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

Civil Eats

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.

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Do You Control Your Business or Does it Control YOU?

UnderstandingAg

However, on balance I would argue that this has not been good for rural America. If you look at the graph you can see a slowdown in the loss of farms and ranches starting in the 1970s. However, it only appears that way because of the astronomical loss of farms earlier in the century.

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Gov Newsom eliminates disaster safety net for small & BIPOC farms, dairies in may-revise budget proposal

Caff

Small family farms like mine are struggling to keep up with emergency repairs and we cannot remain viable without some sort of a safety net. Without the safety net provided by CUSP, many California organic dairy farms would likely have gone out of business. The proposed $17.9

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In Hawai‘i, Restoring Kava Helps Sustain Native Food Culture

Civil Eats

Kava has endured a long history of adversity, said Lakea Trask, a Hawaiian farmer and local activist who cultivates kava and other Native crops for Kanaka Kava , his familys farm-to-table restaurant in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island. Hawaii is a state of small farms, he said, with more than 90 percent measuring less than 50 acres.

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Opinion: In American Agriculture, Size Matters

Modern Farmer

The marginalization of smaller-scale farms has severe consequences. When farms are continually consolidated—when there is one 5,000-acre farm in a community, for example, instead of 50 100-acre farms—fewer people remain in rural areas. Small farms tend to be more diversified than large-scale operations.

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The unseen costs of Tesco’s milk cutbacks: A threat to smaller dairies as mega-farms expand

Sustainable Food Trust

I’ve just read in Farmers Weekly that Tesco has announced their decision to reduce the number of dairy farmers in their milk supply pool , giving just 12-months’ notice to those who will be dropped. Worst of all, it will perpetuate and accelerate the loss of one of our most precious cultural assets, the small family-run dairy farm.

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Bringing Back Local Milk, Ice Cream, and Cheese

Civil Eats

The ice cream shop is an extension of the Nicholson family’s sixth-generation, 120-acre farm in nearby Ferndale. Since taking over the dairy a decade ago and branding it Foggy Bottoms Boys , the couple has been bucking convention and helping their rural community navigate changing economic tides.

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