Where Corn Is King, the Stirrings of a Renaissance in Small Grains

To the untrained eye, Jeremy Gustafson’s 1,600-acre farm looks like all the others spread out across Iowa. Gazing at his conventional corn and soybean fields during a visit in June, I was hard-pressed to say where his neighbor’s tightly planted row crops ended and Gustafson’s began.

But what distinguished this vast farm in Boone, Iowa, was a thin, 16-acre strip of oats Gustafson had planted in a loop around the barn. At the time, the chest-high oats were at the “milk stage.” When Gustafson squeezed the grains embedded in the feathery grass between his thumb and forefinger, they released a tiny dollop of white liquid, a sign that they would be ready to harvest in about a month. Read more on Yale Environment 360

How a Kansas Town Held off a Tyson Plant

It has been a rough few weeks for Tyson Foods, the nation’s largest poultry producer.

On Sept. 5, the company announced that it was planning to build a $320 million poultry complex outside of Tonganoxie, Kansas — a relatively well-appointed bedroom community in Kansas City with a population of 5,300. The plant was designed to be a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated operation that would have included everything from a hatchery to slaughter and processing.

Read more on BillMoyers.com

Ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore Called into Question

If you follow Sir Francis Drake Boulevard down the Point Reyes Peninsula toward the lighthouse, beyond the now-vacated Drakes Estero, you might find yourself at Historic Ranch B, also known as Double M Dairy. Here, Jarrod Mendoza raises dairy cows on land his family has ranched for generations.

Despite its sweeping views and windswept vistas, the 1,200-acre ranch isn’t large by today’s standards. The certified organic milk from the 250 cows Mendoza manages usually only fills half of the refrigerated storage tank that is kept in a low-ceilinged room beside the milking parlor. When Jarrod’s father, Joey, ran the ranch using conventional methods, he grazed 500 cows at a time, and the tank was always full. Now, Mendoza sells his organic milk to Straus Family Creamery. The move to higher-priced organic has allowed him to produce less and give each animal access to more pasture during the winter and spring when seasonal rains bring the grass on his land to life. Read more.

The Forest for the Trees: Agroforestry in the U.S.

On a windy afternoon in Marin County, California, rancher Guido Frosini reached down into a clump of weeds, pulling back the dry stalks to reveal a sapling so small some might not recognize it as a tree. But Frosini’s voice swelled with pride when he saw the cork oak, still covered in leaves that looked strikingly green against the drought-bleached backdrop of rolling, golden hills. Read more.

Navina Khanna Unites Political Forces in the Name of Food

Navina Khanna thinks big. Two years ago, Khanna and Anim Steel, executive director of the national, campus-based group Real Food Challenge, sent a memo to around 20 food advocacy organizations to propose that they work together on something with a larger impact.

Khanna and Steel had previously studied successful social justice campaigns — such as Martin Luther King’s Birmingham strategy and the more recent “One Penny More Per Pound” campaign to help tomato harvesters in Florida earn a living wage. With these in mind, they wrote out this mission: create a “long-term campaign to re-align national food and agriculture policies with principles of health, sustainability, and fairness.” Read more on Food & Wine.

Tech Joins the Fight Against Food Waste

When Zoe Wong moved to the San Francisco Bay Area three years ago, she fell in love with the fresh and abundant produce from surrounding farmers’ markets. Wong grew up in Hong Kong, where fruits and vegetables were scarce and imported. After attending college in upstate New York, she moved to California, the largest agricultural state in the country.

Soon, though, Wong discovered something was off. “At the market, I’d see farmers getting ready to throw out boxes and boxes of fruit and vegetables they couldn’t sell,” she says. “I was shocked.” Read more on The Guardian.

What the Sale of Niman Ranch Could Mean for Farmers

Many in the food world were shocked by the announcement of the sale of Niman Ranch to poultry giant Perdue. As one of the go-to brands behind Chipotle’s antibiotic-free pledge, and a relatively accessible alternative to industrially-produced meat, Niman Ranch has carved out an important niche in a market where demand for antibiotic-free and humanely produced foods are steadily on the rise.

And while much of the public’s response has centered around how this change will affect consumers’ choices, the sale raises another equally important question: What will it mean for farmers? Read more on Civil Eats.

What Can Restaurants Do in the Fight Against Climate Change?

On a recent weekday afternoon, Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowitz gave a tour of the construction site that will become their new restaurant, The Perennial. We stepped into the cavernous room on the first floor of a giant new apartment building in San Francisco’s rapidly gentrifying Civic Center district, and together we imagined what the finished restaurant will look like. While the couple described the way the space will take shape, they were also hinting at something larger: their vision for a new type of restaurant. Read more on Take Part.

Goodbye Tipping, Hello Living Wage: The Changing Face of Progressive Restaurants

A new message appearing at the top of the menu at Camino, a high-end restaurant in Oakland, California, declares the end of an age-old American practice. “No more tips!” it reads. “Our prices now include service so we can pay our employees a living wage.”

The new prices—which have gone up 22 percent, and which now range from $29 to $37—and the restaurant’s corresponding tipping policy went into effect earlier this year, around the time the city’s minimum wage rose 36 percent to $12.25. And the two are related. While the new policy probably won’t put more into pockets of Camino’s decently paid servers, it will do something quietly revolutionary: it will help them offer a living wage to their (traditionally underpaid) cooks, dishwashers, and bussers. Read more on Civil Eats.

Just Because Your Chicken Is Organic Doesn't Mean It Was Raised Humanely

Do you ever wonder why so much organic food also carries animal welfare labels?

The short answer is that while the US Department of Agriculture's organic standards are very precise about pesticides and other growing practices for the crops that people and animals eat, it doesn't include very many specific instructions about the way the animals themselves are raised.

"When people pick up organic milk, they're expecting that the cows are out on pasture most of the time," says Luke Meerman, one of the farmers behind Michigan-based Grassfields Cheese. And he's right. In a phone survey conducted for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), 68 percent of the consumers contacted said they expected that animals raised on organic farms "have access to outdoor pasture and fresh air throughout the day." Similarly, 67 percent said they believe "animals have significantly more space to move than on non-organic farms." Read more on Mother Jones.