Economy-Food Production
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How circular farming can build food security in arid lands
by Zulfiqar Hamadani 25/6/25 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Desert agriculture rarely takes centre stage in global conversations around climate change and sustainability.
Modern farming is harming the planet. Tech-driven permaculture could heal it
by Viktor Weber 28/2/19 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Healthy soil leads to healthy humans. Sir Albert Howard, one of the forethinkers of organic agriculture and composting, explored this link in the early 20th century. Sir Albert recognized soil as a living organism, not just as an exploitable commodity, as we do nowadays.
Window Farming: A Do-It-Yourself Veggie Venture
If you have a green thumb, a window and a serious Do-It-Yourself ethic, you too, can be a farmer ... even in your downtown apartment building. Spring is here, and for urban dwellers with no access to soil, hydroponic gardening is a way to grow fresh veggies indoors.
Health-Care Mess Makes Farming Even Riskier
by Deena Shanker 28/6/17 Bloomberg
In a recent survey led by the University of Vermont, three out of four U.S. farmers and ranchers said health insurance was an important or very important risk management strategy for their businesses. The vast majority—92 percent—said they had health insurance in 2016. That’s about the same as the general population, at 91 percent. But insurance plays a special role in farming, one of the most dangerous industries in the country, and one that plays a vital, if often distant, role in every American’s life.
Organic farming 'benefits biodiversity'
Organic farms act as a refuge for wild plants, offsetting the loss of biodiversity on conventional farms, a study suggests.
Even Mega-Farms Are Mostly Family Owned
by Maggie Koerth 22/11/16 FiveThirtyEight
Farms are getting bigger and the smallest farms aren’t real farms — that’s what I told you last week in a story about how the official definition of “farm” in the national Agricultural Census obscures the consolidation that the farming industry has experienced over the past 30 years. But there’s another important part to this story: Consolidation isn’t the same thing as the loss of family farms. Ninety-seven percent of U.S. farms are family-owned, according to the most recent Agricultural Census.1
Meet the California farmers awash in Colorado River water, even in a drought
EL CENTRO, Calif. — A few hundred farms in the southern tip of California, along the Mexican border, may hold the key to saving the drought-plagued Colorado River from collapse.
The real value of urban farming. (Hint: It’s not always the food.)
Farming could empower millions of women across South Asia - here's how
by M Niaz Asadullah 2/7/20 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
South Asia’s record on gender equality is weak, to say the least. The region has the world’s highest rate of child marriage, and domestic violence against women is pervasive. Women are over-represented in unpaid work, and under-represented in the labor force, even in countries like Sri Lanka, which has invested heavily in girls’ schooling. Yet there is one sector where women are taking over: agriculture. This is an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment that should not be missed.
Column: When industrial-scale farming is the sustainable path
by Miriam Horn 6/9/16 PBS NEWS
Justin Knopf farms 4,500 acres in central Kansas, producing wheat, soy, sorghum and alfalfa for national and global markets, using synthetic pesticides, fertilizer and GMOs. In some quarters, those facts would suffice to condemn him as a villain of “Big Ag.” But Justin is a conservation hero, showing the way to restore soils and biodiversity, protect clean water and the atmosphere and feed a growing global population without giving over still more of the planet to agriculture — which already covers half of Earth’s ice-free land, uses 70 percent of all fresh water and has greater impacts on biodiversity than any other human enterprise.
9 charts that show US factory farming is even bigger than you realize
by Marina Bolotnikova 26/2/24 Vox
Factory farms are now so big that we need a new word for them.
Biden could do a lot to fight factory farming even without Congress
Whole farm planning raises profit despite burgeoning climate crisis
by Albert Muleke 13/10/22 scientific reports
The climate crisis challenges farmer livelihoods as increasingly frequent extreme weather events impact the quantum and consistency of crop production. Here, we develop a novel paradigm to raise whole farm profit by optimising manifold variables that drive the profitability of irrigated grain farms.
Understanding smallholder farmers’ perceptions of agroecology
by Mary Ann A. Batas 17/3/25 npj
In Indonesia, smallholder farmers play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity and cultural practices closely tied to food security. However, they face numerous sustainability challenges.
Farmer typology and drivers of agricultural mechanization use in Haiti
by Bénédique Paul 25/5/24 scienific reports
Agricultural mechanization is recognized as an important technology to increase agricultural productivity, face labor shortages, and reduce post-harvest loss. However, variations among farms’ characteristics and agricultural production systems suggest adopting a targeted strategy in mechanization programs for farmers.
