"The following blogs and publication illustrate the positive outcomes of NIFA-funded research, education, and extension programs in Indian Country."
USDA Blog
"Impediments to starting new farms include cost of land, equipment, labor and health care. For young farmers, who often lack capital, starting a new farm is doubly difficult."
The Frederick News-Post
"The new documentary 'Fear No Fruit' tells the story of Frieda Caplan, the woman behind the discovery and marketing of once-obscure produce like kiwis, sunchokes, and fiddleheads."
Civil Eats
"A few boutique U.S. companies are making headway to bring the entire supply chain—from raising the sheep to processing the wool to sewing the apparel—back home"
Outside
"Mena’s is a story about what water gives and takes away — how California’s farmworkers are an ecological crisis away from losing their jobs and their homes, with no safety net."
San Francisco Chronicle
"Do you make a living? Can you afford rent, healthcare? Can you pay your labor a living wage? If the reporter had asked me these questions, I would have said no."
SALON
"California-based, Center for Land-Based Learning, strives to cultivate appreciation and respect for the environment and agriculture, especially among youth."
foodtank
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts that over the next five years the annual demand for college graduates in agriculture and food industries will be 57,900 jobs per year. Unfortunately, American agricultural colleges (such as my own College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Georgia) will only be producing about 35,400 graduates per year."
BainbridgeGA.com
"'One of the many promising trends in agriculture is the growing presence of women who are using their talents to help strengthen the viability of the family while also supplying food, feed, fuel and fiber to Americans and consumers abroad,' said Johnson."
MorningAgClips
"Today, USDA is launching USDA Results, a progressive, year-long, multimedia storytelling effort showcasing the Administration’s work on behalf of those living, working and raising families in rural America."
USDA Blog
"A 1952 Ford 8N tractor, named the “8NCredible,” has taken the title of world’s fastest farm tractor, reaching a speed of 96.3185 mph and breaking a tractor land-speed record that stood for 80 years."
The Country Today
"As of Dec. 21, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring individuals who own Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to register their craft with the FAA."
AGPROFESSIONAL
"Women in agriculture are a big deal, in part because consumers are eager to get to know them and how they produce food, according to Sherry Saylor, chair of the AFB Women’s Leadership Committee."
MorningAgClips
"...a co-op of about 100 beekeepers stretching from Michigan to Tennessee is trying a different approach."
NPR - the salt
"BoysGrow, a Kansas City nonprofit, helps teenage boys find footing in the world through growing and selling fresh vegetables."
Civil Eats
"For 30-year-old Tim Taylor, pushing snow with his custom-built plow on his motorized wheelchair is not just fun; it's another achievement for this northwest Pennsylvania man, who's constantly looking for ways to adapt life to his disability."
Huffington Post
"Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are scooping up farmland in drought-afflicted regions of the U.S. Southwest, and that has some people in California and Arizona seeing red."
CNBC
"According to the USDA, the women who identify themselves as farmers or ranchers run the gamut from those who raise cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs and goats in the West and Midwest to viticulturists who nurture malbec and pinot noir grapes in California, Washington and Oregon."
The Seattle Times
"As the assistant secretary for civil rights for the USDA, Dr. Joe Leonard has spent the last 7 years doing what many thought was impossible: working for equality within a government agency that was built on institutional racism."
Civil Eats
"...which one’s scarier: a visit from the Grim Reaper or an IRS auditor. Luckily, Uncle Sam provides generous agricultural tax breaks; you just need to know how to take advantage of them."
modern farmer
"Sales at farmers markets, the venues most closely associated with the food movement, peaked in 2007 and haven’t grown since."
The Washington Post
"Growing specialty melons rather than conventional melons offers small, local, direct-market growers the potential for more profit using less space and fewer."
MorningAgClips