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Opinion: Canada’s Ag Policies Need to Better Serve Local Farmers and Communities

Modern Farmer

A range of issues plague the current system, including corporate consolidation , farmland concentration in the hands of non-farmers and foreign buyers , pollution and animal welfare issues , as well as soil erosion and the poor treatment of migrant workers.

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Are environmentalists barking up the wrong tree when it comes to land use?

Sustainable Food Trust

So, we metaphorically waged war against the weeds for about eight weeks, using mainly mechanical methods and also some hand weeding, not wanting to eliminate them, but to make sure that the crop predominated. If you are a carrot grower, the biggest challenge that needs to be overcome is weed control.

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The Case for Tractor Farming

ATTRA

However, mechanization and technology like tractors offer women the chance to broaden their opportunities in agriculture. Mechanizing tasks like bed shaping, planting, and cultivation is game-changing. Women have continued farming in small-scale and traditional systems that involve a lot of manual labor and require physical strength.

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Transforming the Delta

Food Environment and Reporting Network

flatland of small, half-abandoned towns surrounded by large, mechanized farms. In 1944, International Harvester tested the first mechanical cotton picker on a plantation just south of Clarksdale, Mississippi. As mechanization was driving Black sharecroppers to leave the Delta, Black farmers who owned land were losing it.

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Stewarding Success: Enhancing Access for Underserved Farmers in CSP

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

In the 2022 Agricultural Census, new and beginning farmers managed 22% of US farmland. This means that, even during the peak years where beginning farmers accounted for 10% of CSP acreage, beginning farmers’ representation in CSP is half of what it could be considering how much farmland is managed by beginning farmers and ranchers nationally.

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Old Hedgerows are New Again as More Farmers Embrace Benefits

Modern Farmer

Some midwestern fields are still bordered by hedgerows, but most US farmers don’t plant hedgerows and are skeptical of their benefits , worrying that they might introduce pests or predators to their farmland. “I Mechanization is the primary reason why hedgerows have disappeared in North America,” says Jones.

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Birds are Vulnerable to Heat Stress, Even on Farms

Modern Farmer

These occurrences in urban areas are scary, but heat stress can affect birds in more rural spaces, too, and farmland is no exception. If we figure out what the mechanisms are, that leads us directly to concrete conservation interventions,” says Lauck. Trees adjacent to farmland can provide critical canopy to wild birds.

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