Why the food system is the next frontier in climate action
by Daniel J. O’Brien 20/4/23 Climate Connections
While recent federal bills have advanced climate solutions through the lenses of infrastructure, electricity production, and transportation, policymakers are now turning their attention to another major source of planet-heating emissions: the food system. In its March 2023 report on U.S. biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation, the White House emphasized a coming focus on climate-centric agriculture.
Wisconsin Farmers Leading on Conservation
One of the best things about living in Wisconsin is the food—from summer sweet corn to the delicious cheese made by Wisconsin cheesemakers using milk produced by Wisconsin dairy cows.
Food Studies: Old-world innovation
by Kathryn Tomajan 29/11/11 Grist
Le Biancane geothermal park.Photo: Yvone De ZeeuwFood Studies features the voices of volunteer student bloggers from a variety of different food- and agriculture-related programs at universities around the world. You can explore the full series here.
Feeding the World and Protecting Nature
by The Nature Conservancy 24/4/22
In Minnesota alone, our farmers support a $17 billion agriculture industry—ranking fifth for food production in the nation.
Opinion: Why Cities Are the Future for Farming
by Caleb Harper 14/10/16 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Humanity’s impact on the environment has become undeniable and will continue to manifest itself in ways already familiar to us, except on a grander scale. In a warmer world, heavier floods, more intense droughts, and unpredictable, violent, and increasingly frequent storms could become a new normal.
Climate change skepticism of European farmers and implications for effective policy actions
by Lea Kröner 21/5/25 communications earth & environment
European farmers struggle with mitigating global emissions of greenhouse gases effectively and to cope with climate change. European regulators and national governments encounter obstacles in implementing environmental policies, feeding frustration amongst farmers. We hypothesize that these issues relate to climate change skepticism within the farming community and dissensus with non-farmers and between countries.
Sustainable Agriculture
by The Nature Conservancy 2/6/25
There are 95,000 farms in Missouri, second most in the United States—and that makes agriculture one of our greatest opportunities for conservation.
3 big food system problems begging for innovation
by Nathanael Johnson 9/3/15 Grist
When individuals want to help the world feed itself equitably, healthily, and sustainably, what should they do?
Small Wetlands, Big Benefit: How to Harness Nature to Filter Agriculture Runoff
by The Nature Conservancy 15/4/24
John Franklin’s farm has been in his family for 170 years. “That’s why I’m into conservation, that long history,” he explains. “We want to keep it going for the next generation.” Along with his brother and other family members, Franklin grows corn and soybeans on his property in Lexington, Illinois, bordering the Mackinaw River.
Review of research and innovation on novel fertilizers for crop nutrition
by Tai McClellan Maaz 10/5/25 npj
Responsible plant nutrition requires innovation to improve nutrient use efficiency across diverse agricultural systems. This review highlights nanofertilizers, biofertilizers, and next-generation enhanced-efficiency fertilizers, examining nutrient-release mechanisms, yield impacts, environmental outcomes, and commercialization challenges.
Precision Agriculture: Potential and Limits
by David Cleary 29/3/17 The Nature Conservancy
Working on the interface between agriculture and conservation is usually an incremental thing: diligent and patient work over the long-term—gradually bending the curve in the right direction. But precision agriculture may in fact be different.
Farmers don’t try new things because it’s too risky. This could change that
by Nathanael Johnson 3/3/16 Grist
If you peruse news sites like Grist regularly, you’ve read about some amazing new gizmo that promises to make farming sustainable forever more. And, a few years later, you may have remembered that story and wondered why that innovation failed to transform agriculture. The answer is that farmers just didn’t buy it.
Agriculture: Engage farmers in research
by Tom MacMillan 30/4/14 nature
A new wave of small-scale agricultural innovation will boost yields and protect the planet, contend Tom MacMillan and Tim G. Benton.
Responsible development of autonomous robotics in agriculture
by David Christian Rose 20/5/21 nature food
Despite the potential contributions of autonomous robots to agricultural sustainability, social, legal and ethical issues threaten adoption. We discuss how responsible innovation principles can be embedded into the user-centred design of autonomous robots and identify areas for further empirical research.
Dairy Industry Aims for GHG Neutrality
by The Nature Conservancy 26/7/24
The agriculture and food industries are increasingly recognizing the inherent connection between a secure food supply chain, biodiversity, and a stable climate. The U.S. dairy industry is leading by example with an ambitious commitment to environmental sustainability.
