Free Republic

Back in May I was invited to Singapore to tour schools, IT hubs, hospitals and startups. The size of the country, as well as their government structure, allows them move towards their objectives more quickly than other countries. What I witnessed during my visit was a nation determined to be seen as a leader in the technology sector and to be recognized as a nucleus for some of the top innovators in the world. One aspect of the trip that really resonated with me was the country's use of vertical farming and other cutting edge agricultural techniques. Population Pressures The...

The extended drought in California has farmers looking for ways to use less water. Among them: growing feed indoors using hydroponics. The new diet is making some Central Valley sheep very happy. On Golden Valley Farm an hour north of Fresno, Mario Daccarett's employees milk 500 sheep every day, in rounds of 12. This creamy milk eventually is turned into cheese and sold at places like Whole Foods. "They tell me that our Golden Ewe cheese is the best for grilled cheese sandwich ever," Daccarett says. (I bought some and it was really tasty.) He says he gets about 800...

FARMING will need to shift towards indoor vertical farms and precision techniques that could make use of drones. Just as important will be the planting of drought-resistant crops and even printing meat to secure food production globally. This is according to Ernst Janovsky, senior agricultural economist at Absa, who emphasised that technology will need to be incorporated into farming practices in order to keep up with costs and supply. Speaking at an Absa Agribusiness roundtable in Centurion on Tuesday, Janovsky said population growth would create more demand for food, water and land. By 2050, the global population is expected to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times EDT): 4:20 p.m. Donald Trump is telling Iowans that one of his campaign goals is to "make America grow again." Speaking at a rally Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump touted his plans to boost economic growth and help American farmers, including his proposal to lower the tax rate on family farms to 15 percent....

Gainesville -- Officials at Mar-Jac Poultry said they were shocked to find out Thursday that federal officials suspect the company might have ties to terrorist funding. Company Vice President Doug Carnes said at least a half-dozen U.S. Customs agents spent all day Wednesday gathering financial records and charitable contribution files. They were "real nice, professional and complimentary," he said, but they didn't disclose the nature of their visit. It was only on Thursday that Carnes was alerted by company officials in Virginia as to what the agents were looking for. "I'm shocked. I'm in disbelief. I've worked for them for...

Humans are eating more fish than ever. And since 2014, most of what we eat has come not from the wild, but from fish farms operated by the fast-growing aquaculture industry. But what do these farmed fish eat? The answer is just as unappetizing as it sounds — and just as worrisome to advocates of sustainable seafood. The typical fish-farm diet (“aquafeed,” in industry parlance) contains fish — specifically fish meal and fish oil, made largely from wild-caught “forage” fish. And because stocks of wild fish are declining, that poses a serious long-term problem for the world food supply. Wild...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending nearly $1 million to teach refugees how to farm. New grants announced last week include two projects in Idaho and Kansas to “cultivate the next generation of farmers” by helping refugees get land leases to start their own farms.

Driving to the Ranch through the Mohawk valley, east of Yuma, I noticed the gentleman pictured above.  I stopped to take his picture and determine his business. You can see that the soil in this area is a fluffy loam.  It is highly productive, irrigated by Colorado River water.  This area near Yuma is some of the most productive agricultural land in the United States and in the world. Leo did not mind having his picture taken.  I asked him if he were guarding the field from birds that would eat the seeds.  No, he said, ground squirrels. He...

Issue is linked to Monsanto’s introduction of new herbicide-resistant biotech soybean Farmers in southern U.S. states have long battled weeds and destructive bugs, but this year they face a new threat: their neighbors. They say some growers are illegally spraying a powerful herbicide that is damaging hundreds of thousands of crop acres in Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee, a trend that regulators, farmers and academics link to Monsanto Co. ’s introduction this year of a new variety of genetically modified soybean. Monsanto’s new biotech soybean was designed to resist herbicides, including a powerful chemical called dicamba, long used to kill weeds...

The Association for Vertical Farming aims to create the first sustainability standard for towering indoor food systems From shipping containers-turned-micro farms to fruit-picking robots, the wide world of agriculture techis attracting attention and investor dollars as increasingly urgent concerns about food scarcity come into focus. Amid a wave of in-field technology, food data analytics and experimental urban agriculture, the particularly futuristic field of vertical farming is attracting entrants including industrial incumbents such as Fujitsu and upstarts such as AeroFarms, City Farm and Green Sense. As ag tech blooms, attracting a total $4.6 billion in investment during 2015, the nonprofit Association...

Minnesota's crop, livestock and dairy farmers are suffering with continuing rock bottom prices for their commodities, driving some into bankruptcy. John Quaal, 71, operates a dairy farm near Fergus Falls and tells Minnesota Public Radio News (http://bit.ly/2b5RcoD ) that it's nearly impossible to break even producing milk. "For almost two years now we've been going backwards," said Quaal. "You've got to learn to deal with it I guess. It's just the way it is." Quaal said his farm has lost as much as $40,000 in a single month and figures the family operation lost a total of $300,000 last year....

