Civil Eats

OCTOBER 2, 2023

The biosolids created as sewage breaks down can be used as fertilizer on farmland, a practice that the Environmental Protection Agency still touts as “beneficial,” even though spreading these highly toxic chemicals across farmland allows the compounds to leach into the groundwater, contaminate crops grown on the land, and affect grazing animals.

Farming 118

Farming Farming Farmland Crop 118

Modern Farmer

DECEMBER 5, 2023

It’s been a decent year at the 200,000-acre spread, with enough forage for the 2,000 mother cows and their calves. Many farms and feedlots have runoff, whether this is excess manure, pesticides and herbicides or fertilizers such as phosphorus and nitrogen, both implicated in climate change. Bob Boucher with a beaver.

Ranching 122

Ranching Cattle Acre Pasture 122

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

DECEMBER 8, 2023

That means that when there is a heavy rainstorm, the soil will keep absorbing it even while less fertile soils let the rain (and associated nutrients) wash off into nearby bodies of water. Such practices can also reduce nitrous oxide emissions, in part by reducing the need to apply synthetic fertilizers.

Ranching 71

Ranching Crop Greenhouse Pasture 71

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

JANUARY 17, 2024

However, solutions to livestock methane center on feed supplements and energy capture from liquid manure systems rather than grazing systems. The authors also note ongoing and increasing “disruptions to the ability of subsistence-based peoples to access food through hunting, fishing, and foraging.” the Osage Nation’s community orchard.

Agriculture 104

Agriculture Agriculture Livestock Forage 104

Food Tank

OCTOBER 11, 2023

The vineyards are weeded only using hoes, never herbicides, and fertilized with manure. 64° Reykjavik Distillery, Iceland 64° Reykjavik Distillery continues Iceland’s tradition of foraging and respect for the land. Their brewery in Wales became the first carbon-neutral, nonalcoholic brewery in the world earlier this year.

Beverage 115

Beverage Ecology Cultivation Compost 115

Modern Farmer

JULY 10, 2023

His 580-acre farm grows enough forage to supply the herd, so “I’m good with where I’m at,” he adds. Within decades, a network of dams, levees and canals had dried up the basin, transforming the fertile crater into an agricultural hub. And it’s not just the manure, he adds—cows also burp 220 pounds of methane annually.

Farming 89

Farming Farming Manure Agriculture 89

Caff

JUNE 13, 2023

The Problem Although not all fire fallout is toxic, the impacts on livestock and crops from wildfire ash containing contaminants from household products, vehicles, fuel, fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, electrical systems, etc. Designated Containment Areas Keep pesticides/fertilizers, etc.

Food 52

Food Livestock Pesticide Crop 52

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

JULY 14, 2023

And beyond the diversification associated with cropping fields, adding livestock diversity into a system can reduce challenges like pests and diseases while allowing for nutrient cycling from livestock to soil and back to crop or forage species. Mixed summer forage in the Southeast U.S.

Agriculture 81

Agriculture Agriculture Crop Rotation Pasture 81

Civil Eats

JANUARY 23, 2024

Along with reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, practices that build healthy soil, for example, make land more resilient to drought, flooding, wildfires, and erosion. Their insight is essential to creating sustainable, culturally sensitive, and region-specific policies, she says.

Agriculture 83

Agriculture Agriculture Food Ranching 83

The Equation

AUGUST 10, 2023

For example, ranchers fatten cattle on grain during the final months of their lives in large-scale feedlots, which—along with massive hog and poultry feeding operations—are major sources of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, primarily due to the way cattle digest fiber and the mismanagement of open-air manure lagoons.

Food 98

Food Farming Farming Agriculture 98

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

MAY 10, 2024

Expands the types of “new or innovative conservation approaches” funded through On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials to include on-farm nutrient recycling, perennial production systems including agroforestry and perennial forages and grain crops, and livestock-related practices that reduce GHG emissions including enteric methane emissions.

Ruralism 106

Ruralism Food Farming Farming 106