Sustainable Food Trust

JANUARY 14, 2025

As news of weed killer resistant plants hits the headlines, Patrick Holden reflects on discussions at the latest Oxford Real Farming Conference, highlighting why the plough may not be the worst option when it comes to nature-friendly cultivation. The theme was how ploughing and cultivation can be good for soil health.

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Ploughing Cultivation Pesticide Farming 59

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 24, 2023

But she maintains that “organic is still really important,” and that’s why USDA organic standards, food grown without most pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, is the minimum baseline for the ROC certification.

Food 94

Food Ranching Ecology Fertilizer 94

Sustainable Food Trust

JUNE 14, 2023

But will the current trend away from ploughing towards direct drilling and the accompanying use of glyphosate bring the benefits advocates claim, or could this make matters even worse? Richard Young follows on from his article, Speed the plough or the direct drill and sprayer?

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Ploughing Crop Yield Farming 52

Daily Yonder

APRIL 11, 2023

As a kid from rural Iowa, I have joked about growing up with herbicide for breakfast, pesticide for lunch, and fertilizer for supper. I was 10 years old when neighbors began using crop dusters to apply pesticides and herbicides. This means that many farmers continue to apply herbicides to eliminate a winter cover crop.

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Farming Farming Acre Seeding 52

RR2CS

MARCH 8, 2022

Often, in conventional agriculture, muskeg areas and sloughs are drained and ploughed. We weren’t going to use fungicides, herbicides, nor pesticides — partly for the health of the land and the diversity of the ecosystem, and partly for our own health. There’s an awareness that we can’t damage this forest ecosystem,” says Jenna.

Farming 52

Farming Farming Forage Seeding 52

Sustainable Food Trust

DECEMBER 4, 2023

Pesticides are damaging to soil, killing a range of organisms that are vital to soil health. Despite this, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides are still widely used in agriculture and these chemicals have become “ the most significant driver of soil biodiversity loss in the past decade ”.

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Food Ploughing Pesticide Fertilizer 128