New Year’s Resolution: Read More Press Releases
Looking for a New Year’s resolution that won’t trigger any guilt when you fail? Take a little time and read up on the latest research in plant breeding every now and then.
How to Deal with Raw Milk and the Food Sovereignty Movement
Our food safety laws are meant to protect us in an impersonal, mass market. Motivated raw milk consumers and producers need an orderly way to opt out.
Why Michael Pollan is Wrong About Junk Food and Farm Subsidies
Michael Pollan blames farm subsidies for making junk food cheap. He’s wrong. Here’s why.
10 Conspiracy Theories About RoundUp in a Single Documentary
A recent documentary on RoundUp on Norwegian state television went dumpster diving for some of the most discredited ideas about the popular herbicide.
Africa’s Smallholder Farmers Need Access to More Than Just Tractors
Instead of focusing on the supply of subsidised machinery, governments should provide public goods and services to support the emerging private markets. Such support includes strengthening the capacity of the education and training domain, improving the customs process, maintaining market stability, and focusing on institutional solutions for smallholders.
Well Managed Feedlots: More Eco-Friendly Than You Might Think
Although grass-fed is touted as the environmentally and ethically best choice for beef eaters, feedlots often outperform on both fronts.
What Happened to the Holiday Pudding in America?
For much of our history, puddings played a large role in both our everyday and special occasion cooking. Today, not so much. Helen Zoe Veit explains why.
Recipe: 13 Bean Soup: (meatless)
Here’s a grown up, sophisticated meatless 13 bean soup that will satisfy vegans and carnivores equally.
Test Drive: The Beyond Burger
Taking the Beyond Burger out for a test drive. While a bit spendy, this Plant Meat 2.0 burger is meal both carnivores and vegetarians can love.
What Farmers Can Do About Climate Change: Pest Management
With climate change contributing to increasing pest pressures, integrated pest management provides farmers with sustainable options.
What Farmers Can Do About Climate Change: Grazing
The policy team from the National Farmer’s Union looks at the use of prescribed grazing, silvopasture, and rotational grazing as climate smart strategies.
Guiding Principles for Teaching Farming and Food Systems
UVM horticulture professor Terence Bradshaw lays out his principles for teaching farming and food systems.
Conservation Cooking: 13 Bean Soup
For chefs and cooks wanting to support sustainable agriculture, no better place to start than this 13 Bean Soup recipe hearty, refined, and restaurant ready.
Heritage Radio Show Notes
Tillage Stats [PDF] Farmers applied tillage practices on 278.8 million acres in 2012, including no till on 96.5 million acres, conservation tillage on 76.6 million […]
Notes for OMSI Panel
Selected readings • The 10 Minor Realizations That Flipped My Thinking About GMOs • GMOs: An Introduction • On So-Called “Superweeds” • Answering the 3 Most Common Internet […]
Who Pays to Steward the Commons?
Environmentalists want fisherman to pay for fishery management. Fisherman say the fees are onerous. Who should pay to steward the commons?
How to Make Sure We All Benefit When Nonprofits Patent Technologies Like CRISPR
GUEST AUTHOR Shobita Parthasarathy:The public partially underwrites nonprofit discoveries via tax breaks and isn’t seeing a lot of benefit in return. Non-profit patent licenses are one place where reforms can be made to put the public interest at the center.
A Food Historian Steps Into the Minefield of Cultural Appropriation
Food historian Rachel Laudan looks at the cultural appropriation of food through a historical lens, providing crucial context for a thorny set of issues.
Plant Scientists Must Play a Role in Climate Smart Agriculture
Kevin Folta of the University of Florida explains why molecular biologists and plant breeders must play a role in Climate Smart Agriculture.
Nitrogen Efficient Crops: Can We Grow More and Cut Emissions?
Breeding nitrogen-efficient plants could boost crop productivity and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions while reducing fertilizer use.