agriculture

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Let's Chow Down on the Food System
Let's Chow Down on the Food System
ANALYSIS
Oct 12, 2008 5:05 PM CDT

Let's Chow Down on the Food System

Open letter to prez candidates calls for overhaul—now

(Newser) - Americans touch it everyday and it’s a matter of national security, but John McCain and Barack Obama haven’t raised the issue while campaigning: America’s food system is in dire need of an overhaul, Michael Pollan writes in an open letter to the candidates in the New York ...

Beijing May Let Farmers Sell Land Rights

Party may announce reform, bringing cash into rural economy

(Newser) - China is poised to announce a sweeping reform that would allow rural farmers to sell land use rights, the New York Times reports. Communist Party officials, meeting this weekend, hope the move will reignite double-digit economic growth and stave off looming recession. It could also curb the thousands of riots...

Gene Tweak Could Grow Crops in Toxic Soil

(Newser) - Scientists have made a breakthrough that could dramatically boost the world's food production by making more land farmable, Wired reports. A slight change to a single gene allows plants to thrive in earth made toxic by aluminum, which currently renders nearly half of the world's soil useless for growing crops....

New England Pumpkin Crop Patchy After Summer Deluge

Heavy rains cut some yields by half due to bloating, rot and wash-outs

(Newser) - An unseasonably wet growing season has devastated the New England pumpkin crop, the Boston Globe reports. The rain has multiple effects, almost all bad: some overwatered gourds swell so much they burst, while beds are washed out and depleted of fertilizer, leading to undersized specimens. And “pumpkins are pollinated...

GOP's Heartland Appeal Just Plain Heartless
GOP's Heartland Appeal Just Plain Heartless
OPINION
Sep 10, 2008 12:23 PM CDT

GOP's Heartland Appeal Just Plain Heartless

McCain, Palin pander to 'values' of voters they'd sell out to big business

(Newser) - Sarah Palin can’t say enough about the virtues of small-town Americans, the good, honest folk “who do some of the hardest work,” skip college and join the military. But they have to work so hard and skip college because they’re not doing very well, Thomas Frank...

UN Urges: Eat Less Meat to Fight Warming

Cattle 'emissions' equal effect of 33 million automobiles

(Newser) - Meat-eaters who want to help fight global warming can do so by going vegetarian at least one day a week, a top UN official tells the Guardian. The meat industry accounts for an estimated one-fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions, released during feed production and as methane by flatulent livestock....

Sporting Farmers Plow for Glory in Europe

Europeans dominate at world championship you didn't know existed

(Newser) - Earlier this month, a high-stakes amateur athletics competition, complete with come-from-behind upset victories and confusing rules, captivated audiences. It wasn’t the Olympics, but it’s as close as most farmboys will get, the Wall Street Journal reports: The World Plowing Championships, held in Grafenegg, Austria, doled out gold to...

Midwest Adding Grapes to Its Grain

Profit-hungry farmers, vote-hungry politicians nurture unlikely wine industry

(Newser) - As farmers seek higher profits and politicians angle for healthier rural economies, vineyards are cropping up across the Midwest, the Economist reports. Michigan and Ohio now have over 100 wineries each, with vintage monikers handily swiped from French-named Midwestern locales like “Marquette” and “Frontenac”—or, less convincingly,...

Midwest Awaits Bumper Corn Crop
 Midwest Awaits
 Bumper Corn Crop
Aug 13, 2008 8:19 AM CDT

Midwest Awaits Bumper Corn Crop

Ideal growing weather wipes out flood fears

(Newser) - America's farmers are on track to deliver the second-biggest corn harvest ever despite June floods, according to the Department of Agriculture. Shortages were predicted after severe flooding swamped fields, but the Midwest has had ideal corn-growing weather since, the New York Times reports. A healthy soybean crop is also expected.

As Feed Prices Climb, Minicows Moove In

Smaller cattle eat less, take up less space

(Newser) - As feed prices soar, some farmers are literally shrinking their operations by turning to minicows--cattle half as big as their full-size cousins. The trendy creatures produce proportionally more beef while eating less, some researchers say. They require less space and “don’t tear up the grounds as much as...

