The Equation

MAY 15, 2023

While a small number of winter crops such as small grains (wheat, oats, barley) and forage and pasture crops such as alfalfa can use some winter rain and snow, western agriculture largely depends on a steady supply of irrigated water that has led to extreme groundwater mining. Agriculture is the largest user of water in the western states.

Industrial Agriculture 97

Industrial Agriculture Crop Agriculture Agriculture 97

Agritecture Blog

MAY 19, 2023

But despite the often harsh conditions, agriculture is a key cog in the Australian export economy, with grazing livestock and cereal grain production being the two major pillars. This would not only slash methane emissions but also reduce the land use impact of livestock by eliminating the need for extra grain production as feed.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Livestock Crop 52

Civil Eats

MAY 1, 2024

When Jeff Broberg and his wife, Erica, moved to their 170-acre bean and grain farm in Winona, Minnesota in 1986, their well water measured at 8.6 ppm for nitrates. These nitrogen-based compounds, common in agricultural runoff, are linked to multiple cancers and health issues for those exposed.

Fertilizer 145

Fertilizer Farming Farming Acre 145

Civil Eats

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Farmers would often plow the cover under early in the spring before it could provide optimal soil health benefits, and USDA restrictions didn’t allow much flexibility. Planting a cash crop within a living stand of cover crops, a technique called “planting green,” garners a farmer an additional $10 an acre.

Crop 140

Crop Farming Farming Acre 140

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

DECEMBER 7, 2022

And they raise the risk of additional acres being plowed up to compensate for the lower yields. That’s many millions of tons of grain.” For a dose of on-the-ground reality, I called Trey Hill, a large grain and soybean farmer on Maryland’s eastern shore who has planted cover crops for more than 20 years with the help of state funding.

Agriculture 52

Agriculture Agriculture Crop Cash Crop 52

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

Food Environment and Reporting Network

DECEMBER 12, 2022

And just this year, Russia bombed the Ukrainian port of Odessa to disrupt grain exports. The Germans starved Leningrad during World War II. The CIA force-fed hunger-striking prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

Food 52

Food Greenhouse Cattle Production 52