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Op-ed: The Food System Cannot Become Another Fossil-Fuel Industry Escape Hatch

Civil Eats

It also necessitates petroleum-based pesticides, from fungicides to herbicides, to ward off weeds and stop sprouting. Another 38 percent comes from retail consumption and waste; and the rest is from industrial inputs (like pesticides and fertilizer) and agriculture production.

Food 93
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Ask a Scientist: What Value Do Wetlands Provide?

The Equation

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.

Pesticide 101
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Op-ed: Big Ag Touts Its Climate Strengths, While Awash in Fossil Fuels

Civil Eats

Powerful PR firms have worked overtime in recent years to craft a narrative that highlight farms’ potential role in mitigating climate change, but the truth is that agriculture consumes 6 percent of the world’s fossil fuel energy , and the oil and gas industries rely on industrial agriculture for one of its largest and most lucrative markets.

Pesticide 143
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This app set out to fight pesticides. Once VC stepped in, the app helped sell them.

Food Environment and Reporting Network

Their app, called Plantix, could near-instantaneously diagnose a crop pest or disease simply by looking at a photo of the plant. If successful, Strey says a little sheepishly in the clip, Plantix would “save the environment by using less pesticides.” A farmer uses the Plantix app to diagnose crop pests and disease.

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

The Equation

But with the heavy rain came floods that damaged lives, property, and crops. With fields waterlogged, many farmworkers were unable to work and pick produce, signaling that crops like strawberries might see lower yields and higher prices in the near future.

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Black Earth: A Family’s Journey from Enslavement to Reclamation

Civil Eats

In a county that was intentionally poisonedand a world suffering from a changing climatehe is reviving the soil under his feet by transitioning away from pesticide-dependent row crops like tobacco to industrial hemp, which is known to sequester carbon and remediate soil, and using earth-friendly organic and regenerative methods.

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What is Regenerative Agriculture, and Why Does It Matter?

Sustainable Harvest International

Conventional agriculture heavily relies on synthetic chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. SHI-Belize partner farmer Juvini Acosta reforests land affected by conventional agriculture. Industrial agriculture prioritizes profit over the health of the planet.