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Unfortunately, many farming practices in Africa are based on monoculture, so if a disease or a drought hits a key growing region, the entire system suffers. Incorporating indigenous vegetables into our local farming system can disrupt this pattern. It can also promote healthier soil, reduce pest problems, and boost rural economies.
Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factory farm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.
Since 2012, Gail Taylor has built healthy soil, provided hundreds of local families with fresh tomatoes and turnips, and fostered community on less than an acre at Three Part Harmony Farm in northeast Washington, D.C. Turnips from Three Part Harmony Farm (left). is the realization of more than 15 years of work.
This story was produced through a collaboration between the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America, and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group. Across the board, farms have been merged into just a few big companies that control most food sectors. The smell from the lagoon made it impossible to enjoy their backyard.
When Jeff Broberg and his wife, Erica, moved to their 170-acre bean and grain farm in Winona, Minnesota in 1986, their well water measured at 8.6 Those tiles, which were first installed in the mid-1800s and have now largely been replaced with plastic pipes, ultimately allowed farmers to grow crops on land that was once too wet to farm.
Farmers all over the United States are changing the way they farm to boost soil health, use less water, and reduce fertilizer and pesticide use. Lighthouse Herb’n Farm is located at the base of Palomar Mountain in San Diego and is run by Damian Valdez and Jaime Williamson. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
Its a rare sunny day in January, and about a dozen people gather on a farm in Snohomish County, Washington. The farmer, Brett Aiello of Reconnecting Roots Farm, wants to suppress the weeds around some newly planted fruit trees without disturbing the soil, and hes enlisted some help. Let’s prove that this works.
A few days after moving in, concerned neighbors informed her that Ledgeview Farms, a large dairy farm behind her home, was planning to expand, which included building a manure pit to store millions of gallons of waste next to the subdivision. In late 2023, the farm responded with a lawsuit against the town.
Farm ponds and slow-moving creeks and streams that are enriched with fertilizer runoff and directly deposited manure are the perfect place to find cyanobacteria thriving. Do not let livestock loiter in ponds because they contaminate it with manure. Blooms are more common when there is a long dry period after a rain event.
This story was produced through a collaboration between the Daily Yonder, which covers rural America, and Modern Farmer , a a nonprofit covering equity and resiliency in the food system. Across the board, farms have been merged into just a few big companies that control most food sectors.
On the gate hangs an 18-inch-long pallet board with the words “Mad Farm” painted in green. Though I will invite a similar community on the farm next year, and they will be cousins of these plants, these will have passed once again into the soil, their essence to arise in next year’s tomatoes. This year was different.
Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us From Factory Farming , is available for purchase now. My career is devoted to protecting farmed animals and ending factory farming. That day, I’d driven from my home in Atlanta to Craig’s home in rural North Carolina. As I sat there, a thousand questions were swirling in my mind.
He would let the cover crop grow and overwinter and then plow down the following spring for green manure. Periodic mowing keeps it under control and adds a green manure mulch to the crops. I revisited this idea again when I was talking with Helen Atthowe at the Carolina Farm Stewardship Conference this past November.
Yet the bucolic scene belies an environmental problem roiling beneath the surface: The groundwater in this part of Minnesota is so contaminated with nitrates running off farm fields that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently called on three state agencies to take action to protect the health of rural residents.
Every day, rural women work long, tireless, and sometimes thankless hours to provide for their families. Their innate desire to nurture and uplift their communities in Belize, Honduras, and Panama is palpable as they work with Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) to transform their farms into regenerative ones.
At Georges Mill Farm in northern Virginia, Molly and Sam Kroiz’s goats are on the move. The system was created by a Norwegian company called Nofence , and Molly and Sam are among 43 pilot farms testing it ahead of an official United States debut expected in early 2024. Others push into a strip of bushes, munching through brambles.
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.
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth post in a multi-part blog series analyzing the Farm Food and National Security Act of 2024 (FFNSA), which was reported out of the House Agriculture Committee on Friday, May 24. Overall, FFNSA misses the mark and fails to sufficiently address the most fundamental threat to our food and farm system.
At the island’s solid waste facility—hidden away in the hills and surrounded by forestland—piles of food scraps, manure, and green waste slowly turn to soil. In rural areas, “It is not always cost feasible to go from house to house to collect compost because they are miles away,” she explained. Composting Council.
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.
Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. I was born and raised in rural southwest Wisconsin, where I attended a high school located in the middle of a 30,000 acre seedcorn field. How’d you decide to focus on the industries that cropped up around farming, instead of the act of farming itself?