As Darfur Starves, Sudan Exports Staples

Exports crops to rich nations, still gets aid

(Newser) - As the UN trucks in food to millions of starving people in Darfur, Sudan is exporting important staple crops to other nations, the New York Times reports. Critics charge the government profits on big agribusiness while receiving more free food in aid than any other nation in the world. But...

Agricultural Economist Has Growing Concerns

The insanity of farm subsidies just one facet of wide-ranging Q&A with Daniel Sumner

(Newser) - Is there any way to justify US farm subsidies? Agricultural economist Daniel Sumner has a blunt answer: “No.” In an in-depth interview with the New York Times, Sumner takes on a broad range of agricultural topics, explaining the trouble with organic food (it’s too expensive), the problems...

Disease Stalks Florida's Palms
 Disease Stalks Florida's Palms 
Jul 23, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

Disease Stalks Florida's Palms

State worries it lacks resources to identify, combat pathogen

(Newser) - A mystery disease is eating away at the sabal palm, Florida’s state tree, and scientists say the prospects of successfully fighting the disease are slim. The AP reports that an increasing number of the trees, which can grow up to 50 feet tall, have suffered collapsed canopies. "There's...

Forget the Farmers Market: Buy the Farm

21st century-style 'sharecropping' takes root nationwide

(Newser) - Consumers wanting food straight from the source are buying up shares of farms in growing numbers, the New York Times reports. For a set annual fee, shareholders buy access to the land and a guaranteed share of the harvest income. The number of community-supported farms in America has mushroomed from...

A Different Kind of Apple for iPhone Waiters

Sustainable agriculture group heads queue for new phone release

(Newser) - The countdown is on ahead of Friday's release of the iPhone 3G, and a handful of buyers are waiting outside Apple's flagship New York store. But they’re not diehard fans—they’re activists hoping to promote sustainable agriculture by breaking a world record. The Waiting for Apples group queued...

Midwest Fights Weeds With Bugs

Biological control takes a food-chain approach to invasive plants

(Newser) - Officials in the Midwest are returning to a tried-and-true technique to fight invasive plants, the Chicago Tribune reports. Biological control uses natural enemies to rein in pests, and importing a tiny brown beetle in the 1990s brought under control a fast-spreading European weed, known as loosestrife, that was terrorizing agriculture....

Argentina's Prez Struggles to Keep Power

Peronists abandon Kirchner as approval rating drops to 20%

(Newser) - Six months ago Cristina Fernández de Kirchner succeeded her husband as president of Argentina, romping to victory with the help of a huge turnout in rural provinces. But those bastions of Peronism have since turned on Kirchner, whose hugely unpopular agricultural tax hike set off a months-long battle between...

Ties to Corn Industry Shape Obama's Policy

Views on ethanol please agribusiness, not economists

(Newser) - Barack Obama trumpets corn-derived ethanol as an alternative energy source and has endorsed tariffs that benefit the industry. But the Times reports that many in the Obama campaign, from Tom Daschle to the candidate's top environmental adviser, have close ties to the corn industry—a kernel of the surprise victory...

Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years
Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years
opinion
Jun 19, 2008 6:58 PM CDT

Half of Amazon Could Be Gone in 20 Years

Lust for beef, ethanol drives deforestation; nations must act now

(Newser) - An "unprecedented" combination of ills is threatening the Amazon, and if nothing is done to ease the pressure on the world’s largest rainforest, more than half of it could be gone or withered in 20 years, Rhett Butler writes for Yale Environment 360. After a three-year decline, forest...

Organic Food is Overhyped
 Organic Food is Overhyped 
Opinion
Jun 10, 2008 1:55 PM CDT

Organic Food is Overhyped

Old-fashioned agribusiness has its perks

(Newser) - Don’t believe the hype about organic food, writes Abigail Haddad in the American. While foodies and environmentalists may croon over produce grown locally or on small farms, the truth is that small farms aren’t very efficient, locally grown produce doesn’t help the environment, and organic food is...

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