Touch the Soil News #1394 (Feature photo – Swarms of Locusts in Yemen – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license – Goldlocki) AgFunder journalist Richard Hemphill brings us news about the emerging company MetoMotion and news greenhouse robot that harvest tomatoes. MetoMotion, a small 2- person company just received $1.5 million in funding to…
Touch the Soil News #1393 (Feature photo – Location Map of Uzbekistan – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license – Nikki070) When 1.4 billion people line up at the dinner table and your country isn’t big enough to raise all the food, you have to go to other countries. But you can’t go to…
Touch the Soil News #1392 (Feature photo – Washed up Trash –Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license – Vaidehi Shah) Phil Lempert (https://www.supermarketguru.com/) brings us the story of geometrically growing volumes of trash from a geometrically growing fast food landscape in China. You can see the full report here:
Touch the Soil News #1391 (Feature photo – Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone – Public Domain NOAA) The NOAA reports that with this year’s flooding along the Mississippi River, there was more runoff from agricultural fields. The runoff ultimately ends up in the Gulf of Mexico on the outer regions of New Orleans. The increased…
Touch the Soil News #1390 (Feature photo – Swarms of Locusts in Yemen – courtesy of the FAO) The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports that swarms of locusts in bunches of up to 10 million can travel over 100 miles a day devouring everything in their path. The nations of Yemen,…
Touch the Soil News #1389 (Feature photo – Canal Dries up In Nebraska – Public Domain) A century-old irrigation tunnel in Wyoming has collapsed. Water has been halted to over 100,000 acres of crops in Wyoming and Nebraska. These farmers have all but had it as they have faced low grain prices, trade wars, flooding…
Touch the Soil News #1388 (Feature photo – Seal of the State of Pennsylvania – By Henrik – Own workBoat and plow from File:Flag of Pennsylvania.svg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7002778) For most of our lives, the larger arena of food and farming has been overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The State of Pennsylvania…
Touch the Soil News #1387 (Feature photo – Geoff Welding Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license – JJBers) Phil Lempert (https://www.supermarketguru.com/) touches on the trend to shop for groceries at pharmacies, which mostly sell processed and packaged food that is not that healthy. At issue is that pharmacies are often the only place available…
Touch the Soil News #1386 (Feature photo – Geoff Welding Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.) British supermarket retailer Waitrose is different. It is the largest employee-owned retailer in Great Britain. The company, in an effort to become more environmentally conscious, is experimenting with packaging-free grocery shopping. You can read the full story here:…
Touch the Soil News #1385 (Feature photo Soil Profile – USDA, Public Domain) Indigo is a company the strives to improve farmers’ profitability, environmental sustainability and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies. Now, Indigo is putting out a challenge to innovators to come up with a plan on how to…