The challenges associated with mud on livestock farms, particularly cattle and horse farms, need to be addressed because their health affects production goals. Not to mention that no livestock owner wants to see their animals covered in mud and manure. Mud and manure harbor harmful bacteria and other pathogens.
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.
Payne operates a 300-acre regenerative farm in Concordia, Missouri, an hour outside of Kansas City, where he raises sheep and cattle. Rooted in preindustrial farming, the method involves intentionally incorporating trees on the same land used by grazing livestock, in a way that benefits both.
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.
Living ground cover is especially critical on acres receiving manure from confinement operations. Industry groups should make it clear to members that cover crops and more in-season application must become part of all manure management plans and programs. This is hands-down the best, most profitable use case for cover crops.
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.
Dairy farmers are working to implement climate-smart manure management practices, and the COWS Act will offer the needed resources to enhance both air and water quality,” said Rob Larew, National Farmers Union President. “Getting the AMMP award sped up our plans to modernize our manure management system by about 10 years. .
When they discovered that the farm is set on a prehistoric lake bed, a natural water reservoir for the community, they felt an additional responsibility to plant native trees and shrubs to steward the water resource. But due to climate change, Jenna and Thomas’s journey into farming has been anything but straight forward.
If you have an unkempt area on a farm, some highly predator- resistant fencing and a few goats will get it under control tout de suite! Both “cut and carry” and “chop and drop” allow for nutrient cycling, especially if the goat manure can be collected and used to fertilize the trees they are eating, closing that loop.
The Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences received an $80 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to pilot a program that will pay producers to implement climate-smart practices on farms of all sizes and commodities, an initiative that could have significant impacts on curbing climate-changing gases.
Accompanied at her display by her daughter-in-law, Ronquillo added that farming in the old way takes future generations into consideration, too. “We And the other is that the young people just don’t want to keep farming. But we know that what we grow is better than that type of corn. And we’re taking care of the soil, too.”
I picture a pair of dung beetles rolling a ball of manure together, sharing hopes and dreams for their future offspring, or perhaps squabbling about where to bury their dung ball like Mr. and Mrs. Mallard looking for a good place to lay their eggs in the children’s classic, Make Way for Ducklings. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
America’s cattle producers need a Secretary of Agriculture who will protect family farms and ranches, roll back crushing regulations, and stand up for rural values—and we look forward to working with Secretary-Designate Rollins to make it happen.” 5 during CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.
Photo credit: USDA Editor’s Note: This guest post by Michael Happ, Program Associate for Climate and Rural Communities at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, (IATP), discusses how popular conservation programs should focus on small-scale and sustainable farms, not industrial-scale farms.
When you approach the poultry paddocks at Salvatierra Farms outside Northfield, Minnesota, you might not notice how many chickens are hiding among the tall grasses and young hazelnut trees at first. And that’s by design. Photo courtesy of Wil Crombe/Organic Compound.) Regenerative is a complex term with many interpretations.
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.
Jim Massey Rural Voices Correspondent During the first year of the Wisconsin Producer-Led Watershed Grant Program in 2016, $242,550 was awarded to 14 groups. Some have joined groups to learn about innovative farming practices such as cover crops, minimum tillage or low-disturbance manure application.
But blueberry land and other parcels of rural Maine are being increasingly eyed for housing development, and Sweetland feels the wild blueberry sector is under pressure, especially when blueberry market prices drop. But the results seen at the Maine blueberry farm fit with what NREL has observed in the Northeast. “In
However, the publication also presents planned solutions to reduce emissions and transform toward increasingly robust farming systems. Despite the challenges ahead, substantial reason for optimism lies both in suggested routes to emissions reductions and adaptation of farming systems. from Chapter 22 of NCA5.
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. ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.
Some farmers, like Jake Erickson of the Dry Run council who is transitioning to the main operator of his grandfather’s farm note that it’s helpful to see what other farmers are doing and talk through things with them. He used their incentive program as he started using cover crops and expanded soil sampling on his farm. “I
Atsas Farm was set up here a decade ago. Atsas employed advanced organic and regenerative farming principles, in the hope of designing an agricultural ecosystem that is diverse, resilient and will last through time, ensuring it is sustainable for future generations. We have an outdated view on farming. We have modern systems.”
Since 2018, the Halls have been on a mission to collaborate with local organizations to rejuvenate their land, which was previously subjected to conventional farming methods involving fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. And most importantly, the cows leave behind manure and help us fertilize the land.
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