Maryrose Littler, who is committed to organic farming and permaculture, picks fresh onions from her grandmother Barbara Keyes’ raised vegetable beds near McArthur.        Two Class of 2016 graduates — organic farmer-in-the making Maryrose Littler, and Kayla Cline, raised on an historic farm in Albany — represent the future of farming in southeastern Ohio. Littler recently graduated from Athens High School and Cline from Alexander High School. Littler enjoys living an organic lifestyle on her parents’ five-acre homestead near Morrison-Gordon Elementary School, where she helps raise honeybees, homegrown vegetables, chickens and beef. She...

Two guys from Canada have come up with a new way for everyone from small indoor growers to large-scale vertical farmers to easily automate their operations. Their system's called Motorleaf and it collects data about your plants and then instructs your existing grow equipment to adjust to the crop’s needs. Think of it as the Nest for your indoor farm. In the summer of 2015, Ramen Dutta began tinkering around with a way to more easily care for his small indoor hobby farm. Although he had a degree in agricultural engineering, he had been working in IT and created an...

In an old warehouse in Newark, New Jersey, that once housed the state's biggest indoor paint ball arena, leafy green plants such as kale, arugula and watercress sprout from tall metal towers under bright lights. A local company named AeroFarms has built what it says is the world's largest indoor vertical farm, without the use of soil or sunlight. Its ambitious goal is to grow high-yielding crops via economical methods to provide locally sourced food to the community, protect the environment and ultimately even combat hunger worldwide. "We use about 95 percent less water to grow the plants, about 50...

Now experts believe several genetically distinct Stone Age hunter-gatherer communities living in the region began to grow crops and keep animals 10,000 years ago, before subsequent generations went on to sow the seeds of farming far and wide. ‘It had been widely assumed that these first farmers were from a single, genetically homogeneous population,’ said study author Dr Garrett Hellenthal of University College London (UCL). ‘However, we've found that there were deep genetic differences in these early farming populations, indicating very distinct ancestries.’ A team of researchers examined ancient DNA from four skeletons representing some of the world's first farmers...

Earlier this month a federal court in California ruled that a farmer plowing his land without a permit from the federal government is breaking the law. In 2013, the Army Corps of Engineers, without any notice or due process, ordered the owners of Duarte Nursery to cease use of their land for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). The violation: plowing. The California court agreed with the federal government’s action, despite the fact the CWA specifically exempts normal agricultural activities like plowing from regulation. This overreaching assertion of federal power is not an isolated incident. For decades, the EPA...

On the CBS3 health watch, its vertical farming. Philadelphia aims to become an international hub for indoor growing, according to a resolution passed today by city council. When growing produce we usually think of acres of farmland. Some say the next generation of farming will be in urban centers like Philadelphia, and you won’t need soil or the sun, just an old warehouse. Welcome to vertical farming, where produce is grown inside, in specialized shelves that are stacked up vertically....

$16 million in fines dropped, threats canceled. A Wyoming rancher threatened by the Environmental Agency with $16 million fines for getting a state permit and building a stock pond on his ranch has reached a settlement that will have the fines go away and he’ll keep his stock pond. WND reported in 2015 on a lawsuit filed on behalf of Fort Bridger, Wyoming, rancher Andy Johnson by officialsl with the Pacific Legal Foundation seeking to vindicate his property rights. The lawsuit explained federal law clearly exempts stock ponds from the rules of the EPA, which had filed a compliance order...

Recent advertisements, splashed across billboards, buses and radio waves, have taken a pointed approach to discussing the link between farms and water pollution. Now, the EPA is under fire for its indirect funding of the campaign. One example, which ran on buses, included a photo of livestock standing in a stream and text that read: "Unregulated agriculture is putting our waterways at risk." The What's Upstream? campaign has drawn criticism for both its approach and its funding - which includes grant money from the Environmental Protection Agency. Lawmakers have called it an "anti-farmer campaign." The Whatcom Transportation Authority pulled the...

Here’s one way to grow food in an urban environment: Raise a school of tilapia in a tank. Filter out the nitrogen-rich waste, and let naturally occurring bacteria transform it from ammonia into nitrate. Run that naturally derived fertilizer beneath the roots of greens, herbs and peppers. Let the veggies flourish beneath LED lights. Harvest the vegetables. Later, harvest the fish. Cook and serve. Known as aquaponics, this complicated but efficient ecosystem is the latest attempt at making agriculture commercially viable in New York City—even though it has a spotty history, a not-quite-proven track record and plenty of skeptics. “We...