Urban Agriculture Tours Draw Rural Farmers Also Looking for Ideas

Touch the Soil News #2031 (photo – South Chicago farm) (Courtesy of Urban Growers Collective, https://www.urbangrowerscollective.org/our-farms) The Daily Journal, an Illinois news Portal bring us the story of urban farm tours in Chicago. These tours have become so popular that even rural farmer come to get ideas and network.  While it is not a new…

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Should the USDA Match Crop Subsidies with Crops Better for Health?

Touch the Soil News #2023 (photo – Healthy Foods) ( Public Domain – courtesy of the National Institutes of Health) The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit News portal that recently published an interesting take on how Federal dollars spent on agriculture that promotes food crops not particularly aligned with our nutritional needs.  Paul Johnson of…

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Hospitals Growing Food Movement in India?

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…

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No-Till Farming – The Financial Benefits

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…

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