agriculture

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Warming Will Wipe Out Calif. Agriculture: Energy Sec.

Top US producer faces disaster without swift action on climate change

(Newser) - Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees dire effects of global warming, particularly on his home state of California, he tells the Los Angeles Times. Some 90% of the snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, a vital storehouse for water used in farming and cultivation, could disappear, he said. “We’re...

Want to Save the Planet? Stop Dumping on Frankenfood

Genetically modified products fight pollution

(Newser) - It's time for greenies to take another look at the frankenfoods they've been campaigning against. Consider the enviropig. It’s a pig with an extra gene that means less phosphorous in manure runoff, and it’s just one example of how genetic modification in agriculture can be good for the...

Use Stimulus to Invest in Food Reform
 Use Stimulus to 
 Invest in Food Reform 
OPINION
Jan 12, 2009 5:19 PM CST

Use Stimulus to Invest in Food Reform

Fixing food will save health and environment

(Newser) - Just because Barack Obama has a lot of issues to deal with once he's sworn in, he shouldn't leave food reform off the table. Putting a bulk of the stimulus package toward local and regional food systems will cut costs and bring us back from the edge, Tom Philpott, founder...

Dairy Farmers Going Udders Up
 Dairy Farmers Going Udders Up 
Jan 12, 2009 4:48 PM CST

Dairy Farmers Going Udders Up

Economy slams cow tenders

(Newser) - Dairy farmers are struggling to survive in the face of huge drops in the price they get for milk, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Though grocery store prices have stayed relatively constant, farmers are now getting just $10 for each hundred pounds of milk they sell, down from $20 in...

Volatile Markets a Growing Concern for Farmers

Volatile prices, uncertain demand push some farmers into the red

(Newser) - Volatile commodity prices and uncertainty about future demand are nurturing growing concern among American farmers as revenues sink—even as demand sprouts in emerging energy markets, the Wall Street Journal reports. Costs of doing business—namely seed, machinery, and fertilizer—are riding high alongside transportation costs, and commodity prices are...

Zimbabwe, Once Well-Fed, Turns to Eating Bugs

As Mugabe blocks aid, starving population's plight nosedives

(Newser) - Zimbabwe was once "a breadbasket for all of southern Africa," writes Celia Dugger in the New York Times, but a manmade crisis has turned the once-prosperous country into a land of scavengers. The UN says 7 of 10 Zimbabweans eat one meal or fewer a day, thanks to...

Obama to Pick Iowa Ex-Gov. Vilsack for Agriculture

(Newser) - Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack will be Barack Obama's pick for agriculture secretary, CNN reports. Obama is expected to make the announcement tomorrow. Vilsack himself briefly ran for president before dropping out and campaigning for Hillary Clinton. As a two-term governor, Vilsack backed renewable energy and sought to develop the...

Forget Agriculture&mdash;We Need a Secretary of Food
Forget Agriculture—We Need a Secretary of Food
OPINION
Dec 11, 2008 10:33 AM CST

Forget Agriculture—We Need a Secretary of Food

Take on the corrupt factory farming system, Obama

(Newser) - Once upon a time, more than one-third of Americans worked on farms, and a Department of Agriculture seemed logical. These days just 2% of Americans work the land, and the factory-farm lobby dictates agriculture policy, writes New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. To help remedy the situation, Kristof contends, Barack...

Saltwater Crops Could Ease Land Demand

Hardy, saltwater-loving plants could produce biofuels from otherwise unusable land

(Newser) - A worldwide shortage of prime farmland has scientists taking a closer look at plants that thrive on briny water, Wired reports. Plants that can grow in earth too salty for other crops have huge potential for use as biofuel as well as food: One variety produces 1.7 times more...

Even Planes Are Greener Than This Guy

Rising meat consumption key concern at environment conference

(Newser) - This week ministers from 187 nations are gathering in Poland to discuss a new treaty on global warming, and one of the central issues will be not belching smokestacks but cows, pigs, and chickens. Rising global living standards have led to soaring meat consumption; emissions from livestock now generate 18%...

Science Supersizes Thanksgiving

Our fare is not the same as the pilgrims'

(Newser) - Thanksgiving food has undergone massive genetic changes in the centuries since the Pilgrims first prepared the feast, resulting in turkeys more than twice as big and corn six times as sweet. But human taste buds have evolved, too, meaning we don’t necessarily appreciate our new and improved fare any...

Farmers Already Working on Your '09 Bird

With Americans eating 17% of annual output today, planning ahead is crucial

(Newser) - Ever wonder how the grocery store bins fill up with so many turkeys come late November? Lots and lots of planning, explains Nina Shen Rastogi in Slate. Americans will eat about 46 million birds today—that accounts for 17% of all turkeys raised in the US in a given year....

Going Global Juices Cranberry Biz

Farmers raking it in after successful campaign to sell US berry to the world

(Newser) - America's cranberry farmers have turned sour times around with a push to bring the berry to the world, the New York Times reports. Eight years ago, farmers were faced with a glut of berries, but now, with almost a third of the crop being exported to nations who have been...

Move Over, Apples: It's a Mandarin a Day Now

Satsumas provide natural antihistamine for colds and allergies

(Newser) - Satsuma mandarin oranges from northern California’s Placer County aren’t in the medicine aisle, but the citrus packs a potent dose of a natural antihistamine that can relieve cold and allergy symptoms, the Sacramento Bee reports. A study found that a glassful of the fruit’s juice has six...

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....

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