Touch the Soil News #1992 (photo – Growing Tomato Plants – (Jolly Janner – Public Domain) CBS News of New York brings the story of schools in New York City that are bringing urban farming curriculums, with physical labs, to sixty schools. New York Sun Works, the non-profit responsible for building out the urban farming…
Touch the Soil News #1991 – Forests – (Malene Thyssen – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene) The Times of India recently put out an interesting story. It’s about an emerging trend where hospitals are beginning to grow their own organic vegetables for patients and staff. The story comes from the city of Kochi with a population of 700,000 within…
Touch the Soil News #1990 – National Organic Program – (courtesy of USDA, Public Domain) – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene) Agritecture news portal covers the ongoing debates of certifying your crops, be that organics, non- GMO or other certifications now being offered. The upshot of the article is that consumers do pay attention to third-party verifications on what…
Touch the Soil News #1989 – Forests – (Malene Thyssen – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Malene) Agriculture and Forestry are growing their services of carbon sequestration to large carbon emitters. Selling carbon offsets is becoming big business as the Nation of Zambia plans carbon offset ventures that will cover 5 percent of the nation’s land mass. The goal is…
Touch the Soil News #1988 – Regenerating Soils – (Courtesy of USDA – Public Domain) Brightvibes news portal brings the story of a Southern California farm that transformed materially depleted land into a Regenerative Farm. The process took the owners 8 years, and they are pleased with the results and where they are headed now. …
Touch the Soil News #1987 (Photo – Forests – (Donar Reiskoffer (CCA Sa 4.0 Unported) Forests, like other natural features on the Earth’s surface play a role in Atmospheric health including water flow regulation and soil health. These 10 companies manage 22 million acres of forests. That would be the equivalent of a farm 1,000…
Touch the Soil News #1986 (Photo – No-Till Farming – (Maggilautaro, CCA 3.0 Unported) While we don’t often cover conventional farming practices, we did find an interesting story about No-Till farming and the surprising financial benefits in lowering costs. From using far less fuel, arresting top soil loss, and being able to use smaller equipment…
Touch the Soil News #1985 (Photo – Farm Stand Produce – (Sarah Stierch (CC By 4.0) Over the years we all have seen honor-system farm stands along the road. It sent a pleasing message from the farmer that he trusted us folks that were driving by and occasionally stopping. While finding the right place for…
Touch the Soil News #1984 (Photo – Jeff and Sandy Bragg – (photo courtesy of Jeff and Sandy Bragg) The National Heirloom Exposition is an event of a lifetime, if you can get there. Filling up the fairgrounds in Ventura County, California, the pavilions are packed with things for professional growers and the family and…
Touch the Soil News #1983 (Photo – Edible Fungi – George Chernilevsky, Public Domain) Euro News brings a story of an enterprising venture in Portugal that grows mushrooms directly out of coffee waste plus some additions. While this is a niche form of urban agriculture, it may have some application, from a business model perspective,…
