Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

Catastrophe loomed everywhere I looked: in the dust bowls on the once-fertile plains of central Turkey, in the vanishing lakes of Mexico City, in the fetid cesspools outside the factory farms of North Carolina, in the disease-ravaged olive trees of Puglia, in the rapid wiping away of diverse food webs in every biome.

Food 143

Food Pasture Livestock Poultry 143

The Equation

MAY 14, 2024

Generically called the “farm” bill, it is actually a farm and food bill that supports a wide range of programs, including ones that cover crop insurance, financial credit, and export subsidies for farmers, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps.

Food 115

Food Farming Farming Agriculture 115

Food Tank

JUNE 10, 2024

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) recently released its report entitled Land Squeeze. Since 2000, land around twice the size of Germany has been snatched up globally in transnational deals, according to IPES-Food’s report. But, the report also touches on newer concepts.

Farmland 85

Farmland Food Agroecology Agriculture 85

The Equation

MAY 11, 2023

Because like the Dust Bowl of so many decades ago, this tragedy stemmed from a collision of multiple systemic problems—in this case, unchecked climate change layered atop the excesses of industrial agriculture. Fertilizer runoff can also affect urban communities downstream.

Agriculture 131

Agriculture Agriculture Fertilizer Plowing 131

Sustainable Food Trust

AUGUST 6, 2024

He believes that there is much to be learnt from how Wales was once farmed and that by using the right animals in the right places, increasing tree cover and farming in harmony with nature, agriculture can be an effective, culturally sensitive and socially just means of managing and restoring the Welsh landscape.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Processing 98

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

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.

Plantation 144

Plantation Farming Farming Acre 144

Sustainable Harvest International

OCTOBER 2, 2024

Regenerative agriculture offers a powerful solution to today’s interconnected crises, including the climate crisis, poverty, declining food security, and biodiversity loss. Conventional agriculture heavily relies on synthetic chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides.

Agriculture 97

Agriculture Agriculture Agroecology Farming 97

The Equation

MAY 15, 2023

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).

Industrial Agriculture 97

Industrial Agriculture Crop Agriculture Agriculture 97

Modern Farmer

JANUARY 10, 2024

Aidee Guzman, 30, grew up the daughter of immigrants in California’s Central Valley, among massive fields of monocrops that epitomize intense, industrial agriculture. Her parents were farmworkers, and despite spending their days producing food, they relied on food banks to eat. Soil is alive.

Food 125

Food Industrial Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture 125

Sustainable Harvest International

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

.” ” — Rattan Lal, professor of soil science + 2020 World Food Prize Laureate Conventional, or industrial, agriculture uses chemicals to defend crops from weeds, certain insect species, and diseases. Harsh chemical fertilizers disrupt natural soil networks made up of plants and fungi.

Compost 59

Compost Fertilizer Crop Food 59

Sustainable Food Trust

AUGUST 9, 2023

Alexander starts with the pea which developed widely across the globe beginning in the Fertile Crescent, where it dates back 8500 years to Neolithic settlements. If you really want to get to know your food, spend some time with The Seed Detective and you’ll be more literate and informed about the wonder of your vegetables.

Food 98

Food Seeding Farming Farming 98

Daily Yonder

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

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. She later became the executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Toppenish Creek , which advocates for improved oversight of industrial agriculture.

Animal Agriculture 105

Animal Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture Manure 105

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

She later became the executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Toppenish Creek , which advocates for improved oversight of industrial agriculture. Loopholes within drinking water laws and the agriculture lobby’s influence in Congress have prevented substantive policy reform to address the issue, according to food safety experts.

Ruralism 89

Ruralism Manure Farming Farming 89

The Lunatic Farmer

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

We’ll offer havens of protection and nourishment to lead our culture into stable families, fertile soil, nourishing food, working faith, and overall health. Industrial agriculture is killing authentic farming and land stewardship as much as food processors and bureaucrats. That’s okay.

