Touch the Soil News #1305 (Feature photo – Healthy Food – Public Domain) Healthy Food, recyclable packaging and zero waste are certainly the buzz words of today. However, Simply Good Jar Jars has converted the buzz words into reality. Simply Good Jars (https://simplygoodjars.com/) made news by being selected by Food X for special assistance in…
Author: Touch the Soil
Why Might Pistachio Orchard Ownership Matter?
Positive Future #438 (Feature photo – Pistachios on the Tree – CCA SA 3.0 Unported) While it is a small trend mostly out of the mainstream news, owning orchards of nuts, fruits and avocados is a serious trend among non-farming investors. Stabilizing world population is not an option, so competition for food – in a…
U.S. Food Prices Rise
Touch the Soil News #1304 (Feature photo – The Avocado – Public Domain) While not all food groups are see dramatic rises, it is high-end foods that are perceived as healthier that are seeing significant increases. The ramifications – making the healthiest foods only affordable by the more well-to-do – may spark new issues in…
World Food Prices Remain Stable – For Now
Touch the Soil News #1303 (Feature photo – Bulk Food Delivered to Emergency Areas – Public Domain) The Food and Agriculture Organization just released its statistics for world food prices in March of 2019. The index came in at 167.0 a slight move from the 166.8 in February. The FAO Food Price Index is the…
A Local Organic Farm That Started on a 4 Foot by 8 Foot Sheet of Plywood
Touch the Soil News #1302 (Feature photo – Simple Abundance Farm Greenhouse – Courtesy of Simple Abundance Farm) While everyone is worried about not enough young people taking over the industrial farms, perhaps the focus should be the incoming young people that are building local organic farms. City Farmer News brings us information on Simple Abundance…
The Economics of Local Vertical Indoor Farming
Touch the Soil News #1301 (Feature photo – Indoor Vertical Farming – CCA SA 3.0 Unported) Agriculture consultant Peter Tasgal writes for AgFunder on the economics of vertical indoor farming. The economics – given the significant costs – are not as positive as one would suspect. From a price point, conventional outdoor production of growing…
Global Pork Tremor Grows
Touch the Soil News #1300 (Feature photo – Confined Pig Operation – Public Domain) The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) announced that it was cancelling the World Pork Expo that was to be held at the Des Moines, Iowa fairgrounds. The three-day event would have brought in some 20,000 attendees from all over the world.…
Land Ownership – Emerging New Conflicts
Touch the Soil News #1299 (Feature photo – A Farmer in Kenya – CCA SA 2.0 Generic) In the world today the three primary forms of land ownership are private, government and undocumented ownership by indigenous tribes and peoples. In the past, these three forms of ownership co-existed much more peacefully than today. As the…
How Do We Measure Wealth?
Touch the Soil News #1298 (Feature photo – Mechanical Irrigation in Yuma, Arizona – Public Domain) The number one focus of most people is how they are going to translate their work ethic and skills into dollars. As such, it is not unreasonable that most of us measure wealth in terms of dollars. However, much…
Are U.S. Waistlines Getting Bigger?
Touch the Soil News #1297 (Feature photo – Normal, Overweight and Obese Waistlines – Public Domain) Over the past 17 years – a relative short time for major changes in human stature, Americans have noticeably increased their waistlines. Phil Lempert (https://www.supermarketguru.com/) explores new studies that show its time for more action on the part of…