Yes, fertilizers exist that don’t make use of fossil fuels; however, the use of petoreluaem based fertilizers have become a mainstay of modern industrial agriculture. This use of fossil fuels for fertilizer has led to the agriculture sector’s carbon footprint being as large as it is. The transportation of the
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Things Are Good: Experimental Rice in Bali Increases Yields & Decreases Emissions
You love rice, everyone loves rice and we need more of it. Growing populations and the impact of the climate crisis on crops raises the stakes of rice cultivation. As a species we need to keep rice cheap, plentiful, and accessible to ensure a stable global food supply. India has
Continue readingThings Are Good: Better Solar Helps Bitter Hops
Agrivoltaic setups aren’t new to regular readers of this site as we’ve seen many times that certain crops benefit from the shade solar panels provide; and, the solar panels benefit the farmers by producing clean energy. Now we know that hops, which flavour beer, thrive under solar panels. A German
Continue readingThings Are Good: Prairie Strips Save Farms
Prairie strips are a farm conservation practice that requires minimal intervention and delivers huge benefits By converting 10% of cropland to native prairie, farmers can reduce soil loss by 95%, total phosphorous loss by 90%, and total nitrogen loss by 85% A quick summary: pic.twitter.com/rfD7PHmuxy — Sam Knowlton (@samdknowlton) March
Continue readingThings Are Good: Low Intensity Farming Gets High Results
Everybody knows that factory farming isn’t a sustainable use of land, but it’s still be practised because people think it’s more efficient. It turns out that low intensity farming produces some stellar results too. Researchers looking into cattle on farms found many benefits from a low intensity approach. Indeed, by
Continue readingThings Are Good: Farm Fields of Solar Produce Bonuses
In the UK the average person wants to get off fossil fuels, but the Conservatives in power want the opposite. Obviously this is not good, and it gets worse: the new PM Liz Truss wants to ban solar panels on farms, Conservatives clearly don’t understand how the world works. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: Vertical Farming and the Future of Farms
Quality farmland ensures a good harvest which benefits many, from the producers of produce to the consumers. Our cities have grown around good for sources from the sea and land, this puts pressure on the local politicians to give up arable land to developers. In Ontario, the conservative party values
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Small Diet Change Makes a Big Difference
Absolutely no one is shocked by new research that concludes beef is the worst thing to eat. If we’re going to feed billions of people on the planet while also having a livable planet for billions then we all ought to consume less meat. Raising cattle only to slaughter is
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cleaner Air Produced $5 Billion in Crops
Farmers can’t control the air quality of their farms, yet the air makes quite the difference to the success of the crops. Since air can’t respect property rights it requires governments to act, and that’s what happened back in the 1990s in the USA when environmental regulations to improve air
Continue readingThings Are Good: Urban Farming Helps Cities Tackle the Climate Crisis
Growing your own food is fun and possible, even in a tiny space, so everyone should give it a try. Cities are finding ways to encourage more people to grow food locally for a variety of reasons, and they all revolve around dealing with climate change. Cities become more resilient
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canada’s New Budget Support Climate Friendly Farming
This week the Canadian government announced the new budget and in it are some climate-friendly moves. Farmers in Canada who practice sustainable farming practices are going to get a little more help and farmers who are using unsustainable practices will be encouraged to change what they do. Industrial farming is
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Billionaire Land-Grab Continues As Elite Prepare for Disaster
During the decline of the Roman Empire, in the late 3rd and into the 4th century, the rich and powerful moved out of the cities and bought up land in the rural countryside, anticipating the fall that they knew was coming. Now history repeats itself again. Forbes magazine published an
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Robotic 2 Acre Vertical Farm Can Replace 720 Acre Normal Farm
A new company based in California is hoping to drastically reshape our food supply in the coming years. Plenty uses vertical farming to lower its land use per crop and robots to help grow and harvest the crops. The results so far have been impressive for the young company and
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Guy Only Ate Food He Grew for One Year
The video above tells a story about a person who grew in his garden enough food to eat for a year. Even with a small plot of land one can grow a lot of food. At our house we find that we have food to give away at the end
Continue readingThings Are Good: Solar Panels Help Crops Grow
Solar energy is the future and it keeps getting better. Not only are renewables cheaper than destructive gas and coal energy they also have other positive effects. Recently it’s been discovered that solar fields can be used as a really good place to grow crops. This is counterintuitive as the
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Vertical Farms can Help During Disasters
Supporters of vertical farms envision a future that has skyscraper farms beside work places and residences in urban centres. Their thinking is that by growing food where people are will help alleviate pressure on our soil and land use – and they’re right. Indeed, a recent realized spinoff benefit of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Flowers Reduce use of Pesticide Spraying in Farms
Farms in the UK and Switzerland are trying a classic approach to reducing their use of pesticides: flowers. Yes, the flowers provide nutrients for insects that eat crops, but they also provide for predators. The difference in the approach for these experimental farms is how they arrange the flowers so
Continue readingThings Are Good: Farming for the Future on the Roofs of Hong Kong
Green roofs are great for collecting water and cooling neighbourhoods, they are also useful for feeding their local communities. In the densely built urban environment of Hong Kong there is a network of green roofs that used for farming. These farms are used to grow crops sold in local stores
Continue readingThings Are Good: Detroit’s Farms May Save the City
Detroit is a city that has been witnessing a lot of change thanks to poor urban planning and bad economics. The past decade has been very rough for the people of Detroit and they are turning to old, but innovative, ways to revive the city. We have seen artists move
Continue readingThings Are Good: Using Seawater to Farm in the Desert
The future of farming in much of the world could look like something out of science fiction. Sundrop farms in Australia has a farm up and running that produces food using seawater pumped into a desert location where they use the power of the sun to power the entire process.
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