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Living Mulch Cover Cropping for Gardens and Small Farms: Managing an “organic matter” system

ATTRA

He would let the cover crop grow and overwinter and then plow down the following spring for green manure. Whereas at one time she advocated organic approaches and specific practices to deal with singular issues with pests or crop fertility, she now fosters a system based on ecological farm design.

Crop 102
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Commentary: With Agriculture Facing a ‘Great Collision,’ More Farmers Seek to Nourish and Heal  

Daily Yonder

In Kansas, some annual row crop farmers are pioneering perennial crops to counter the impacts of yearly plowing that has depleted their soils.

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Young Farmers and over 70 organizations call on Congress to include the Small Farm Conservation Act in the 2023 Farm Bill

National Young Farmers Coalition

Marbleseed National Bison Association National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Pesticide Action Network (national, and CA, MN, IA, HI) Simple Mills Soil and Water Conservation Society Union of Concerned Scientists Waterkeeper Alliance Wild Farm Alliance Midwest and South Businesses and Organizations Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (NC, SC) (..)

Farming 40
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Illinois Dust Storm Disaster Is a Warning for Agriculture

The Equation

As climate change continues and farming areas get hotter and drier—as expected in the Southern Great Plains and Southwest—erosion could increasingly take the form of dust storms when bone-dry fields are plowed. It’s a recurring ecological disaster that causes hardship for people who make their living from fishing, shrimping, and tourism.

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Can Cover Cropping Heal Abused Soil? A Mad Farm Reflection

ATTRA

year after year, usually with a non-cover fallow, intensive moldboard plowing, and the additions of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. Until then, it seems to me a comprehensive, ecological approach is what’s needed. For this, we need the courage and imagination to live within our limits, just like ecology has been trying to teach us.

Crop 52
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How Our Network of Roadways Has Altered the Natural World

Modern Farmer

Your book talks a lot about “road ecology.” Ben Goldfarb: Road ecology is the field of scientific study that looks at how roads and other transportation infrastructure affect nature and what we do about those impacts. A lot of road ecology is about why roadkill happens and what its effects on populations are and how to prevent it.

Ranching 112
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Farmers Can Adapt to Alternating Droughts and Floods—Here’s How

The Equation

Industrial agricultural practices such as tillage (plowing) and leaving fields bare between growing seasons degrade soil structure, reduce water infiltration, lower water storage capacity, and increase runoff (the flow of water across the soil’s surface).