Free Republic

Issue is linked to Monsanto’s introduction of new herbicide-resistant biotech soybean Farmers in southern U.S. states have long battled weeds and destructive bugs, but this year they face a new threat: their neighbors. They say some growers are illegally spraying a powerful herbicide that is damaging hundreds of thousands of crop acres in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee, a trend that regulators, farmers and academics link to Monsanto Co. ’s introduction this year of a new variety of genetically modified soybean. Monsanto’s new biotech soybean was designed to resist herbicides, including a powerful chemical called dicamba, long used to kill weeds...

The Association for Vertical Farming aims to create the first sustainability standard for towering indoor food systems From shipping containers-turned-micro farms to fruit-picking robots, the wide world of agriculture techis attracting attention and investor dollars as increasingly urgent concerns about food scarcity come into focus. Amid a wave of in-field technology, food data analytics and experimental urban agriculture, the particularly futuristic field of vertical farming is attracting entrants including industrial incumbents such as Fujitsu and upstarts such as AeroFarms, City Farm and Green Sense. As ag tech blooms, attracting a total $4.6 billion in investment during 2015, the nonprofit Association...

Minnesota's crop, livestock and dairy farmers are suffering with continuing rock bottom prices for their commodities, driving some into bankruptcy. John Quaal, 71, operates a dairy farm near Fergus Falls and tells Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/2b5RcoD ) that it's nearly impossible to break even producing milk. "For almost two years now we've been going backwards," said Quaal. "You've got to learn to deal with it I guess. It's just the way it is." Quaal said his farm has lost as much as $40,000 in a single month and figures the family operation lost a total of $300,000 last year....

Maryrose Littler, who is committed to organic farming and permaculture, picks fresh onions from her grandmother Barbara Keyes’ raised vegetable beds near McArthur.        Two Class of 2016 graduates — organic farmer-in-the making Maryrose Littler, and Kayla Cline, raised on an historic farm in Albany — represent the future of farming in southeastern Ohio. Littler recently graduated from Athens High School and Cline from Alexander High School. Littler enjoys living an organic lifestyle on her parents’ five-acre homestead near Morrison-Gordon Elementary School, where she helps raise honeybees, homegrown vegetables, chickens and beef. She...

Two guys from Canada have come up with a new way for everyone from small indoor growers to large-scale vertical farmers to easily automate their operations. Their system's called Motorleaf and it collects data about your plants and then instructs your existing grow equipment to adjust to the crop’s needs. Think of it as the Nest for your indoor farm. In the summer of 2015, Ramen Dutta began tinkering around with a way to more easily care for his small indoor hobby farm. Although he had a degree in agricultural engineering, he had been working in IT and created an...

In an old warehouse in Newark, New Jersey, that once housed the state's biggest indoor paint ball arena, leafy green plants such as kale, arugula and watercress sprout from tall metal towers under bright lights. A local company named AeroFarms has built what it says is the world's largest indoor vertical farm, without the use of soil or sunlight. Its ambitious goal is to grow high-yielding crops via economical methods to provide locally sourced food to the community, protect the environment and ultimately even combat hunger worldwide. "We use about 95 percent less water to grow the plants, about 50...

Now experts believe several genetically distinct Stone Age hunter-gatherer communities living in the region began to grow crops and keep animals 10,000 years ago, before subsequent generations went on to sow the seeds of farming far and wide. ‘It had been widely assumed that these first farmers were from a single, genetically homogeneous population,’ said study author Dr Garrett Hellenthal of University College London (UCL). ‘However, we've found that there were deep genetic differences in these early farming populations, indicating very distinct ancestries.’ A team of researchers examined ancient DNA from four skeletons representing some of the world's first farmers...

Earlier this month a federal court in California ruled that a farmer plowing his land without a permit from the federal government is breaking the law. In 2013, the Army Corps of Engineers, without any notice or due process, ordered the owners of Duarte Nursery to cease use of their land for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). The violation: plowing. The California court agreed with the federal government’s action, despite the fact the CWA specifically exempts normal agricultural activities like plowing from regulation. This overreaching assertion of federal power is not an isolated incident. For decades, the EPA...

On the CBS3 health watch, its vertical farming. Philadelphia aims to become an international hub for indoor growing, according to a resolution passed today by city council. When growing produce we usually think of acres of farmland. Some say the next generation of farming will be in urban centers like Philadelphia, and you won’t need soil or the sun, just an old warehouse. Welcome to vertical farming, where produce is grown inside, in specialized shelves that are stacked up vertically....

$16 million in fines dropped, threats canceled. A Wyoming rancher threatened by the Environmental Agency with $16 million fines for getting a state permit and building a stock pond on his ranch has reached a settlement that will have the fines go away and he’ll keep his stock pond. WND reported in 2015 on a lawsuit filed on behalf of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, rancher Andy Johnson by officialsl with the Pacific Legal Foundation seeking to vindicate his property rights. The lawsuit explained federal law clearly exempts stock ponds from the rules of the EPA, which had filed a compliance order...

