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Farmers Are Breeding Heat-Resistant Cows
At Vaqueria El Remanso, a small dairy farm west of San Juan, Puerto Rico, the cows are different — they have a freshly shaven, suave look. Their short hair is the result of a natural mutation known as “slick,” which Rafael López-López, who runs El Remanso, has been breeding into his cows for decades. “In hot,READ MORE
Climate Change Is Upending Farmers’ Livelihoods — and Exacerbating a Mental Health Crisis
When Mike Rosmann, an Iowa farmer and psychologist, heard his phone ring on a spring morning in 2019, he knew he had to answer. In the previous four months, his state had experienced the wettest period in its recorded history; farmers in the region were in crisis. A week earlier, one of Rosmann’s patients had lostREAD MORE
Wells Are Running Dry in Rural Communities of Color. Is a Fix in Sight?
For years, Michael Prado has provided bottled water to his neighbors in Sultana, a town of about 785 people in California’s Central Valley. That’s because most wells in town have been contaminated by runoff from agriculture, said Prado, who is president of the Sultana Community Services District. Only one well meets state standards for safe drinkingREAD MORE
Can the Farm Bill Fix Agriculture’s Methane Problem?
For years, Paul Danbom let good fertilizer go to waste. On his 900-head dairy farm in Turlock, California, he was buying fertilizer for his distant cornfields. Meanwhile, he was paying to dispose of millions of gallons of perfectly good “brown gold” because there was no easy and ecologically friendly way to get it from his cattleREAD MORE
Silvopasture Is an Ancient, Climate-Smart Farming Practice. Can the Farm Bill Help Spur its Renaissance?
On a clear morning in April, after milking his seven cows, Tim Sauder looked over the pasture where he had just turned the animals out to graze. Like many dairy farms, Sauder’s fields swayed with a variety of greenery: chicory, alfalfa and clover. But they were also full of something typically missing on an agricultural landscapeREAD MORE
A Climate-Smart Farm Bill Can Save Lives
In August 2017, as wildfires raged across British Columbia, a blanket of smoke settled over the neighboring state of Washington, turning the sun blood-red and filling the air with grit and ash. At Sarbanand Farms, a blueberry orchard in Sumas, Washington, a 28-year-old seasonal worker named Honesto Silva Ibarra collapsed and later died. His fellow workersREAD MORE