Articles: Agriculture
A Search for Rural Justice
Charles D. Thompson, Jr., is the Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology and Documentary Studies at Duke University. His numerous books and documentaries have helped bring…
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Back-to-the-Land Dreams
These days, becoming a farmer isn’t considered a “typical” career path. But for some folks, the allure of cultivating your food and owning your land seems too…
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Resilience and the Lost Art of Agricultural Inventiveness
After twenty years in academia, Michael Foley began farming first in southern Maryland, and then in Willits, California, where he, his wife, and oldest daughter currently operate…
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A Guide to Sourcing Food: Quality Matters
Living a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, especially when it comes to buying and sourcing food. You want to keep a budget but don’t want to sacrifice…
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Doing Well By Doing Good
The list of issues impacting Earth’s rapid decline continues to grow at a highly alarming rate. Environmental concerns are entering the world of politics and business. Our…
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The Miracle of Farming: Toward a Bio-Abundant Future
Farmers have a close relationship with nature, seeing life cycles happen right in front of their eyes marvel in what the earth can produce. We wouldn’t survive…
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African Farming Traditions: Learning the Power of Tradition
Far before the release of her book Farming While Black, Leah Penniman had been helping countless Black and Brown farmers reclaim their right to the land. For years,…
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Sustain Your Land: Subsistence Strategies for the Long Haul
Peasants, indigenous agriculturalists, and old-time American farming families farmed first and foremost to feed their own families and those in need in their communities—only secondarily, if at…
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Composting with Animals: Common Applications
When you think of a typical farm, you probably think of going out to feed the animals with a bucket of scraps. This has been one of…
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Young Farmers: Back to the Land and Down to Business
If you haven’t been working on a farm since childhood or weren’t lucky enough to inherit one from your family, it can be difficult to build one…
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Why Farm Infrastructure is Important: A Farm is More Than Land
The basis for a good farm isn’t just about finding a piece of land with great soil. No, to truly succeed on the farm you need a…
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Farmers Aren’t Created Equal: The “American Farmer” Fallacy
For those who aren’t in the know, it may seem like all farmers are created equal, but that’s simply not the case. In fact, there is such…
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Black Rural Land: Black Land Matters
As a young black girl, Leah Penniman struggled to understand who she was and where she fit in with the world. There was one thing she did…
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Types of Tomatoes: Deciphering the Many Varieties
If you love tomatoes, you probably already know just how many varieties of these delicious summertime staples there are. But do you know what makes each one…
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How to Use Climate Maps to Navigate the Winter Harvest
Continuing to grow your crops and harvest them well into the winter months seems like an impossible task. How can they grow when weather conditions are far…
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Four Books for Growing Food in Winter
Don’t let cold weather stop you from enjoying and growing food! For many, the coming of winter simply means cultivation moves indoors or under cover. Small farmers,…
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An Interview With Eliot Coleman: The Original Organic Pioneer
With over fifty years’ experience in agriculture and a penchant for inventing new tools and techniques, Eliot Coleman has solidly established himself as an organic farming pioneer.…
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A 15-Point Urban Food Manifesto
What if farms and food production were integrated into every aspect of urban living—from special assessments to create new farms and food businesses to teaching people how…
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How to End a Food Apartheid
Apartheid ended in 1994, right? Not according to Leah Penniman, a young, black farmer living in the South End of Albany, NY where a modern day apartheid…
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Farming Against Nature
When you’re walking around the grocery store looking at all of the different vegetables, it’s probably hard to imagine that a century ago there was twice the…
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Emergence of the Mechanical Mind and Its Dire Implications
For as far back as we can remember, humans have been driven by the Mechanical Mind – a desire to evolve, to expand, to consume, to manipulate…
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Community Food Forests in Action
Alright. We’ve covered the basics of what a community food forest is, how to plan one, and which approach is best. Now it’s time to see some…
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Silvopasture: What in the world is it?
Have you heard of silvopasture? This system of managing grazing animals in a temperate forest ecosystem is quite common in Europe but it didn’t quite make its…
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