Midwestern farm fertilizer runnoff is expected to create a massive algae bloom and a biological desert to follow it. TOM PHILPOTT JUN. 17, 2016 6:00 AM The Gulf of Mexico teems with biodiversity and contains some of the globe’s most productive fisheries. Yet starting in the early 1970s, large swaths of the Gulf began to …Read More
—By Tom Philpott I recently wrote a piece about growing interest in California farmland by massive investment funds. But almonds and other tree nuts, the main focus of my article, aren’t the only commodities drawing interest from the smart-money crowd. From what I can tell, a successful California farmland investment require these two conditions: 1) …Read More
By Jeff Quackenbush, Despite significant rains in March and February, North Coast winegrape growers are honing their skills in using less water as the threat of spring frost, summer heat and long-term drought loom in their minds. “I don’t think anyone had any illusions that we would get so much it filled our shortage problems,” …Read More
For about the last 50 years, farmers around the world have used synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to boost their crop yields and drive the 20th century’s rapid agricultural intensification…But in their fervor to increase yields, farmers often dose their crops with more nitrogen than the plants can absorb. The total amount of nitrogen that is put …Read More