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Black Earth: A Family’s Journey from Enslavement to Reclamation

Civil Eats

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.

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In Fire-Stricken Maui, Sustainable Land Management Is Key

Modern Farmer

Photo: Jasmine Pankratz) Once home to large-scale plantations and ranches that dominated the landscape for more than 160 years, the steep and steady decline of Hawaiian agriculture has left fields and pastures idle by thousands of acres, often in close proximity to residential development. The sugar industry soon dominated the island economy.

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The Future of Resilient Agricultural Communities in California Is Alive in Allensworth

The Equation

We must not forget that at that time the economic options for Black Americans were scarcely more than sharecropping on former plantations or brutal industrial labor in northern cities; political and social freedoms were systematically denied. Those corporations spray pesticides that often drifts over people and sensitive environmental areas.

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Beyond Farm to Table: How Chefs Can Support Climate-Friendly Food Systems

Civil Eats

It’s a tedious but worthwhile process: drying mushrooms, vegetables, and herbs, making pickles and slaw, and preserving garlic blossoms and coriander seeds in airtight jars before these ingredients vanish with the end of the season. Seafood processing houses, they just cut the filet off and throw the carcass in the bin.

Food 109
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Coffee as we know it is in danger. Can we breed a better cup?

Agritecture Blog

And while the loss of coffee wouldn’t necessarily cause mass starvation, a whole lot relies on it: hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers and coffee-processing jobs in the tropics, as well as the gross domestic product of several countries like Nicaragua and Uganda. Thousands of hectares of agroforestry systems were razed as a result.

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Can Linen Make a Comeback in North America?

Modern Farmer

Early European settlers brought flax with them and used rudimentary tools to process it. As textile mills began to proliferate, the cotton grown on Southern plantations, which relied on the labor of enslaved people, proved to be a cheaper option than flax. She used every bit of the fiber she processed.

Textiles 118
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Soil Builds Prosperity From the Ground Up

Modern Farmer

And the process of turning these components into soil is incredibly slow and microscopic. And today, even when the soil stays on the ground, we’re actively destroying it through the use of pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and more. She describes this process in natural terms, as the composting of sadness and grief.

Food 110