Modern Farmer
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There has been a movement afoot in recent years to make connections between what we eat, how we live and the planet. Modern Farmer exists for people who want to be a part of that movement.
Modern Farmer
2d ago
At the end of February, the town board of Lind, Wisconsin voted against changing the zoning laws to allow a nearby 600-cow dairy to install an anaerobic digester. These digesters are becoming more common, particularly at larger dairy operations housing thousands of cows, called concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). This is partially because they have been included as a key ingredient in the Biden administration’s pledge to reduce methane emissions in animal agriculture.
At CAFOs, it is common to pool animal waste in one spot, called a manure lagoon. Anaerobic digestion creates a mixt ..read more
Modern Farmer
4d ago
Kuuleialoha Gaisoa determines whether a person is worthy of receiving her Hawaiian pa‘akai, or salt, based on whether they’ll help her protect the salt ponds of Hanapēpē on Kaua‘i.
Like the kūpuna, or ancestors, before her, “I create a product that I just give away,” says Gaisoa, 49. So, “I expect you to stand on the front line when I have to fight for this.”
Gaisoa belongs to one of 22 Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) ʻohana, or families, tasked with farming salt for centuries. Tradition dictates that their salt can’t be bought or sold—only traded or given. But in the 21st century, the flats gr ..read more
Modern Farmer
1w ago
What is the “right” approach to meat?
There’s no doubt that industrial animal agriculture carries a laundry list of sins; greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water pollution and labor rights abuses are just a few examples. But there’s also evidence that some regenerative grazing practices can enhance biodiversity, improve soil health and—possibly—sequester carbon. Not only that, but animal husbandry also has significant cultural value and eating animal products can have health benefits.
For some people, eschewing meat—or even all animal products—entirely is the on ..read more
Modern Farmer
1w ago
Nate Lewis and Melissa Barker knew that Oyster Bay Farm was for them. “It ticked all the boxes,” says Lewis. Situated in Olympia, Washington along the shores of Puget Sound, the fertile land and waterfront views make the farm an ideal spot.
There was just one problem: Lewis and Barker could not afford to buy the farm or the land on which it sits—that is, until they worked with an agricultural land trust.
What is a land trust?
Land trusts are legal agreements administered by non-profit conservation organizations or, in some instances, government bodies that work to conserve agricultural l ..read more
Modern Farmer
1w ago
Susan Witt has a deep and enduring interest in the land beneath her feet—none of which she owns. For more than four decades, the executive director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics (which she co-founded with Robert Swann in 1980) has been tending to a land-use movement in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, driven by innovative ideas for cultivating affordable access to farmland.
Witt’s home in South Egremont is a scant mile from Indian Line Farm, the nation’s first CSA; together, the pair of plots represents 28 total acres stemming from another of Witt’s passion project ..read more
Modern Farmer
1w ago
Brewing takes a heavy toll on the environment. The average brewery uses six gallons of water to make just one gallon of beer, with base and specialty ingredients flown around the globe and trucks of cans and kegs driven up and down the country. Add in the stickers and plastic sleeves that make many beer cans non-recyclable, and packaged beer takes an even higher toll. But when you’re relaxing with a cold one, the last thing you’re probably thinking of is the environmental cost of the beer in your hand.
Conservationist Eric Steen aims to change that. His Earth to Beer project is bringing ..read more
Modern Farmer
2w ago
It’s an election year in the United States, which means that national news outlets are fixated on presidential politics. But although who Americans vote into the top office does have ramifications for food and climate policy, making a change for the better in your local community doesn’t have to wait for November. In fact, there are plenty of ways to begin today.
Food policy experts Sarah Hackney and Jamie Fanous have advice for those who feel overwhelmed or unsure about how to make a difference. Hackney is the coalition director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) in Wash ..read more
Modern Farmer
2w ago
Wherever you find an old homestead—a house and barn with a little bit of land that has stood from sometime in the 1800s or early 1900s—you’ll find an apple tree. It may be gnarly, with limbs clawing out in all different directions like a witch’s unkempt hair. It may be surrounded by weeds and overgrowth, struggling skyward for the nutrition of the sun. But it will almost certainly be there. You may even find a few trees or an orchard. Even when the homestead has been reduced to the sad pit of a forgotten foundation, an apple tree remains.
The history of the United States is a history lined wit ..read more
Modern Farmer
2w ago
Across the Phoenix metro area, citrus trees sag under the weight of more produce than homeowners can harvest and use. Thousands of pounds of fruit go to waste every year while more than half a million area residents struggle with food insecurity.
What if these food-insecure households—more than 13 percent of the county’s population—could access the abundant provision literally dropping from trees in their neighbors’ backyards?
“Food deserts—places like Phoenix, particularly—need to be more proactive about our own generation and capture of resources,” says Jérémy Chevallier, Phoenix resident an ..read more
Modern Farmer
2w ago
Through his outspoken social media presence, farmer Chris Newman has killed a lot of sacred broiler chickens. His video about racism in agriculture, “I’m a Black Farmer,” went viral in January. When he and his wife started Sylvanaqua Farms, a multi-enterprise permaculture farm in the Virginia Piedmont in 2013, he had no idea that he was in for a harrowing ride that would teach him painful lessons about food and farming—and show him a better way for alternative agriculture to thrive. Food sovereignty, says Newman, just isn’t possible under the small farm model—but that doesn’t mean that the pri ..read more