farming

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Satellites, Drones Spy on Europe's Farms

EU using eyes in the sky to spot subsidy fraud

(Newser) - Satellites and spy drones are scanning farmland in the European Union, and their findings can lead to something nearly as damaging as an air strike: a subsidy cut. The EU spends billions every year in farm subsidies, and eyes in the sky are increasingly being used as a tool to...

Seed Shortage Buries Hopes for Record Corn Crop

Corn prices may hit record high this year

(Newser) - American farmers had been planning the biggest corn planting since World War II this spring, but they're being thwarted by a seed shortage. Drought conditions in the Midwest and Great Plains last year have caused what dealers in the corn belt say is the biggest shortage of top-quality seeds...

What Downturn? Farmers Have Abundant Year

Profits set to jump 28%, cross $100B mark

(Newser) - The rest of us might be bracing for the worst, but US farmers are having a banner year. With prices soaring for crops, farmland, and livestock, farmers are set to score profits of $100.9 billion, a 28% jump, the AP reports. That's the first time the figure has...

Get Ready for Even More Stink Bugs

Scientists consider introducing Asian wasp to kill invading crop-destroyers

(Newser) - If your town is already overrun with stink bugs, bad news: There's little relief in sight. Last year, the non-native brown marmorated stink bug sunk its proboscis into the Mid-Atlantic apple crop, ruining $37 million of fruit; after that, they swarmed into local houses to hibernate. Now they've...

We&#39;ve Ruined the Tomato
 We've Ruined 
 the Tomato 
OPINION
Jun 11, 2011 2:36 PM CDT

We've Ruined the Tomato

It's got plenty of weight but no taste: Author

(Newser) - In America’s melting pot of food culture, few ingredients have been as broadly assimilated as the tomato. Whether it’s ketchup, marinara, salsa, or just fodder for salads, our country’s demand for the tomato is extreme. But as journalist Barry Estabrook says in an interview with Salon , America’...

Coming: Biggest Ever Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico

Due to chemical runoff from farms along the Mississippi

(Newser) - Chemical runoff from farms along the Mississippi create “dead zones” each year in the Gulf of Mexico—areas where nitrogen, phosphorus, and animal manure settle, feeding the algae that steals the oxygen from all other living things. This year’s record flooding will likely lead to the biggest dead...

UK Offers FarmVille ... on Actual Farm

Please, try not to kill the cows

(Newser) - Addicted to FarmVille? Now you can play the game on an actual farm—without leaving home. Britain’s National Trust is offering up an estate to be run by gamers, using a program called MyFarm . Users—there’s room for 10,000—make choices on which crops to plant, what...

Mark Bittman: 6 Morsels of Good News on Food
 6 Morsels of  
 Good Foodie News 
mark bittman
Mar 23, 2011 12:22 PM CDT

6 Morsels of Good Foodie News

School lunches are improving; Walmart's into sustainability: Mark Bittman

(Newser) - Sometimes it’s important for a critic to drop the criticism and offer some praise. In the New York Times , Mark Bittman presents a taste of good news in the food world:
  1. Backers of better food policy are gaining real traction: The reauthorized Child Nutrition Act will improve school lunches,
...

7 Kids Dead in Farmhouse Fire

Three-year-old the lone survivor

(Newser) - A fire roared through a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse last night, taking with it the lives of seven of the family's eight children, ages nine months to 11, reports the Patriot-News . As mother Janelle Clouse milked cows in the barn around 10pm and father Ted drove a milk truck, 3-year-old Leah...

Beef Industry Fights Back Against Michael Pollan

Agriculture students getting lesson in PR warfare

(Newser) - The beef industry realizes it's taken a beating in the public relations department from the likes of Michael Pollan, and it's attempting to lay the groundwork for a comeback. An industry-funded online program called the Masters of Beef Advocacy has trained 3,000 students and farmers in the art of...

Investors Flee Wall St., Bet on the Farm

Farmland has outperformed S&P 500 since recession

(Newser) - While Wall Street fiddles and the rest of the real estate market largely fizzles, there's a new hot commodity that has investors flocking to it: Farmland, reports the LA Times. Average farm real estate prices have doubled over the last decade, unlike, say, Florida condos, and many Americans and foreigners...

