Civil Eats

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

He was paid to plant it by the Olmsted County Groundwater Protection and Soil Health Program , a local effort that seeks to reduce overall fertilizer use by building soil—therefore cutting down on the nutrients that enter waterways—while helping farmers save money. Each farm can qualify for a maximum of around $15,000 in payments per year.

Crop 140

Crop Farming Farming Acre 140

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

The experience led him to start learning about regenerative agriculture and the benefits raising chickens could have for the soil fertility and sustainability of his nine acres. On the farm, they minimize and reuse waste streams by recycling animals and manure that act as food for black soldier fly grubs.

Poultry 128

Poultry Farming Farming Processing 128

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

They ate grains that couldn’t be sold.” Photos courtesy of Wendy Johnson) The sheep were getting sick from eating too much grain, so Johnson worked to reestablish a natural savanna, a mixed woodland and grassland ecosystem that had once been prevalent on Iowa’s landscape but was destroyed by grazing and row crops. Johnson laughs.

Acre 126

Acre Farming Farming Pasture 126

UnderstandingAg

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Another portion of carbon is removed when the grain is harvested. It’s the tiny input from fertilizer and seed. We typically add very little carbon to our fields unless we are adding a lot of manure or compost. You may have heard people say that soil ‘breathes’. The diagram shows that this is true.

Compost 95

Compost Acre Processing Crop 95

Modern Farmer

JANUARY 9, 2024

Anyone who’s spent time in Mexico can report firsthand on the country’s deep reverence for corn, that infinitely versatile and nutritive grain that forms the base of the country’s daily bread, the tortilla, as well as a multitude of other traditional foods.

Crop 112

Crop Plantation Seeding Agriculture 112

Modern Farmer

OCTOBER 13, 2023

From 2014 to 2021, Minnesota farmer James Wolf raised organic soybeans, corn and wheat, selling the grains to farmers across the midwest, both for seed and animal feed. Selling organic grain allowed Wolf to make more money than selling conventional grain—a lot more money. What happens if their manure comes under scrutiny?

Food 100

Food Supply Chain Farming Farming 100

Wisconsin Farmers Union

AUGUST 30, 2022

Some have joined groups to learn about innovative farming practices such as cover crops, minimum tillage or low-disturbance manure application. It’s not just manure causing (groundwater contamination) problems, it’s also fertilizer. “So That’s where all the fertility comes from.

Manure 52

Manure Farming Farming Distribution 52

Civil Eats

AUGUST 16, 2023

The birds spend every day outside—where they eat a combination of dry grain, sprouted grain, bugs, and plants—in one paddock, and when the plants there have been sufficiently grazed down, they’re moved to a second one. Each poultry flock or “unit” includes 1,500 chickens, a barn, and 1.5

Poultry 98

Poultry Processing Acre Farming 98

Cropaia

OCTOBER 31, 2023

This technique aims to enhance soil fertility, control pests and diseases, and optimize crop yield. Deep-rooted crops, such as certain grains or brassicas, can help retrieve nutrients from deeper soil layers, making them available for subsequent crops. This added organic matter enhances soil structure and microbial activity.

Crop Rotation 56

Crop Rotation Crop Crop Yield Yield 56

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

JULY 14, 2023

Greater increases in structural, variety, and species diversity may be created with agroforestry systems, mixing trees and shrubs into annual and perennial grain, legume, and vegetable crops. The mix fixes nitrogen and livestock can graze the mix directly in the field, returning nutrients to the soil via manure.

Agriculture 87

Agriculture Agriculture Pasture Crop Rotation 87

CalCAN

APRIL 6, 2023

Holistic land management that builds diversity of crops and livestock , adds perennials in the form of agroforestry and deep-rooted perennial grasses like grains, keeps the soil covered and living roots in the ground , and integrates livestock into the landscape all represent highly effective climate and agriculture solutions.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Food 52

RR2CS

FEBRUARY 10, 2022

Instead, we are fall ridging for potatoes directly into grain stubble, using our irrigation to get the soil to the right moisture, to enable a single pass. They don’t treat any of their grain seed, along with some varieties of their potatoes. “As Our fall ridger has a valmar that we use to seed a multi-species cover crop.”

Farming 52

Farming Farming Crop Manure 52

Food Tank

DECEMBER 27, 2023

The organization introduces beneficial plants called green manure/cover crops which fertilize the soil, control weeds, and respond to periods of drought. GRACE is behind FoodPrint, a project that raises awareness of food systems issues through reports and other resources.

Food 145

Food Agriculture Agriculture Seeding 145

Civil Eats

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

Instead, while there is plenty of uncertainty, the most likely causes are fewer cattle burping methane and less fertilizer use. Concentrated feedlot cattle farming and fertilizer production are among the biggest drivers of emissions from agriculture. Corn is the main driver of nitrogen fertilizer use,” said Lilliston.

Agriculture 140

Agriculture Agriculture Fertilizer Cattle 140

Food Environment and Reporting Network

JANUARY 8, 2024

Ibrahim Katampe, a professor and administrator at Central State University, a public HBCU in Wilberforce, Ohio, runs a climate-smart project that will provide free organic fertilizer to Black and other minority farmers. Photo by Amy Mayer. Perhaps the biggest obstacle for meeting the equity goal isn’t structural, but a matter of trust.

Manure 122

Manure Fertilizer Distribution Farming 122

The Lunatic Farmer

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

Blessings, joel HILLSDALE COLLEGE PARALLEL ECONOMIES—AGRICULTURE Joel Salatin This spring when Russia invaded Ukraine, fertilizer prices increased in some cases 400 percent and global grain shipments sputtered, our farm didn’t feel anything because we don’t buy fertilizer and we don’t buy foreign grain.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Fertilizer Manure 52

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 110

Ruralism Food Farming Farming 110

Food Environment and Reporting Network

MARCH 1, 2025

Diesel-powered tractors replaced horse-powered plows, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers replaced their manure. Farmers no longer reliant on horses no longer needed to grow crops to feed them and thus oats and other “small grains” began to vanish from the landscape. In the years after World War II, U.S.

Food 59

Food Crop Processing Tractor 59

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. As a result, smaller producers often face greater hurdles in adopting any practices that sit outside the mainstream.

Agriculture 139

Agriculture Agriculture Ranching Food 139

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