Between 2006 and 2011, farmers on the western edge of the Midwest’s farm belt in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas converted more than 1.3 million acres of grasslands to corn and soybean fields. Some people were seriously alarmed. Wildlife habitat was destroyed, and water, soil and the air itself suffered. But that conversion of […]
Agriculture
Posted inDecember 7, 2015: Good Neighbors
Why being a good neighbor is a good idea
Researchers look to Southwestern ranchers to learn why we share — and what happens when we don’t.
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Range riders track wolves in eastern Washington
Wolf-livestock conflicts have increased, and ranchers and environmentalists are gathering data to mitigate the clashes.
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Will GMO salmon harm Alaska’s fishing industry?
Fishermen fear AquaBounty’s creation will collapse salmon prices, but history tells a more complex tale.
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Pot growers put huge energy demand on the grid
Utilities should view legalization as an opportunity, not a threat.
Posted inNovember 23, 2015: Water Hustle
Water hustle
Did one of Nevada’s top water regulators try to cash in on the drought?
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Ranch Diaries: What life’s like as a female rancher
Some ranchers still say women ruin horses and a rancher and his wife can be paid at two-for-the-price-of-one.
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Raw manure, public water and a failed crackdown: the case of Snydar Farm
Washington’s Dept. of Ecology appears hesitant and often barred from regulating agriculture.
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Innovation amid drought in the Sacramento Delta
Checking in with a farmer who traded some of his water for long term survival.
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Can small communities tackle global food security?
Climate change has profound impacts on growing seasons and crop yields, but local solutions have promise.
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Contaminated soil lingers where apples once grew in Washington
Soil at hundreds of properties contains lead and arsenic that can lower children’s IQs and increase cancer risk.
Posted inOctober 26, 2015: Clean Energy's Dirty Secret
Fish and Wildlife and integrity, a rental crisis, California homelessness and more.
Hcn.org news in brief.
Posted inOctober 26, 2015: Clean Energy's Dirty Secret
Washington welcomes wolves back — across deep political divides
The state’s emphasis on non-lethal control is saving livestock and wolves, but rural residents are still leery.
Posted inOctober 26, 2015: Clean Energy's Dirty Secret
Where nuns are ranch hands
Colorado’s Abbey of St. Walburga is a spiritual refuge — and a working ranch.
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Farmers team up with Humane Society on behalf of animals
Like all farmers and ranchers, Kevin Fulton has experienced his share of tough days at work. But he does everything possible to make sure that his animals – goats, sheep, cattle and chickens – never have to experience more than one bad day themselves. “If we can provide an environment where our animals only have […]
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Researchers find an answer to invasive cheatgrass
Will this native bacteria finally thwart one of the most invasive weeds in North America?
Posted inOctober 12, 2015: The Rise of Lisa Murkowski
The Colorado River’s desalination plant is on its last legs
The obscure Paradox Valley Unit keeps the Colorado River’s salinity levels in check for farmers, but causes quakes upstream.
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Sheep wars rage on in southwest Montana
Was this the final grazing season in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest?
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Groups sue Wyoming over ‘data trespassing’ law
The laws make it a crime to collect data on open land if the collector lacks certain permissions.
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How to drought-proof California’s farms
Three years into its most severe drought in over a thousand years, it’s unclear how much longer California can continue growing half of the nation’s produce. The crisis confronting Big Ag and family farmers alike may signal the end of agriculture as it’s currently practiced. But it need not spell doom for farming altogether: On […]