Innovative Greenhouses Help Farmers Adapt to Climate Change
by Janice Cantieri 11/4/18 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
In 2015 and 2016, water shortages threatened his crops. And when the rains came, they were often so heavy that they damaged even the hardier plants, causing disease or infestation.
A Movement Grows to Help Farmers Reduce Pollution and Turn a Profit
by Janet Marinelli 12/3/20 YaleEnvironment360
In Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Beaver Run carves a triangular piece of bottomland as it turns east to join French Creek. A gnarled old American sycamore grows in the narrow fringe of native forest bordering the stream. On a cold, gray winter’s day, agroforester Austin Unruh pulls on a woolen beanie and points out the variety of saplings poking through the straw-colored carpet of dormant grasses beyond the thin band of forest.
Agriculture in the Midwest
by Larry Clemens The Nature conservancy
The Midwest is known for its bountiful and diverse agricultural production. Its fertile lands and waters provide ideal conditions for corn, soybeans and wheat crops, as well as 15% of the country’s dairy products. Between the production of crops and livestock, the region produces $14.5 billion in annual agricultural sales.
Investigating the impact of the internet on managing green financial innovation and improving agricultural conditions in water-scarce Asian regions using ANN modeling
by Xiaohan Sheng 27/9/24 Scientific reports
This research focuses on the importance of management strategies, green innovation, and sustainable practices in the agricultural sector. These factors are crucial for job creation, food security, and environmental conservation.
Genetic breeding for indoor vertical farming
by Zhi Wei Norman Teo 2/8/24 npj
Indoor vertical farming emerges as a sustainable paradigm, enabling crop cultivation in vertically layered ecosystems under precisely controlled environmental parameters. This innovative approach not only bolsters climate resilience but also minimizes the strain on precious arable land and water resources, aligning with sustainable principles. While posited as a transformative solution to global food security challenges and the limitations of traditional agriculture, a pivotal facet within indoor farming necessitates sustainable optimization: the crops cultivated within.
Beyond precision: why smarter agriculture needs systems thinking
by nature custom medias nature portfolio
Agriculture is more high-tech than ever, with real-time moisture sensors, automated sprayers, and satellite imagery helping farmers use water, fertilizers, and pesticides efficiently. But even the best technology won’t drive sustainability if farmers can’t tailor new methods to their land or afford the investment.
In Farming, a Constant Drive For Technology
A cross Midwestern farms, if Girish Chowdhary has his way, farmers will someday release beagle-sized robots into their fields like a pack of hounds flushing pheasant. The robots, he says, will scurry in the cool shade beneath a wide diversity of plants, pulling weeds, planting cover crops, diagnosing plant infections, and gathering data to help farmers optimize their farms.
North America Agriculture
by Kris Johnson The Nature Conservancy
Feeding a growing world while reducing the environmental impact of food production is one of humanity's greatest challenges today. Fortunately, solutions are within reach. Science tells us that shifting to a regenerative agriculture system can produce food in ways that work in harmony with nature, while delivering enduring benefits for people and the planet.
How technology is helping farmers grow more food with less chemicals
Jon Walz’s century-old farm in Stapleton, Nebraska, has 300 head of cattle, corn fields, and other crops, including oats and rye. On a recent morning in April, the whole farm seemed to need his attention after temperatures abruptly swung from frigid winter lows to sweltering summer highs.
Europe's illegal pesticide trade surges as farmers cut costs
by Karolina Tagaris 10/7/25 Reuters
THESSALY, Greece, July 10 (Reuters) - As the cost of spraying crops with pesticides becomes increasingly expensive, farmers in Greece's agricultural heartland have turned to a cheaper alternative: liquids in unlabeled plastic bottles smuggled over land and sea.
Solar grazing undergoing rapid growth, census finds
by Rachel Metea 18/5/25 PV magazine
The scale of livestock grazing in agrivoltaic installations is much larger than previously understood, found the first solar grazing census by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the American Solar Grazing Association.
‘This way of farming is really sexy’: the rise of regenerative agriculture
by Alexandra Topping 14/8/23 The Guardian
Hollie Fallick looks over Brading on the Isle of Wight, at a patchwork of fields bordered by ancient oaks, which stretches to the Solent. “We still have to pinch ourselves every day,” says the 30-year-old, as she surveys the 50 hectares (125 acres) she farms with her best friend, Francesca Cooper, 34.
Regen agriculture outperforms conventional farming across key metrics
The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture has released the results of new study which reveals that regenerative farming systems across Europe are not only environmentally superior but bring higher returns for farmers and are more resilient than conventional models.
