! Later, I found an abandoned nursery in Santa Barbara which had 40 heritage Hass and Rincon avocados, 5 citrus trees, greenhouses and lathe houses. What can one find at the farm?
CalCAN is one of hundreds of sustainable, organic, and family farming organizations across the country that is engaged in farm bill advocacy this year. The original farm bill was enacted during the 1930s in part as a response to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and was an element of President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation.
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.
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.
Key Details: Location: California Central Coast Main Crop(s): Microgreens FSMA PSR Inspection: 1/7/2020 3rd Party Audit(s): USDA Harmonized GAP/GMP Certified Organic by National Organic Program: Yes Owners: Ken and Sandra Kimes New Natives Farm was started in 1980. What inputs are in your compost (e.g. It took approximately 2.5
Soil is the foundation of your farm, the living system that provides nutrition for all the plants and animals that live there. Here are six ways you can improve long-term soil health on your farm: What is soil health? Rotating crops is one of the best ways to improve long-term soil health on your farm. Rotate your crops.
Fashion contributes around 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, second only to big oil. Kintra Fibers has developed a bio-based polyester (56 percent corn-derived) it says greatly reduces greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional polyester and can be produced with the same equipment. Another big factor is end of life.
As negotiations around the next farm bill continue, farmers and hundreds of stakeholders want to make sure that funding for climate-friendly practices is protected and remains in conservation programs with a climate focus. Conservation buffer in bloom at Vilicus Farms. Joseph Fischer, of Fischer Farms in St.
By Trina Moyles Jenny Berkenbosch and James Vriend manage Sundog Organic Farm , a 14-acre certified organic vegetable and herb operation, located north of Edmonton in Sturgeon County. She’s two generations disconnected from farming, whereas, James grew up on an organic farm, managed by his parents, Dennis and Ruth Vriend, outside of Edmonton.
Monetizing carbon sequestration through carbon farming is an emerging concept that has the potential to provide economic incentives for farmers to adopt this climate-friendly practice. Carbon farming involves techniques such as cover cropping, reduced tillage, and the use of organic matter like compost.
When you step into a high tunnel, you’re moving off your farm in terms of temperature, humidity, and frost dates. Salts from added compost, manure, or fertilizers can build up in the rain-free environment of a tunnel and accumulate near the soil surface, affecting crop growth.
But the epic flooding this past March was simply unprecedented, says the owner of Lerda-Goni Farms. The torrent overwhelmed dams, swelled rivers and crumbled levees, inundating entire farming communities, including Lerda-Goni and a dozen other ranches, and reawakening a long-dormant lake lying beneath the vast agricultural region.
By one estimate, storing an extra 2 percent of carbon in soil would return atmospheric greenhouse gases to “safe” levels. The challenges to farming, period—let alone transitioning to regenerative—can be high. It sounds easy. It’s anything but. Landowners Cobb leased from were similarly averse to mixing things up.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content