WACD Reading List

The Future We Desire: A resilient, restorative, economically viable, and climate-smart agricultural system that produces abundant and nutritious food, natural fiber, and clean energy for a sustainable, vibrant, and prosperous America.

Award-winning, conservation-minded landowners will soon be sharing their knowledge by serving as mentors for historically underserved farmers and ranchers.

The Agriculture Department said that after a detailed investigation, it found no evidence that someone was trying to harm U.S. agriculture. The report concluded the seeds were likely part of an internet scam to help a seller boost its search results.

For the first time in the organization’s 102-year history, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) 2021 annual convention was held virtually. More than 8,000 people registered for the online event, surpassing attendance records of all prior in-person annual conventions.

“A lot of these practices, while they may be good, aren’t always free or they require some investment or they require some new knowledge,” said Bonnie.

Washington wheat growers will be monitoring their crops closely following a mid-February cold snap that brought low temperatures, wind and snow to the eastern portion of the state. Some winter damage is possible, said Glen Squires, CEO of the Washington Grain Commission.

Starting this year, all producers and landowners participating or applying to participate in certain NRCS conservation programs must complete form CCC-902, Farm Operating Plan, according to a press release from USDA.

“Washington is seen as a great agriculture state, and it is, but that industry is dominated by white farmers and ranchers. Only about 90 of the state’s 63,000 or so producers are Black, while fewer than 1 percent are American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.37 percent are Asian, and 4.66 percent are Latinx. 97 percent of our producers are white."

Trey Hill uses clover, lentils, and rye as cover crops, and radishes and turnips for root crops as sequestration and regeneration agents in his corn field. Recently Hill’s farm of 10,000 acres sold its carbon credits for $16.50 per ton, through a Seattle-based startup called Nori, which allows companies and individuals to buy carbon credits to offset their own carbon emissions.

For those who want to farm, spiralling prices often present insurmountable barriers to accessing land. And laws and customs often mean that the women and immigrants who do much of the world’s farming are denied agency over their work. MacGillivray’s experience shows that young farmers can thrive if they have the resources they need. But how can we ensure access to those resources?

...we now know that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has another feather in his multi hyphenated career cap: America’s Top Private Owner of Farmland.

Video: Snohomish County hopes to turn buildings at McCollum Park in Everett into a processing and distribution center for local farmers to use.

“The reality is there are inherent, legacy barriers and practices that have prevented black farmers and other producers from getting access to programs, and I will do everything I can to remove those barriers,” Vilsack said in an email to The Associated Press.

With the resolution of a disputed election in New York State, the House Agriculture Committee is ready for action with climate change as its top issue. “Everything will tie into climate change,” says the committee chief of staff, and the first hearing of the year will focus on climate change’s impact on agriculture.

President Joe Biden’s nomination of Tom Vilsack to lead the Agriculture Department is getting a chilly reaction from many Black farmers who contend he didn’t do enough to help them the last time he had the job.

“Vertical farming is a type of controlled environment agriculture that uses artificial lighting, typically indoors, and vertical planting systems that utilize a space’s cubic footage as opposed to square footage in traditional farming,” Megan Pirelli, community engagement director at Fork Farms, told The Debrief. “This allows for significantly more production in a much smaller space.”

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers in Action (USFRA) —in conjunction with World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), The Mixing Bowl, and Croatan Institute has issued a new report that analyzes the state of soil health technology. The report also identifies opportunities to find new sources of capital to scale up the adoption of climate-smart agriculture on U.S. farms and ranches.

While some similar carbon-credit programs for agriculture have been announced, many still rely on broad estimates of carbon improvements over many acres, due to the difficulty and cost of verification and validation. It’s essential that any system of carbon-credit farming is built on clear, science-based standards tied to real-world results.

Modern farming is better because it uses low-impact, “precision” techniques that require less land, less energy and fewer chemicals for every bushel produced. The secret has been to incorporate tools that use sensors, information and communications technology, big data, and even machine learning to reduce farming’s dependence on material resources.

This series, by the Yale Center for Business and the Environment's Regenerative Agriculture Initiative team, looks at how changes in training, investing, insuring and marketing the work of regenerative farmers can bring about broad benefits.

Racial inequities in the allocation of farm aid is not a new or unusual issue. The unequal administration of pandemic support is part of a much longer trend of government programs underserving minority populations.

Radicchio proved to be an important crop in 2007 when Erickson-Brown and her husband, Jason Salvo, started their 15-acre farm, Local Roots Farm, in Duvall, Wash.

The US Forest Service needs your input on the updated rangeland management directives by Tuesday, February 16.