By Matthew R Sanderson, Burke Griggs and Jacob A. Miller A slow-moving crisis threatens the U.S. Central Plains, which grow a quarter of the nation’s crops. Underground, the region’s lifeblood – water – is disappearing, placing one of the world’s major food-producing regions at risk. The Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer is one of the world’s largest […]
By Sean Taylor MilkRun, a Portland, Oregon-based company, is supporting small, local farmers by enabling them to sell produce safely and directly to consumers’ homes. Founded by farmer and entrepreneur Julia Niiro, MilkRun is an online platform that lets farmers set their own prices, cutting out wholesalers, shippers, and truckers. Once consumers place an order […]
It’s harvest time, and by eating what’s in season locally, people can reduce the carbon pollution caused by trucking food long distances. That’s easy to do when farmers markets are open. But it can be more challenging in the dead of winter, especially in cold regions. So Brooke Knisley of Alternative Roots Farm in Minnesota […]
By Ray Levy-Uyeda A farmer for most of his life, Sam Stewart bought farmland in Montana about 35 years ago. Since then, he’s planted and harvested his wheat and other crops around 16 open oil wells on this land, which he estimates were dug in the 1920s. Maneuvering around the wells is not an arduous […]
By Katell Ané The European Commission launched a new Farm to Fork strategy in an effort to reduce the social and environmental impact of the European food system. It is the newest strategy under the European Green Deal, setting sustainability targets for farmers, consumers, and policymakers. “Farmers are under extreme pressure,” Stefan de Keersmaeker, European […]
By Danielle Nierenberg and Maya Osman-Krinsky In the United States, over 2,000 acres of agricultural land are sold every day for housing or commercial development, according to the American Farmland Trust. This has especially affected Black farmers who, since 1920, have seen nearly a 90 percent decline in land ownership, according to the U.S. Census. […]
By Isabelle Gerretsen “When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy,” Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW. With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location and an 80% import rate for […]
Rainforests are an important defense against climate change because they absorb carbon. But many are being destroyed on a massive scale. In the tropics, farmers often slash and burn forests to clear fertile land for crops. The practice involves cutting down vegetation and burning it. But the soil’s fertility does not last long, so the […]
By Julian Agyeman and Kofi Boone Underlying the recent unrest sweeping U.S. cities over police brutality is a fundamental inequity in wealth, land and power that has circumscribed black lives since the end of slavery in the U.S. The “40 acres and a mule” promised to formerly enslaved Africans never came to pass. There was […]
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