Agriculture - Pitchstone Waters

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Agriculture

A collection of 8 posts

The Environmental Upside of Modern Farming

The Environmental Upside of Modern Farming

“The article below offers thoughts on how to make industrial farming less harmful to the environment. NOTE: this article was originally published to WSJ.com on February 5, 2021. It was written by Robert Paarlberg. New methods rooted in low-impact, precision techniques require less land, less energy and fewer chemicals

Livestock: A Powerful Tool

Livestock: A Powerful Tool for Wildfire Control

Quoting the article below, “Livestock grazing is also proposed as a potential solution for wildfires such as those that have devastated several western states this year. Researchers with the University of California Cooperative Extension are evaluating how much fine fuel — grasses and other plants known to start fires — cattle eat.

Female Ranchers Are Reclaiming the American West

Female Ranchers Are Reclaiming the American West

Here is an inspirational report about the growing leadership of women in ranching. Our mechanized era has eliminated women’s disadvantage in terms of strength. With the removal of this handicap, women’s nurturing instincts and intuitive grasp of holistic principles make them – in many ways – better ranchers than men.

Maybe This is Why You Don’t Like the Research Coming From Land Grant Colleges

Maybe This is Why You Don't Like the Research Coming From Land Grant Colleges

This thoughtful article discusses inadequate funding for the land grant colleges and how this shortfall affects research. Not mentioned is that, faced with this continual funding crisis, the land grant colleges have accepted massive funding from the agro and chemical giants, who obviously demand that they support their policies and

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Notable & Quotable: Unsubsidized Farming Works in New Zealand

After 80 years of subsidies – paid primarily to the agro-giants – most ranchers and farmers accept as a matter of faith that farming and ranching is unprofitable and unsustainable as a business without government payments. Here in the U.S., we should follow New Zealand’s lead and (1) break up

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Farmers Across High Plains Brace for Hard Times as Drought Bears Down

On the Southern Great Plains dry spells are normal. Although farmers and ranchers can’t make it rain, they can keep soil healthy, to make the most of what rain they get. Any home gardener knows that plant beds without mulch cover or plenty of soil organics need more water,

"Invasion Biology"

Farmland Birds in France Are in Steep Decline

Scientists involved in long-running regional and national bird-counting surveys in France have reported precipitous declines in agricultural regions, even among common birds such as blackbirds that are well adapted to human activity and do well in most circumstances. They concluded, “We have to change completely the way we do agriculture.

Six Trends You Can’t Afford to Miss if You’re in Agriculture

Six Trends You Can’t Afford to Miss if You’re in Agriculture

NOTE: post originally appeared on SouthwestFramPress.com on November 5, 2015. Lowell Catlett doesn’t dismiss the obstacles facing agriculture today. He chooses to look beyond them. “There has never been a better time to be in agriculture,” he says. “There has never been a better time to live in