Positive Future #464 (Feature photo – Solar Farm – CCA SA 4.0 International) GreenTechMedia reports that U.S. now has over 2 million solar installations. It took 40 years to install the first million and just 3 years to install the second million. As solar power continues to become less expensive, estimates are that solar will…
Touch the Soil News #1330 (Feature photo – Emblem of Saudi Arabia – Public Domain) AgFunder News brings some interesting developments that have major implications for food insecure nations with lots of desert adjacent to salt water oceans. Startup Red Sea Farms (https://www.redseafarms.com/) is making news as it looks to commercialize greenhouses that can use…
Touch the Soil News #1329 (Feature photo – Bee Keeping – courtesy of the Savannah College of Art and Design) The Savannah College of Art and Design is creating a legacy activity – organic farming and beekeeping. Founded in 1978, the college has over 13,000 students on several campuses. Inhabitat journalist Lucy Wang reports on…
Touch the Soil News #1328 (Feature photo – Calgary City Flag – Public Domain) The city of Calgary in the Canadian Province of Alberta is the heart of a metro area of some 1.4 million people. The Calgary Herald reports that the City of Calgary, the Compost Council of Canada and a number of urban…
Touch the Soil News #1327 (Feature photo – Pig Farming –CCA SA 2.0 Generic) We’ve been covering the unnerving spread of African Swine Fever as it began uncontrollable spreading least year in China and Southeast Asia. Now, the military of Vietnam is being called out to cull (destroy and remove) pig herds that have been…
Touch the Soil News #1326 (Feature photo – Chickens –CCA SA 2.0 Generic) Interest in getting food more local is often tied to solving or getting away from an industrial farming problem. Farming chickens in factory settings that require low regular doses of antibiotics and animal cruelty issues surrounding small cages is certainly reason to…
Touch the Soil News #1325 (Feature photo – Greenhouse Tomatoes –CCA SA 4.0 International) Estimates are that 10 percent of the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S. are left in the field because of insufficient numbers of workers or other challenges to getting workers into the fields. Robotics are rapidly entering the arena of…
Touch the Soil News #1324 (Feature photo – Dairy Products Are Seeing Price Surges – CCA SA 3.0) The globalization of trade has led to the globalization of food trade and food access. Shortages in one part of the world raise prices in other parts of the world. For this reason, following the FAO (Food…
Touch the Soil News #1323 (Feature photo – Palm Oil Plantations in Indonesia –USDA Public Domain) What shows up in our grocery stores is having an increasing negative effect on the world’s rainforests and indigenous peoples. The demand for food and the opportunity for profit are forces driving rainforest destruction and externalization of indigenous people.…
Touch the Soil News #1322 (Feature photo – Pig Farming –USDA Public Domain) City Farmer News brings our attention to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank as it donates $180,000 to 14 different urban farms to help regional food insecurity. One of the farms engages 350 to 400 children every day for 50 days in the summertime.…
