ATTRA

APRIL 9, 2024

As my tomato plants were more than ready to be set out, I had to get the cover cut, chopped, and plowed into the soil in preparation for transplanting. In 15 minutes, the next garden plot was lightly tilled, plant residue mixed and in reach of the soil microbes I rely on for crop fertility. It’s just a tool, I told myself.

Crop 52

Crop Plowing Rural Development Mechanics 52

Cropaia

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

Traditional plowing or tilling can disrupt the soil structure, making it more susceptible to erosion. With reduced disturbance, their populations can flourish, contributing to improved soil structure and fertility. Over time, they improve soil structure, reduce erosion, and increase soil moisture retention.

Soil Compaction 52

Soil Compaction Crop Rotation Farming Farming 52

Food Environment and Reporting Network

JUNE 1, 2023

They sell the wild and cultivated seaweed dried, and use the less delicious, more abundant kinds to fertilize the saltwater farm they’re reviving nearby. Others want to use kelp to reduce emissions by replacing carbon-intensive materials like soy, fertilizers, plastic, and petroleum with seaweed-derived versions.

Science 52

Science Harvest Harvester Harvesting 52

Hartwood Farm

FEBRUARY 14, 2022

Years of cover cropping and chisel plowing have eliminated compaction and it even grew healthy beans and potatoes during the 21.5” Fortunately, we have the capacity to make these major in-season changes thanks to the joy of having fields just hanging out growing cover crops for fertility that can be quickly conscripted into use!

Crop Rotation 52

Crop Rotation Crop Farming Farming 52

Civil Eats

MAY 1, 2024

Tesdell explained that when his European ancestors settled in the Midwest, they plowed the prairie and switched from deeply rooted perennial plants to shallow-rooted annual crops like wheat, oats, and corn instead. This “leaky system” refers to what is not absorbed by the crops on the field, most dangerously, in this case, fertilizer. “It’s

Fertilizer 145

Fertilizer Farming Farming Acre 145

CalCAN

APRIL 6, 2023

The plowing of agricultural land during the 19th and 20th century released vast stores of carbon dioxide , only a small part of which has since been returned to the soil. Side by side with that loss of diversity was a long growth in greenhouse gas emissions that has only recently begun to be addressed.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Food 52

Food Environment and Reporting Network

JULY 13, 2023

These practices include reducing or eliminating tilling of soil, planting “cover crops” that grow during the off-season and are not harvested, improving how farmers use fertilizer and manure, and planting trees. The main greenhouse gases emitted by U.S. Both warm the atmosphere far more, per molecule, than carbon dioxide.

Agriculture 88

Agriculture Agriculture Greenhouse Manure 88

The Equation

MAY 11, 2023

As climate change continues and farming areas get hotter and drier—as expected in the Southern Great Plains and Southwest—erosion could increasingly take the form of dust storms when bone-dry fields are plowed. Fertilizer runoff can also affect urban communities downstream. All the time.

Agriculture 131

Agriculture Agriculture Fertilizer Plowing 131

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.

Crop 140

Crop Farming Farming Acre 140

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 4, 2023

Black polyethylene “mulch film” gets tucked snugly around crop rows, clear plastic sheeting covers hoop houses, and most farmers use plastic seed trays, irrigation tubes, and fertilizer bags. These synthetic polymer products have often been used to help boost yields up to 60 percent and make water and pesticide use more efficient.

Agriculture 145

Agriculture Agriculture Supply Chain Production 145

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 100

Industrial Agriculture Crop Agriculture Agriculture 100

Agritecture Blog

MAY 19, 2023

‘No-till’ planting and cropping have been widely adopted to reduce the impacts of tillage and increase the soil micro-diversity, lessening the need for synthetic fertilizers.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Livestock Crop 52

Food Environment and Reporting Network

DECEMBER 7, 2022

And they raise the risk of additional acres being plowed up to compensate for the lower yields. This can happen when farmers apply too much fertilizer — or when nitrogen enters the soil from decaying plant matter, including cover crops. percent for corn and 3.5

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Crop Cash Crop 52

The Counter

APRIL 27, 2022

All around Cobb, land-owning neighbors are beginning to lease out their fertile farmland—not to farmers, but to solar companies, taking that land out of production at a time when more, not less, farmland is needed to grow our food. Landowners Cobb leased from were similarly averse to mixing things up.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Farmland Acre 52

Food Environment and Reporting Network

MARCH 1, 2025

Diesel-powered tractors replaced horse-powered plows, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers replaced their manure. Its not overly reductive to say it boils down to a half century of intentional federal farm policy. In the years after World War II, U.S. farms in the upper Midwest underwent an industrial revolution.

Food 60

Food Crop Processing Tractor 60