Recent advertisements, splashed across billboards, buses and radio waves, have taken a pointed approach to discussing the link between farms and water pollution. Now, the EPA is under fire for its indirect funding of the campaign. One example, which ran on buses, included a photo of livestock standing in a stream and text that read: "Unregulated agriculture is putting our waterways at risk." The What's Upstream? campaign has drawn criticism for both its approach and its funding - which includes grant money from the Environmental Protection Agency. Lawmakers have called it an "anti-farmer campaign." The Whatcom Transportation Authority pulled the...

Here’s one way to grow food in an urban environment: Raise a school of tilapia in a tank. Filter out the nitrogen-rich waste, and let naturally occurring bacteria transform it from ammonia into nitrate. Run that naturally derived fertilizer beneath the roots of greens, herbs and peppers. Let the veggies flourish beneath LED lights. Harvest the vegetables. Later, harvest the fish. Cook and serve. Known as aquaponics, this complicated but efficient ecosystem is the latest attempt at making agriculture commercially viable in New York City—even though it has a spotty history, a not-quite-proven track record and plenty of skeptics. “We...

The Middle Eastern kingdom needs hay for its 170,000 cows. So, it's buying up farmland for the water-chugging crop in the drought-stricken American Southwest.Saudi Arabia's largest dairy company will soon be unable to farm alfalfa in its own parched country to feed its 170,000 cows. So it's turning to an unlikely place to grow the water-chugging crop — the drought-stricken American Southwest. Almarai Co. bought land in January that roughly doubled its holdings in California's Palo Verde Valley, an area that enjoys first dibs on water from the Colorado River. The company also acquired a large tract near Vicksburg, Arizona,...

In 2017, the Japanese company Spread will open the world's first fully automated agricultural plant, with robots working the whole process: from seed to harvest. Spread, headquartered in Kyoto, explained that this plant will start operating regularly by mid-2017. Mechanization will allow it, among other things, to produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day, as noted on their website. This figure falls short of the firm's expectations, as its goal is to produce half a million heads of lettuce a day within five years. Furthermore, the new automation technologies will reduce labour costs by 50% and energy use by 30%...

Indoor agriculture has definitely put down roots in the United States. Vegetable Growers News in 2015 cited a white paper released at the third annual Indoor Ag-Con that outlined 15 existing commercial-scale rooftop greenhouses and vertical farms in the U.S. Authors of the report, titled Indoor Crop Production: Feeding the Future, conceded that indoor farming will never replace conventional outdoor agriculture. "It will instead augment the food chain to create a diverse, distributed system more resilient to supply shocks and better prepared to meet the demands of a global population." Indoor agriculture typically entails growing produce with hydroponic and aeroponic...

While here in Wisconsin the storm caused us headaches at our farm by dumping snow, then sleet and then a fine layer of ice, we dealt with everything and moved on. Goliath was barely a blip on our radar. However, the farmers and ranchers in New Mexico, West Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle ended up with far more than a blip on their radar. Goliath pummeled the area and now early estimates are saying that up to 20,000 cows and calves are dead. Just like Winter Storm Atlas, this story isn’t making the news and most of the people in...

At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the Web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or Indiegogo and you'll find no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there - alongside some real gems. We've cut through the Pebble clones and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting projects out there this week. Keep in mind that any crowdfunded project -- even the best intentioned -- can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams. Flashlights are a handy thing...

VICKSBURG, AZ - Like a desert mirage, the Almarai hay farm about 100 miles west of the Valley sprawls out on almost 10,000 acres. Buildings rise from the dust, and an endless stream of delivery trucks come and go. The bustle of activity is from alfalfa feeds as far as the eye can see. Saudi Arabian state-run media reports Almarai bought the land last year. That was after a Saudi government directive to conserve that nation's natural resources. Experts say underground reservoirs and ancient aquifers have almost dried up in Saudi Arabia after decades of modern farming. And since Almarai...

The Kremlin has launched an incredible volte-face in economic policy and turned to traditional industries like farming in the face of tumbling oil prices ___ Russia has abandoned hopes for a lasting recovery in oil prices, bracing for a new era of abundant crude as US shale production transforms the global energy market. The Kremlin has launched a radical shift in strategy, rationing funds for the once-sacrosanct oil and gas industry and relying instead on a revival of manufacturing and farming, driven by a much more competitive rouble. "We have to have prudent forecasts. Our budget is based very conservative...

From the army of machines that work in Amazon warehouses to automatons that milk cows, the job-taking robots of the future are among us. Now the lettuce in your salad of the future might be grown by robots too. Oh, by “future,” we mean 2017. That’s the hope of Spread, a company in Kyoto, Japan, that plans to begin constructing the world’s first large-scale lettuce factory next spring. Once it’s fully operational, the entire process of growing a head of lettuce—from seeding to harvest—will be automated and run by robots. The efficiency of machines will enable the factory to produce...