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  • How to Start (and Run) a Bank That Puts People and Planet Over Profits

    May 17, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

    San Francisco-based New Resource Bank was launched with environmental sustainability lending as its niche. But it pursued easier profits for a time, risking its survival and mission until a new CEO turned its fortunes around with a laser focus on the original mission, bolstered by learning its borrowers' businesses intimately. The bank doubled in size and merged with a larger bank, making itself a model for mission-driven lending in such businesses as solar, wind energy, and organic foods – and by attracting institutional depositors and investors as interested in social change as they are in profits.

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  • Can California's Organic Vegetable Farmers Unlock the Secrets of No-Till Farming?

    March 30, 2021 |

    Civil Eats |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    A trial experiment with three farmers and several California universities is looking to better understand how to farm with little or no chemicals. No-till farming can boost soil health and better store carbon, but it’s not a perfect system. These farmers are testing how to reduce soil disturbance, use cover crops, and diversify their species of crops, yet so far, they haven’t found much success. “Figuring this all out has been ‘a school of hard knocks,’” says one of the farmers.

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  • This seaweed can fight climate change

    February 25, 2021 |

    The Verge |

    Video |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Dover Plains, New York

    Symbrosia, a clean-tech startup in Hawaii, is taking seaweed from the ocean and turning it into a powder that can be used to feed livestock to reduce the amount of methane they produce — a key contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The company worked with an organic farm in Upstate New York to test the product and found that sheep given a high dosage of the supplement had up to 70 percent reduction in methane emission. Creating the powder takes weeks and a lot of steps, but the startup is hopeful the product can become a mass-produced commodity.

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  • Large food companies are looking to lock carbon in soil as a way to meet ambitious emissions goals

    February 09, 2021 |

    Ensia |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Fairfield, Maine

    Stonyfield, an organic dairy company, is working with six of its suppliers to pilot how farms can measure the amount of carbon it’s trapping in soil through regenerative farming practices as a way for the company to achieve its goals to cut carbon emissions. The OpenTEAM initiative is working to demonstrate how a dairy farm could improve its soil health to reach carbon net zero and, eventually, have food companies pay its farmers to adopt the new practices.

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  • With Centuries-Old Techniques, This Farm Is Preparing for the Future

    December 18, 2020 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: France, Normandy

    An unusually robust crop yield is stunning scientists at a small family farm where traditional farming techniques have replaced machinery, pesticides, and fertilizers. The French farmers implemented tips and tricks from cultures around the world and they now produce organic produce at much higher rates per square feet than conventional farms. Their methods have also bolstered the farm against extreme weather patterns, making it a model worth replicating.

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  • A grassroots push to save disappearing birds and bees forces change in Germany

    December 03, 2020 |

    National Geographic |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany, Bavaria

    Environmental advocates got 1.75 million signatures to change Bavarian farming laws to protect biodiversity. The Save the Bees Campaign calls for using subsidies to nearly triple the amount of organic farming, creating a network of wildlife corridors, and other actions to protect bird and insect life. Initial results show that, since the law took effect, the share of organic farmland increased and thousands of more acres of forest have been protected. Farmers have also adjusted their view of productivity, including protecting nature as a way to be productive. Similar efforts are happening across Europe.

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  • Addressing organic farming's climate-change problem

    November 10, 2020 |

    Hothouse Solutions |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Paxton, Illinois

    On his organic farm in Illinois, Will Glazik is experimenting with different types of agricultural methods to increase his crop yield while also avoiding the harmful impacts of industrial farming. He’s part of a growing movement called “sustainable intensification,” which combines both conventional and organic farming techniques. While there are challenges with this approach and what works in one place might not work in another, combining these types of farming could help feed a growing global population.

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  • Urban farmers in Richmond are helping in the fight against food insecurity

    November 05, 2020 |

    Richmond Confidential |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States, Richmond, California

    Urban Tilth, an urban farm in California, is providing food directly to communities in need and upending the traditional food supply chain so they can help people access healthy and sustainably-grown food. They have been providing local organic food to 190 families financially impacted by COVID-19, almost six times more food they’ve distributed since the pandemic began.

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  • Pee fanatics want to feed the world with your liquid gold Audio icon

    October 07, 2020 |

    Wired |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France, Bordeaux

    A French startup is turning urine into an environmentally-friendly fertilizer that could replace chemical products. Early tests suggest that the urine mixture created by Toopi Organics can compete with synthetic fertilizers, which end up in waterways and can alter lake and river ecosystems. While the organic fertilizer requires a significant amount of urine to make, it could be a viable alternative to grow crops.

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  • The remarkable floating gardens of Bangladesh

    September 10, 2020 |

    BBC |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Bangladesh, Gopalganj, Bihar

    Bangladeshi communities are reviving a traditional method of crop cultivation known as floating vegetable gardens to grow food during monsoon season. On these floating organic beds, farmers can grow vegetables like okra, spinach, and snake gourd. They can supply enough food to feed their family and be a source of income. While scaling this approach to other parts of the country can be difficult, many see this practice as a way to adapt to the effects of climate change.

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