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Showing posts from October, 2018

Agriculture Reading Picks

As Prairies Get Plowed for Biofuels, Greens Demand EPA Act | Bloomberg A breakthrough to bring driverless tractors into the mainstream? A startup in Iowa says it has fixes to many of the obstacles. | Star Tribune Nutrition Goddess Marion Nestle on the One Thing She�d Change About How We Eat. | Bon Appetit �Heartbreaking� Drought Forces Canadian Ranchers to Cull Herds | Bloomberg PepsiCo to pump

The Merits of Amaranth

I've always been impressed whenever I've had amaranth, in cookies, and as a morning porridge. It grows in my state of Colorado.

Global Food and Agriculture Photos October 28, 2018

This roundup of global food, farming, and agricultural photos appears every Sunday on Big Picture Agriculture. U.S.A. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'IxJl4Bz1Q4xduf64eCf1BA',sig:'g89N2n-G5-wFswkDNn0YNDYkdnqGVC7Ji7NzTisQyzM=',w:'594px',h:'420px',items:'1052945690',caption: false ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false }

Unloading Livestock in Ohio 1938

Unloading Platform Pickaway Livestock Cooperative Association, central Ohio. Summer 1938. Photographer: Ben Shahn. FSA photograph. Every Thursday a carefully selected old agricultural photo is featured here on Big Picture Agriculture � lest we forget how things used to be.

Agriculture Reading Picks

Rural Mainstreet Index Expands for October: Bankers Expect Farmland Prices to Continue Decline | Creighton University DowDuPont to Record $4.6 Billion Charge as Agriculture Unit Suffers; The charge reflects the many challenges facing seed and pesticide makers | WSJ The rise of the robot farmer. Animals farmed, tiny automated machines, fewer chemicals, more efficient. | The Guardian Government

Managed Rotational Grazing with Profitable Dairy in Minnesota

This post is republished from one of my favorite farming organizations, The Land Stewardship Project, out of Minnesota. And the article was written by their editor, Brian DeVore, who is a great writer. He has just recently published a book, Wildly Successful Farming - Sustainability and the New Agricultural Land Ethic, University of Wisconsin Press. I hope to see it under our Christmas tree at

Global Food and Agriculture Photos October 21, 2018

This roundup of global food, farming, and agricultural photos appears every Sunday on Big Picture Agriculture. U.S.A. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'EELQpz-bQ0hN2UsTMO5CxQ',sig:'NErjgqmTYr72Kg3c-BHO6WDRrMzc9JscEO2sdJWfwUg=',w:'594px',h:'454px',items:'1052546990',caption: false ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false }

Navajo Cornfield in Arizona 1889

Navajo hogan and cornfield near Holbrook, Arizona, 1889. Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution. Every Thursday a carefully selected old agricultural photo is featured here on Big Picture Agriculture � lest we forget how things used to be.

Today's Ag Reading Links

Doubling down on the biofuel boondoggle | Wash-Post Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits | Nature Why we need small farms - A photography project celebrates the small-scale and family-run farms that produce 70 percent of the world�s food. | National Geographic Meet the U.S. farmers who love Trump�s China trade war | Axios Ainsworth, Nebraska couple hope to draw other

Oceans Infographic

Credit: FAO.

Global Food and Agriculture Photos October 14, 2018

This roundup of global food, farming, and agricultural photos appears every Sunday on Big Picture Agriculture. NEW ZEALAND Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'-9fuP0jBRy1YYM_s5djY1w',sig:'zX-BVKVmbbHRIRhesi49cPwmg4FkUCa8OdvX51v_ocw=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1047759454',caption: false ,tld:'co.uk',is360:

USDA's Chief Chemist 1882-1912 (Photo)

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley conducting experiments in his laboratory in the Department of Agriculture (two assistants unidentified) Harvey Washington Wiley (October 30, 1844, Kent, Indiana - June 30, 1930, Washington, D.C.) was a noted chemist involved with the passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Wiley was offered the position of Chief Chemist in the United States Department of

Agricultural Reading Picks October 10, 2018

Oil industry, green groups join to oppose Trump�s ethanol plan | The Hill Let me count the ways increasing corn ethanol production by 50% would exacerbate an already bad policy... human health - as a resident of the brown cloud crowd on the front range of Colorado where we like to get outdoors each day, I shudder to think of our air quality getting even worse because of a new 15%

Cocoa / Chocolate Infographic

Find out some interesting historical facts about cocoa in this info graphic. You may click on it to enlarge it.

Global Food and Agriculture Photos October 7, 2018

This roundup of global food, farming, and agricultural photos appears every Sunday on Big Picture Agriculture. U.S.A. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'e2yLYEcjQ7NlKEO6D0saGA',sig:'RXw7H1ZE_6iXDwVDMBi4ItyAl3zbyKbXuooceLi_zMI=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1046042228',caption: false ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false }

African American Farm 1940 Alabama

Farmers hoe or "tend the land" owned by Dave Lewis, an African American farmer on May 8, 1940. Mr. Lewis owns the 575 acre farm in Macon County, Alabama. Photo: USDA. Every Thursday a carefully selected old agricultural photo is featured here on Big Picture Agriculture � lest we forget how things used to be.

Links this Week

One researcher from the University of Michigan (UE) says that growing and harvesting bioenergy crops is a poor way to fight climate change � instead, we should keep these areas wild and increase forest cover. | ZME Science Will World War Three Be Fought Over Water? (22 minutes podcast) | Science Friday Here�s What Agriculture of the Future Looks Like: The Multiple Benefits of Regenerative

Why Was This Year's Watermelon So Perfect?

The watermelon originated in South Africa. This infographic from James Kennedy wordpress demonstrates how much humans have intervened in the breeding of watermelon for better qualities - size, seedlessness, sweetness, adaptability to different regions, and width of rind. The watermelons we bought this summer were nearly perfect.