What the farmers say
In my experience, it is rare to hear farmers from the Global South discussing their challenges and aspirations, and what might be useful support to receive from successful restaurateurs and resort owners. That’s why I’m delighted to release a short film that brings you the voices of organic and regenerative farmers in dialogue with others in the food business sector in Bali, Indonesia.
Common farm fungicide may be contributing to 'insect apocalypse'
by Fran Molloy 1/7/25 PHYS ORG
A widely-used agricultural chemical sprayed on fruits and vegetables to prevent fungal disease is also killing beneficial insects that play a critical role in pollination and wider ecosystems.
Great Plains farmers consider switching crops as aquifer runs out of water
The aquifer that makes agriculture in the Great Plains possible is running out of water, primarily from overirrigation. That has farmers considering different crops. Calen Moore of the Kansas News Service reports.
Researchers make stunning discovery after examining farmland treated only with organic fertilizers for decades: '[Will] help us to move forward'
by Juliana Marino 13/10/24 TCD
Researchers at Kansas State University have been studying how different farming practices impact the amount of carbon stored in the soil. After comparing their results, the researchers concluded that soil treated with manure or compost fertilizer stores more carbon than soil treated with chemical fertilizers or no fertilizer.
Cancer is just everywhere’: could farming be behind Iowa’s unfolding health crisis?
Six months ago, Alex Hammer was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 37. Dianne Chambers endured surgery, chemotherapy and dozens of rounds of radiation to fight aggressive breast cancer, and Janan Haugen spends most days helping care for her 16-year-old grandson, who is still being treated for brain cancer he developed at the age of seven.
|The Powerful Potential Of Tiny Conservation Plots
Urban agriculture — that is, growing crops in a city setting — is becoming a popular alternative to industrial farming for eco-conscious city dwellers. Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, members of the community garden movement transformed myriad abandoned lots into green spaces in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Seattle.]]]
Regen agriculture outperforms conventional farming across key metrics
The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture has released the results of new study which reveals that regenerative farming systems across Europe are not only environmentally superior but bring higher returns for farmers and are more resilient than conventional models.
Climate Brief: Declining world birth rates mean immigration is now indispensable part 1
The latest UN population projections reveal a world on the cusp of a stunning demographic transformation. The global baby bust continues to deepen, countries almost everywhere are aging, and a growing number face long-term demographic decline. In this Vantage Point, we discuss the coming global demographic transformation, as well as the daunting social, economic, and geopolitical challenges it poses group
Seeds and beyond: Native Americans embrace ‘food sovereignty’
Christian Science Monitor Richard Mertens 2/22/21
For many Native Americans, the return to traditional foods is part of a wider effort to “decolonize” their people, a way to repair the economic and cultural damage inflicted by European Americans who drove them from their lands, confined them to reservations, sent them to boarding schools, and tried to sever them from their old ways. It means not just planting old seeds but reviving the economic and cultural life, the ceremonies, the customs and beliefs, around food and food production.
New Evidence Shows Fertile Soil Gone From Midwestern Farms
Thaler's team then expanded their study to fields of corn, soybeans, and other crops within a large area of the upper Midwest that includes much of Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. They calculated that about a third of the crops were growing on erosion-prone hills. This produced their estimate that a third of all cropland in that region had lost its topsoil.
Officials are using the word 'disaster' to describe the widespread crop failures happening all over America
<embed>https://www.sott.net/article/423731-Officials-are-using-the-word-disaster-to-describe-the-widespread-crop-failures-happening-all-over-America</embed> SOTT 11/11/19
The endless rain and horrific flooding during the early months of this year resulted in tremendous delays in getting crops planted in many areas, and now snow and bitterly cold temperatures are turning harvest season into a complete and utter nightmare all over the country. I am going to share with you a whole bunch of examples below, but first I wanted to mention the snow and bitterly cold air that are rolling through the middle of the nation right now..
The Meat Mogul’s Case For Lab-Grown Beef
<embed>https://newrepublic.com/article/154269/meat-moguls-case-lab-grown-beef</embed> The New Republic 7/03/2019
He emphasized that the entire “cell-to-fork” process for growing and harvesting lab meats is two to six weeks—a blink of an eye compared with the two and a half years it typically takes to grow cattle from conception to maturity. That represents huge cost and energy savings. Hayes also pointed out that cultured meats eliminate concerns about E. coli and other pathogens that can contaminate animal meat during processing.