Ruralism 99

Ruralism Livestock Supply Chain Meadow 99

The Equation

FEBRUARY 13, 2025

One person who does is Stacy Woods , research director for the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. A geostatistican by training, Dr. Woods brings decades of experience in the application of spatial data science to her work studying the environmental and health impacts of the US food and agriculture system.

Pesticide 52

Pesticide Agriculture Industrial Agriculture Agriculture 52

Civil Eats

MARCH 13, 2024

Many cancers are linked to nitrates , which are found in drinking water contaminated with manure or nitrogen fertilizer, and advocates are concerned about the link. And for good reason: Cattle is the top-ranked agricultural commodity in the U.S. Northeast Iowa’s Driftless region has not seen glacial drift in over 2 million years.

Manure 145

Manure Cattle Construction Farming 145

Civil Eats

APRIL 8, 2024

When farmer Joshua Manske heard about the acquisition of an Iowa fertilizer plant by Koch Industries in December, he saw it as a “microcosm of what’s going on nationally.” That’s what’s going to help drive your fertilizer prices where they should be between supply and demand. billion fertilizer plant to Iowa.

Fertilizer 145

Fertilizer Acre Farming Farming 145

The Equation

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Over the past year, UCS worked with the Federation and other partners to craft the policy brief Lost Inheritance , which summarizes this confounding issue and offers policy recommendations that can be written into this year’s food and farm bill. Can the system be fixed?

Farming 91

Farming Farming Food Real Estate 91

The Equation

MARCH 4, 2024

Farms that use extractive agriculture usually are outside the official community line, and therefore they pay no taxes to the communities they pollute. She established food distributions and mobile health clinic visits. And they will use one or two orders of magnitude less water, with no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.

Agriculture 119

Agriculture Agriculture Pesticide Ruralism 119

Food Environment and Reporting Network

OCTOBER 24, 2024

For smallholding farmers in developing nations, who grow more than a third of the world’s food, having Plantix on your phone was like having a highly accurate plant pathologist in your back pocket, one who would also present afflicted farmers with options for treatment. This was potentially world-altering technology. billion in 2012 to $51.7

Pesticide 86

Pesticide Crop Agriculture Agriculture 86

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 15, 2023

It may seem quaint compared to the industrial operations that grow most of the world’s food, but outfits like Patryn’s Nautical Farms are poised to skyrocket in number over the next few years. Seaweed is a “zero-input crop,” meaning it doesn’t need any additional food, fertilizer, or freshwater to grow.

Cultivation 98

Cultivation Harvester Harvest Harvesting 98

Modern Farmer

JULY 10, 2023

Within decades, a network of dams, levees and canals had dried up the basin, transforming the fertile crater into an agricultural hub. Today, the four counties sitting in the lake bed account for more than $25 billion in food and crop production, with Tulare County ranking number one in the nation for milk and oranges.

Farming 98

Farming Farming Manure Agriculture 98

Sustainable Harvest International

APRIL 22, 2024

Local Food Systems SHI trains and empowers family farmers as they transition towards sustainable farming practices. Through our programs, farmers gain the knowledge and skills to nurture the soil and the environment, ensuring a reliable food source for their families. For more sustainable tips, sign up for our newsletter.

Supply Chain 52

Supply Chain Food Production Textiles 52

Agritecture Blog

MAY 19, 2023

However, industrial agriculture — characterized by the use of heavy tillage, intensive monocropping, and excessive grazing — has resulted in the degradation of the very soils that sustain our food supply. The land is a constant, withstanding generational change in personnel, methodology, and even land use. Credit: Green Left.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Livestock Crop 52

Civil Eats

MARCH 12, 2025

Joan Dye Gussow, who died last Friday at age 96 , was a fiercely independent thinker and food-system visionary whose ideas caught on and rippled outward. And because of her, we began to understand the deleterious impacts of the industrialized food systemamong them depleted soil, poisoned water, and metabolic disease.

