You are browsing the archive for farming.

Top 6 Reasons Why Every Garden Should Have a Pond (Video)

4:02 pm in agriculture, biodiversity, botanical, farming, food, permaculture, united states by TreeHugger

permaculture pond photo Image credit: Permaculture Artisans Sequestering radioactive waste with pond algae or starting up a serious backyard aquaponics set up may not be for every gardener. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a pond. In fact, says Erik Ohlsen, installing a pond is the single most important pest management practice you can incorporate. And that's just one reason a...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Urban Truck Farms Take Local Food to a New Level

1:48 pm in agriculture, denver, farming, Food & Health, local food, urban life by TreeHugger

urban truck farm photo Image: Rachel Cernansky I saw the truck as we entered the Old South Pearl Street farmer's market on Sunday, but what I thought was an awesome old truck selling greens out of the back was even better—it was growing them. Lined with dirt, the bed of the truck literally sprouts all kinds of greens, from lettuce to tomato plants to a variety of herbs. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Small Victory: Organic Farm Allowed to Sue for Wafting Pesticide Contamination

10:14 am in agriculture, Business & Politics, chemicals, farming, pesticides by TreeHugger

organic farm photo Image: benketaro via flickr Does anyone remember the case of Percy Schmeiser, a Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto after the company's Roundup Ready canola had drifted onto his farm without him knowing about or wanting it? A new case in Minnesota could be just the opposite scenario: Oluf and Debra Johnson say that pesticides from surrounding conventional farms have been wafting onto their 1500-acre organic farm—damaging their crop and impacting their profits. A court has now ruled that the Johnsons can sue to recover their lo...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Supporting Farmers Markets Creates Thousands of Jobs: Union of Concerned Scientists

4:34 pm in Business & Politics, economics, farmers markets, farming, local food by TreeHugger

farmers market photo Image: Chris Schrier via flickr "What's holding farmers markets back?" That's the question behind a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, which determined the culprit to be federal policies that favor industrial agriculture over small and local farms. Change those policies, though, and you get a quick turnaround. According to the report, just a little public funding for 100 to 500 farmers markets a year could create up to 13,500 jobs within five years....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Planting a Rooftop Forest Garden

10:07 am in activism, agriculture, farming, food, local food, permaculture, poverty, united kingdom by TreeHugger

rooftop-forest-garden.png Image credit: Permaculture Magazine I recently posted some great videos on how to grow food in a forest garden—a type of garden design that mimics early-stage natural woodlands by utilizing a diversity of useful plants, focusing on largely perennial food crops, and growing in several "storeys", including canopy, shrubs and understorey plants. We have, of course, also posted on Read the full story on TreeHugger

Creating 25 Community Gardens in Just 4 Years (Video)

10:46 am in agruculture, communities, farming, food, peak oil by TreeHugger

25 community gardens 4 years photo Image credit: Peak Moment TV From sharing gardens offering food for all, to neighbors removing fences and growing food, Peak Moment TV has shown plenty of examples of communities coming together to garden. But how scalable are these initiatives? One Washington activist group decided to see just how many gardens they could start in their county—and the results...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Peachy Canyon Winery: Old Jesse James Hideout Turns Sustainable Winery

11:45 am in agriculture, california, farming, food, Food & Health, green wine guide, organic agriculture, photo galleries, recipes, Travel & Nature, wine by TreeHugger

Green Wine Guide Peachy Canyon PhotosPhoto via Peachy Canyon Peachy Canyon Winery is a sustainable, family-owned winery located on the westside of Paso Robles' popular Highway 46. The winery is named after a horse thief who took refuge in a cave near the vineyard; Jesse James made use of the same hideout. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger

How to Become a Farmer, and Why Drought Can Be Good (Video)

12:38 pm in agriculture, california, farming, food, united states by TreeHugger

how to become a farmer photo Image credit: The Perennial Plate From young farmers farming with horses to backyard slaughter in West Oakland, we've seen plenty of ways that idealistic young people try to break into the farming game. Here the Perennial Plate folks pay a visit to three different farms in the Bay Area, and we hear a little bit about how they got started, what it's like to farm, and why they do it. We also get to see some bad-ass unicycli...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Supporting Food Security in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward

8:00 am in agriculture, farming, how to, new orleans, organic, Take Action by TreeHugger

Our School at Blair Grocery is a Food Security Academy photo Click on image to view the video. Photo: Kickstarter A Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans food project could promise real change to a struggling community. Our School at Blair Grocery is a Food Security Academy in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. According to Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tobacco Farmers Transitioning to Diversified, Sustainable Agriculture (Video)

4:31 pm in agriculture, farming, food, north carolina, united states by TreeHugger

piedmont local food photo Image credit: RAFI USA Given the environmental and social impacts of smoking, most TreeHuggers are not huge fans of tobacco. (Cheap, biodegradable solar grown from tobacco still seems a ways off.) But what to do with all that land that was once used for growing tobacco, and what about the communities who depended on it? An enterprising community of farmers is busy finding alternatives and&mdash...Read the full story on TreeHugger