by Michael Biesecker and Gary d. Robertson, Associated Press, Associated Press | September 17, 2018 RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Flooded rivers from Florence’s drenching rains have swamped coal ash dumps and low-lying hog farms, raising pollution concerns as the swollen waterways approach their crests Monday. North Carolina environmental regulators say several open-air manure pits at…
by Mike McGinnis | September 7, 2018 As the founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association, and a farmer himself, John Boyd helps others face the many challenges of capturing a fair market at local mills and elevators, getting credit, and accessing USDA programs. SF: How many black U.S. farmers are there? JB:…
by Matt Driscoll | September 10, 2018 For more than a decade, Dan Hulse — the owner of Terra Organics — built a business on trying to bring local, organic produce to Tacoma and the South Sound. The vision included purchasing a farm near Orting in 2009 with his wife, Kim, and developing a distribution…
by AFP | August 30, 2018 Mounted on tractors and wielding flares, angry farmers came from all corners of France to say to Chinese investors: get off our land. Mounted on tractors and wielding flares, angry farmers came from all corners of France to say to Chinese investors: get off our land. More than 100…
by Claire Kelloway | September 13, 2018 Last week, a coalition of farmers, fishermen, and food system activists launched a new campaign that calls on three dominant food service management companies, Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo, to increase local and humane food purchasing, invest in racial equity, and reduce their carbon emissions, among other demands….
by Timothy Wise | September 13, 2018 Donald Trump and Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s lame-duck conservative president, are trying to push through new trade deal, but farmers are rising up in opposition The smooth ride to a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may have just hit the bumpy roads of rural Mexico. On…
by H. Claire Brown | September 11th, 2018 Previous storms prompted manure-related environmental disasters. This week, North Carolina could get very smelly. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than a million people are under mandatory evacuation orders in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina as Hurricane Florence draws closer to the coast. Meteorologists are predicting that…
by Mary Pols | September 9, 2018 Fierce competition from Canada, a glutted marketplace and inequitable USDA buybacks have made cultivating this iconic Maine crop a brutal business. BARING — Greg Bridges was aware his wild blueberry fields in Washington County were looking ragged. There was fruit to be had, but it was far sparser…
by Joe Maxwell, Executive Director, Organization For Competitive Markets | September 12, 2018 The op-ed, “HSUS, R-CALF, OCM: Guilt by Association?”, raises questions and makes false insinuations about the relationship between the two organizations and OCM’s sources of funding, according to Joe Maxwell. (Wyatt Bechtel) Editor’s note: The following commentary is in response to “HSUS,…
By Chris Bennett, Farm Journal, Technology and Issues Editor | September 11, 2018 Camera in hand and a thousand miles from home, a Nebraska farm boy stepped off a tour bus and already knew the drill, whether in an expanse of wheat in Montana or a row of cotton in Mississippi. The 10-year-old clicked his…