farming

5 States That Grow the Most Organic Food Per Acre

5 States That Grow the Most Organic Food Per Acre

A new report has found that U.S. land for organic farming reached 4.1 million acres in 2016, a new record and an 11 percent increase compared to 2014. As of June 2016, the number of certified organic farms in the U.S. reached 14,979, a 6.2 percent increase of 1,000 farms compared to 2014 survey data. […]

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    Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found in Oilfields Supplying Wastewater to Irrigate Food Crops

    Cancer-Causing Chemicals Found in Oilfields Supplying Wastewater to Irrigate Food Crops

    People in California’s Central Valley could be drinking water tainted by cancer-causing chemicals used in oilfields, and current water-testing procedures would not detect these substances, according to a scientific report released Tuesday by researchers at PSE Healthy Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California and the University of the Pacific. More than 100 […]

    Visting Iceland’s Food and Farming Community

    Visting Iceland’s Food and Farming Community

    By Karen Stillerman As a food lover and an agriculture geek, I frequently plan vacations around what there is to eat. This summer, I traveled to Iceland, ostensibly to admire its breathtaking scenery and ride its tough little horses. As a bonus, I escaped a couple weeks of DC’s stifling heat. But of course, I […]

    Heirloom Non-GMO Corn Is Helping Sustain Mexico’s Heritage and Farmers

    Heirloom Non-GMO Corn Is Helping Sustain Mexico’s Heritage and Farmers

    It’s not often that a conversation inspires an idea leading to a project that improves people’s lives and potentially transforms an industry. But that’s what happened to Jorge Gaviria, founder of Masienda. While serving as a host and translator at the G9 Chefs Summit at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York […]

    Can Organic Farming Feed the World?

    Can Organic Farming Feed the World?

    By Kendra Klein and Kari Hamerschlag Forty five years have passed since Earl Butz, then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, asserted, “Before we go back to organic agriculture in this country, somebody must decide which 50 million Americans we are going to let starve or go hungry.” Time has proven Butz very wrong. The weight of […]

    How Eating Healthy Improves Farming Communities and the Environment

    How Eating Healthy Improves Farming Communities and the Environment

    Eating fresher, healthier food would not only be good for our bodies—it would improve the health of our farmland, environment and rural communities. The Healthy Farmland Diet, a new report from Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), uses economic modeling techniques to estimate the effects of changing food consumption on agricultural land use. This Michigan farm uses […]

    Worldwide Honey Bee Collapse: A Lesson in Ecology

    Worldwide Honey Bee Collapse: A Lesson in Ecology

    Greenpeace By Rex Weyler We know what is killing the bees. Worldwide Bee Colony Collapse is not as big a mystery as the chemical companies claim. The systemic nature of the problem makes it complex, but not impenetrable. Scientists know that bees are dying from a variety of factors—pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air […]