Agriculture in a Changing World
"Agriculture is the oldest environmental problem," the Land Institute’s Wes Jackson tells us early in this 27-minute video.
agriculture
Come on Home!: Ecological Agriculture and Sixteen Wonderful Farms that Point the Way
This essay uses over a dozen working farms across the country (& a few other countries) to illustrate some of the key principles of the ecologically-based agriculture that will be required in the transition ahead. …The next steps are up to you, kid.
More cow love, carbs, carbon, and culture
What services do wild and domesticated ruminants give to the land? How can we improve the quality of the land while also returning our relationship with cows from an industrial model to an agroecological one?
An Extended Recipe for Bread
If you see the rise, if you smell that sweet pungency and know the journey from soil to palate, if you follow the weather patterns and the turning of the seasons, the journey of a seed into a staple, you know that the journey is coming to an end.
Many Countries Reaching Diminishing Returns in Fertilizer Use
For the world as a whole, the era of rapidly growing fertilizer use is now history.
The Last Nomads and the Culture of Fear
My wife and I went semi-nomadic in 2010, traveling the mountain West for almost two years. Not having a settled home was eye-opening, and taught me a lot about one of my perennial themes: how much humans lost when we became domesticated by agriculture.
The Bean and Grain Project – Outperforming Chemical Agriculture
The Southern Williamette Bean and Grain Project is exploring bean, grain, and edible seed varieties which can be added to those already grown in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
Unsustainable Farming: From Bird Droppings to Corporate Agriculture
The discovery of new lands to exploit, and new energy sources, helped reinforce the notion that human societies can always find a way around limitations upon its growth.
Turning electricity into food
You know that when energy in agriculture is discussed, the paradigm is energy production in the form of biofuels. But the idea of biofuels manufactured from agricultural products is monumentally wrong.
A Longtime Farmer Shares His Wisdom (part 2)
For over forty years, Nash Huber has grown healthy plants, soil, seeds — and now future farmers.
A Longtime Farmer Shares His Wisdom (part 1)
When suburban sprawl started eating up nearby farmland, Nash dedicated himself to growing a stable base of land for farming.
Unlimited competition is not sustainable
Large farms are increasingly dominating crop production in the United States. In the early 1980s, most farms produced crops on less than 600 acres, but the majority of today’s farms grow crops on at least 1,100 acres. And many farms are ten times that size.
