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  • How Solar Panels Could Help Save Struggling Farms

    As the amount of farmland decreases in the United States and climate change brings hotter and drier conditions, many farmers are turning to agrivoltaics — growing crops and installing solar panels on the same land — as a way to make ends meet. Research on a garden in Arizona showed that certain crops like tomatoes and chiltepin peppers were able to thrive under the shade of solar panels, while also improving the solar panels’ productivity. “It’s a very unique positive feedback,” said one of the researchers.

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  • Cooperation and Chocolate: The Story of One Colombian Community's Quest for Peace

    Plagued by an internal war, a group of villages in Colombia created a “Peace Community,” declaring themselves neutral in the conflict and focusing their efforts on cultivating the 150 hectares of cacao trees in collectively owned plots to sell to global markets. While villagers still experience violence, the earnings from their crops go into a collective pot and the community decides together how to distribute the funds. “To them, this is actually a very profound act of transcending traditional capitalist society models and building something together,” says an anthropologist who has studied the community.

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  • The Seneca Nation Is Building Food Sovereignty, One Bison at a Time

    Gakwi:yo:h Farms aims to increase the Seneca Nation’s food security and sovereignty by engaging in traditional agricultural practices. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the farm has been able to continue its work to establish a bison herd, tap more trees for maple syrup, and increase its various livestock operations. They still face challenges due to a lack of a food-processing plant, but they’ve been able to expand their land to keep food close to their community.

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  • Indigenous agroforestry revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest

    The Jussara Fortress program helped the indigenous Guarani people turn small-scale production of jussara palm hearts, a delicacy, into the main source of income. Sustainable growing techniques protect the jussara, which was endangered by deforestation and over-harvesting. This, in turn, provides for a biodiverse system with environmental and health benefits for the Ribeirão Silveira Indigenous Territory. The program planted more than 100,000 of the trees, which need a decade to yield a small amount of marketable product.

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  • Farmers Can be Isolated and Unsure How to Seek Support. One State is Trying to Help.

    The state of Wisconsin has launched a pilot initiative that aims to help farmers who are dealing with job stressors access mental health services including "a 24-hour wellness hotline, tele-counseling sessions and vouchers for in-person visits with participating mental health providers." While some of the services have proved more successful than the others, as a whole, use of the counseling services has increased, especially as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

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  • Second home in strange lands

    Coffee farmers in Costa Rica, who employ indigenous migrants and Nicaraguans to work during coffee harvests, have had to shift their practices to keep workers safe during the pandemic. The housing quarters for the workers have to meet safety standards, and many farmers have also built isolation shelters in case anyone tests positive.

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  • Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution

    More and more farmers are turning to regenerative agriculture techniques as a way to cut down on costs, increase crop yields, and sequester carbon into soil as a way to reverse the effects of climate change. One farming family in Minnesota switched to no tillage farming and also planted cover crops and used animals to fertilize their land. Some people question their methods, but these farmers saw their cost of production decrease and increased the amount of organic matter in their soil compared with their neighbors.

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  • Experiments in Coexistence

    Conflict prevention specialists for USDA Wildlife Services in southwest Oregon work with livestock producers to deter the local wolf pack from killing livestock. The specialists patrol overnight, making noise so that the wolves know they are there and stay away. They also set up scare boxes and deploy fox lights, which emit random patters of light, to make it seem like there are more people covering larger areas. If inspectors determine livestock was killed by a wolf, the rancher receives compensation. Funding has been secured to deploy conflict prevention specialists in up to 12 additional states.

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  • Could Seaweed Help Save Us From Climate Catastrophe?

    Seaweed aquaculture is a growing field that scientists are investigating for a number of climate-related uses, from reducing methane emissions in livestock to replacing plastic in packaging. Governments, startups, and researchers around the world are getting into the algae business that is also helping to create new jobs. There are challenges with scaling many of these products, but recent research for many of these initiatives have shown signs of early success.

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

    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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