Agriculture

Environment
Corn Harvests in Nebraska Got Steadier, and Irrigation Is the Main Reason
A farm in central Nebraska does not fail in an average year. What empties an account is the gap between one season and the next: the bad year that arrives after two good ones, when the loan was…
By Andreja Jezernik6 days ago4 min read
Environment
Most Big U.S. Solar Farms Are Being Built on Good Farmland
The land that is best for growing crops turns out to be attractive for another reason: it is flat, open, cleared, close to roads and power lines, and often bathed in the strong sunshine that also…
By Andreja Jezernik1w ago2 min read
Environment
Do Soil-Protection Laws Actually Work? A Satellite Audit of 4,700 Policies Says Yes, but Only Where Governance Is Real
A soil-protection law is easy to pass and hard to grade. A parliament can require crop rotation, subsidize farmers who leave wildflower strips at the edges of their fields, or mandate ground cover to…
By Andreja Jezernik3w ago3 min read
Environment
The Hidden Yield Gap: How Degraded Soil Quietly Feeds Fewer People
Farmers know the feeling before they can name it. A field that once filled the bins now comes up a little short, and then a little shorter, and the reason is not the weather this season or the seed.…
By Andreja Jezernik3w ago4 min read
Environment
Half the World's Wheat Importers Buy From Exporters Whose Harvests Fail Together
Most of the wheat that crosses an international border in a given year leaves one of about a dozen countries. Most of the nations that buy it order from several of those exporters at once, which…
By Andreja Jezernik4w ago5 min read
Environment
US Mainland Honey Was as Clean as Certified Organic Imports; 30% of Hawaii's Certified Organic Honey Was Not
Pick up a jar labeled USDA organic honey in an American supermarket and the label is almost certainly describing a farm somewhere else. Brazil, Argentina, or one of a handful of apiaries in Hawaii.…
By Andreja Jezernik4w ago3 min read
Environment
The Diet Target That Cuts Emissions in Rich Cities and Raises Them in Poor Ones
There is a number in this study that is true of the world and true of almost no city in it. Ask a global food model what would happen if every urban population on Earth switched to the reference diet…
By Anna Kotlyar4w ago5 min read

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Agriculture

Corn Harvests in Nebraska Got Steadier, and Irrigation Is the Main Reason

Most Big U.S. Solar Farms Are Being Built on Good Farmland

Do Soil-Protection Laws Actually Work? A Satellite Audit of 4,700 Policies Says Yes, but Only Where Governance Is Real

The Hidden Yield Gap: How Degraded Soil Quietly Feeds Fewer People

Half the World's Wheat Importers Buy From Exporters Whose Harvests Fail Together

US Mainland Honey Was as Clean as Certified Organic Imports; 30% of Hawaii's Certified Organic Honey Was Not

The Diet Target That Cuts Emissions in Rich Cities and Raises Them in Poor Ones