Tag Archives | farming

The Dinosaurs in My Backyard

The Dinosaurs in My Backyard

by guest blogger Leah Zerbe. All over the United States, people are opening their lawns and gardens to prehistoric animals, allowing them to peck at pests, feast on weed seeds, and slurp down blades of grass like spaghetti. I myself have about 80 dinosaurs running around the pastures of my family farm.

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So God Made an Organic Farmer

So God Made an Organic Farmer

And on the Eighth day, after she had rested,
God remembered to make someone
To truly care for her creation.
So God made an organic farmer…

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Better Bacon

Better Bacon

by guest blogger Coach Mark Smallwood. We do love our bacon. When the rumor of an “unavoidable bacon shortage” hit the airways late last month, American citizens went what can only be described as hog wild. There isn’t really a bacon shortage, but the cost of pork will most certainly be rising globally in 2013. But two small changes to how we look at production and consumption could make a big difference in our food future.

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Polluting our Backyard to Feed China

Polluting our Backyard to Feed China

By guest blogger Andrew Gunther. As our domestic demand for intensively produced meat continues to drop dramatically, we are about to let the meat industry continue to pollute our environment and make our families sick in order to profit from China’s appetite for meat. And the meat industry’s clever marketing hides the fact that the real cost of the meat we eat is extraordinarily high when we account for its environmental costs and its costs to human health and animal welfare.

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What Saved This Conventional Farm?

What Saved This Conventional Farm?

by guest blogger Alberto Gonzalez. James Burkholder’s family has been farming forever. They moved from Switzerland to the U.S. in the 1700s and dedicated themselves to cultivating the land. But during a crisis in 2009, when milk prices tanked, James was at risk of losing his family’s legacy and livelihood. He needed to find a way to save their farm because farming was all they knew how to do. So, James decided to look into organic farming practices.

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The Secret Is in the Soil

The Secret Is in the Soil

by guest blogger Coach Mark Smallwood. The headlines are extreme: “Broiling Heat,” “Punishing Drought,” “Worst in 50 Years.” And the images are even worse. Miles of dry, cracked fields, crispy cornstalks, and stoic farmers holding tiny ears of kernel-less corn. More than half of the country is experiencing drought conditions, and counties in more than 25 states have been declared crop disasters by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

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Reform the Farm Bill

Reform the Farm Bill

by guest blogger, Susan Prolman. This week, the full Senate is working through the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill spends $1 trillion over 10 years and sets food and agriculture policy for our nation. The bill’s title is the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, but how much reform does it really contain?

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Who Is Your Farmer?

Who Is Your Farmer?

by guest blogger Alberto Gonzalez. This is a fundamental question that, in an ideal world, we’d all be able to answer. I talked with organic dairy farmers, the Hardys, to find out what it means to be a farmer today and why it’s important to know where your food comes from.

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