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  • The secret to a town's perfect potatoes? Its well-preserved forest.

    Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala, is known for its potatoes. The produce is especially good because of a consistent supply of high quality water from its forests, as well as the use of leaf litter as organic fertilizer. Forest protections from decades ago are showing results in sustaining high quality produce, but as the population increases and potato farming expands, the city is working to preserve the natural resources that have contributed to its success.

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  • How To Get Meat Eaters To Eat More Plant-Based Foods? Make Their Mouths Water

    Red meat consumption requires a great deal of water and land resources to produce and is even responsible for a large amount of greenhouse gases. To combat this, the Better Buying Lab is experimenting with marketing strategies to get people to buy more vegetarian and vegan items. After rebranding food with sensory descriptors like "Cuban" or "grilled", sales increased 13% in California and 76% in the UK. Influential brands like Panera are now increasing their efforts to continue this trend.

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  • Butterfly business: Insect farmers help conserve East African forests

    In Kenya and Tanzania, butterfly farming is emerging as a viable alternative to those seeking employment beyond illegal logging or hunting practices. While up to 1,200 farmers have participated in various butterfly projects across the countries, using their profits to educate their families and begin small businesses, the initiative has seen some roadblock from government mandates preventing wildlife exports.

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  • Punjab's marginalised communities struggle for their right to cultivate common lands

    Balad Kalan’s Scheduled Castes, popularly called Dalits, collectively bid to win the rights to fertile common lands that big landlords had taken control of. Each family contributed what they could and, after protests due to the lack of transparency in the bidding process, won 53 hectares, or one-third of the common land, which was distributed among 145 families. Fifty other villages have since won collective land rights by replicating the joint bidding process. An 11-member cooperative manages the land in each village, which is distributed to families in proportion to their monetary contribution.

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  • These probiotics for plants help farms suck up extra carbon dioxide

    A startup called Locus Agricultural Solutions has created a "probiotic" for soil that uses a mixture of beneficial fungi and bacteria. Not only does it increase productivity of crops, but it also absorbs enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere per acre to offset the emissions of a passenger vehicle. Tests done on an orange grove in Florida showed that areas treated with the product took up an extra 4.38 metric tons of CO2 per acre.

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  • Restoring the Range: Can Beef Be Earth-Friendly?

    Mortenson Cattle Ranch in Hayes, South Dakota is redefining sustainability practices for cattle-raising farmers by using a model that restored the habitat, wildlife, and water sources on their land. Mimicking the habits of bison herds, the Mortensons use a technique called holistic range management to rotate their cattle's grazing areas, which increases distribution of wildflower and grass seeds, as well as planting trees and replenishing groundwater using dikes and dams. Having started this in the 1980s, 90% of their 19,000 acre property is back to native vegetation, and efforts are still ongoing.

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  • Nepalese Rice Farmers Boost Yields By Sowing Fewer Plants And Cutting Water

    Using a somewhat counter-intuitive process, rice farmers in Nepal are seeing higher yields practicing the system of rice intensification (SRI), a method which calls for planting fewer seedlings, planting them younger and using less water. Some farmers have reported a 100% increase in crop yields, which can triple incomes with an added environmental benefit.

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  • This City Made Access to Food a Right of Citizenship

    In 1993, a new administration in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's fourth largest city, declared food access a fundamental citizen right. The city government partnered with rural farmers to bring fresh food into the city limits, make produce more affordable, and ensure healthy options are distributed to all members of the population, regardless of socioeconomic status.

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  • He's Helping Super Oysters Survive Climate Change

    As rising temperatures threaten marine life, the Pacific Hybreed laboratory is working to develop resilient shellfish. Their experimental breeding process attempts to uncover new genes to help a variety of shellfish withstand changing temperatures and disease, and it just might help save the fishing industry.

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  • Cooking beetles: An island in Assam is eating its farm pest

    A small island in India is eating their pests in an entomophagic restaurant before they in turn destroy their crops. The island of Majuli has been plagued by an infestation of white grub beetles for a long time, but starting in 2012 as many as 400 farmers have been trained to capture the beetle when they emerge out of the ground for mating season. Since 2010, 900,000 beetles have been collected and are now ending up on residents' plates. This strategy has since won several awards for its innovation and sustainability.

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