Food 131

Food Ecology Farming Farming 131

World Agri-Tech

JANUARY 3, 2024

Kiersten Stead, DCVC BIO Kiersten Stead, Managing Partner, DCVC BIO: “The supervillain is misleading, unhelpful, marketing of food as “natural”, “non-GMO”, “clean”, or suggesting “processed foods are bad” , higher GHG emitting farming methods-“organic” “biodynamic”. We should all keep an eye on her next step, whatever that might be.”

Technology 59

Technology Marketing Finance Production 59

The Equation

MAY 9, 2024

And therein lies a big part of the Big Ag problem: mergers and acquisitions across the food and agriculture industry have enabled big companies that touch every corner of our food system to keep getting bigger and more powerful. Big=bad when it comes to corporate power over food Big isn’t always bad.

Farmland 142

Farmland Food Seeding Fertilizer 142

Food Environment and Reporting Network

MAY 28, 2024

The Nation Do nations have the right to determine their own food policies? Can they make laws to safeguard domestic agriculture, public health, the environment, and the genetic integrity of the national diet? In Mexico, corn is not just a commodity, or even just a favorite food or source of protein. A protest against U.S.

Maize 144

Maize Science Crop Food 144

Food Environment and Reporting Network

JULY 13, 2023

Share Tweet This Story’s Impact 4 million readers a year 200k social reach Yale Environment 360 A new kind of food may soon be arriving on grocery store shelves: climate smart. Under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a nascent U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and roughly a quarter of emissions globally.

Agriculture 82

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Manure 82

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 13, 2024

This industry presents itself as a way to produce a lot of food while keeping costs down. This frequency with which polluting industries are built in these communities is evidence of ongoing environmental injustice. Today, Kimbirauskas is the Senior Director of Agriculture and Food Systems at the State Innovation Exchange (SiX).

Farming 108

Farming Farming Manure Industrial Agriculture 108

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 13, 2024

This industry presents itself as a way to produce a lot of food while keeping costs down. This frequency with which polluting industries are built in these communities is evidence of ongoing environmental injustice. Today, Kimbirauskas is the Senior Director of Agriculture and Food Systems at the State Innovation Exchange (SiX).

Farming 83

Farming Farming Manure Industrial Agriculture 83

Civil Eats

JULY 9, 2024

It was the annual field day at The Mill , a popular Mid-Atlantic retailer of agricultural products including seeds, fertilizer, and pesticides. Last summer, two men shouted friendly greetings from golf carts as they zipped around a field-turned-parking lot, fetching farmers at pick-up trucks and dropping them in front of a barn.

Pesticide 145

Pesticide Marketing Seeding Crop 145

The Equation

DECEMBER 12, 2023

According to the EPA, it applies about a half million tons of pesticides, 12 million tons of nitrogen, and 4 million tons of phosphorus fertilizer to crops in the continental United States every year. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has been ringing the alarm bell about agricultural pollution for years.

Fertilizer 128

Fertilizer Pesticide Agriculture Agriculture 128

National Young Farmers Coalition

JUNE 26, 2024

The Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 recently passed by the House Agriculture Committee does not serve the new generation of farmers and ranchers in this country. Below are some key highlights from the Conservation Title of the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024.

Food 40

Food Farming Farming Farmland 40

The Equation

JANUARY 3, 2024

But industrial agriculture—the second-largest source of damage to US wetlands—celebrated Sackett , because the decision opened millions of acres of wetlands to agricultural development and unmitigated pollution. Who wins when wetlands lose protections?

Industrial Agriculture 117

Industrial Agriculture Acre Agriculture Agriculture 117

Food Environment and Reporting Network

DECEMBER 31, 2024

Ocho Sur’s links to deforestation have profound implications for businesses, consumers, and the environment and what exactly counts as “sustainability” in the palm oil industry. Last year, the European Union passed new regulations on deforestation that promised to be the strictest in the world. “What is oil palm?

Plantation 126

Plantation Acre Cultivation Crop 126