Eating Meat OK if It's Farmed Right
 Eating Meat OK 
 if It's Farmed Right 
OPINION
Sep 7, 2010 12:33 PM CDT

Eating Meat OK if It's Farmed Right

New book changes George Monbiot's mind

(Newser) - In 2002, Guardian columnist George Monbiot wrote a piece called "Why Vegans Were Right All Along"—but eight years later, he's changing his mind. He originally concluded that, after considering the vast divide between land used to feed people and land used to feed livestock, veganism "is...

Nation's Oldest Family Farm Up for Sale

Tuttles of NH have been there since 1632

(Newser) - The Tuttles of New Hampshire have been running a family farm since before the nation existed, but their 378-year-old tradition is coming to an end, the Boston Globe reports. What is billed as the country's longest continuously operating family farm is up for sale. The 134-acre property, which has become...

Superweeds Start Herbicide Arms Race on Farms

Roundup's strangehold falters in face of new threats

(Newser) - New breeds of “superweeds” are creeping across the Farm Belt, and shaking up the weedkiller and seed industries in the process. The long-dominant Roundup can't deal with immune invaders like pigweed, horseweed, and Johnsgrass, which has given rival chemical companies a chance to bring back old herbicides that Roundup...

Shocking Egg-Farm Film Reignites Animal Debate

Humane Society video sparks new battle with farmers

(Newser) - A video showing chickens being slammed into metal crates has reignited a battle between the Humane Society and farmers. The footage, shot by an undercover Humane Society volunteer, shows chickens held in battery cages over enormous manure pits and chickens being violently shoved into a euthanizing chamber. "We're asking...

Americans Learn to Say 'Mmm, Rabbit'
 Americans 
 Learn to Say 
 'Mmm, Rabbit' 
menu choices
Mar 3, 2010 11:27 AM CST

Americans Learn to Say 'Mmm, Rabbit'

Furry friends are also perfect food animal for budding DIY farmers

(Newser) - Rabbit as food is a troubling conceit for many Americans—“it’s this weird association with Easter,” a chef says—but the animal is taking off with a small group of budding butchers, urban farmers, and those just enamored of its lean, healthy meat. “This is my...

Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report
Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report
investigation
Dec 14, 2009 3:53 PM CST

Monsanto Contracts Strangle Competition: Report

Licenses forbid mixing Monsanto genes with competitors'

(Newser) - Monsanto, the country’s dominant seed business, is squeezing competitors with stringent licensing agreements that protect its incredibly dominant position in the industry. Monsanto’s licenses prevent companies from breeding plants that contain both Monsanto’s genes and those of competitors, an AP investigation reveals, effectively locking competitors out of...

PETA Accuses Monks of 'Un-Christian' Farming

Group wants Candian abbey to give up its chickens

(Newser) - PETA is waging a campaign to get monks at a Canadian monastery to reform farming practices the group decries as inhumane. "It denies God to treat animals this way," said a PETA official of the New Brunswick abbey, which produces about 300,000 chickens yearly. The campaign has...

'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up
 'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up 
Oct 5, 2009 12:18 PM CDT

'Hobby Farms' Cropping Up

USDA says small farms are becoming more popular even as large farms grow

(Newser) - Most evenings, Gary Mithoefer can be found at the end of a long gravel driveway off a busy highway, tending two garden plots filled with white sweet potatoes, squash, cabbages, and a dozen other vegetables still thriving in early fall. The 62-year-old, who gardens after his workday ends at his...

Glut of Heifers Enter Milk-Flooded Dairy Industry

Semen-sorting technology bolsters herds, depressing already depressed prices

(Newser) - Times are tough everywhere, but dairy farming, never the industry of millionaires, is reeling from a double-whammy of its own making. Three years ago, new semen-sorting technology allowed farmers to ensure nine out of 10 calves born were female (bull calves largely end up in McDonald's wrappers and the like)....

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