DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
True Left
HTML https://trueleft.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Issues
*****************************************************
#Post#: 4771--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: March 12, 2021, 9:50 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
At least Biden does positive things once in a while:
HTML https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/biden-to-sign-bill-with-4-billion-in-debt-relief-for-minority-farmers
[quote]President Biden said he would sign the $1.9 trillion
coronavirus bill on Friday at the White House. Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack said the package, which includes $16
billion in public nutrition and agricultural aid, “provides
historic debt relief to Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and other
farmers of color who for generations have struggled to fully
succeed due to systemic discrimination and a cycle of debt. We
cannot ignore the pain and suffering that this pandemic has
wrought in communities of color.”
...
House Agriculture Committee chairman David Scott said the aid
was justified because of the oppression Black farmers had
endured. “It is important for you to know that our Black farmers
were not included in the other pieces,” he said, referring to
pandemic relief bills that sent $23 billion to farmers last
year, almost exclusively to whites. “So we got them $4 billion
just to help them.”
...
In 1920, roughly one in every six farmers was Black. Today, less
than 2% of U.S. farms have Black operators. Black farms are
one-fourth of the size of the average U.S. farm, with smaller
sales, and they are located mostly in the South. In 2007, the
USDA Census of Agriculture said that a smaller portion of Black
farmers than white farmers received federal farm payments and
that the amount they received was half the U.S. average.
Advocates say the debt relief program will begin to rectify
decades of USDA discrimination against Black farmers.[/quote]
#Post#: 5352--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: April 5, 2021, 10:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-gates-biggest-private-owner-124506756.html
[quote]In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of
farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. To put that into
perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the
acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where I’m an enrolled
member. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native
nation!
The United States is defined by the excesses of its ruling
class. But why do a handful of people own so much land?
Land is power, land is wealth, and, more importantly, land is
about race and class. The relationship to land – who owns it,
who works it and who cares for it – reflects obscene levels of
inequality and legacies of colonialism and white supremacy in
the United States, and also the world. Wealth accumulation
always goes hand-in-hand with exploitation and dispossession. In
this country, enslaved Black labor first built US wealth atop
stolen Native land. The 1862 Homestead Act opened up 270m acres
of Indigenous territory – which amounts to 10% of US land – for
white settlement. Black, Mexican, Asian, and Native people, of
course, were categorically excluded from the benefits of a
federal program that subsidized and protected generations of
white wealth.[/quote]
#Post#: 5725--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: guest5 Date: April 21, 2021, 8:45 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
The Nation’s Corn Belt Has Lost a Third of Its Topsoil
[quote]Researchers used satellite imaging and surface soil color
to find out how much of the nutrient-rich earth has eroded
away[/quote]
[quote]Seth Watkins has been farming his family’s land in
southern Iowa for decades, growing pasture for his cows as well
as corn and other row crops. His great-grandfather founded the
farm in 1848. “He came in with one of John Deere’s steel plows
and pierced the prairie,” Watkins recounted. With its rolling
hills and neat lines of corn stretching to the horizon, broken
by clumps of trees, it’s a picturesque scene.
But centuries of farming those hills have taken their toll on
the soil. Now, farmers like Watkins are facing widespread soil
degradation that can lower their crop yields and incomes. “In
150 years or so, we’ve lost over half of that rich topsoil—if
not all in some places.”[/quote]
[quote]Crops hunger for the carbon-packed composition of rich
topsoil. They need the nutrients and water that it stores,
unlike the compacted, infertile soils that decades of
conventional farming create.
The baseline for soil in Iowa is visible on land owned by Jon
Judson, a sustainable farmer and conservation advocate. His farm
hosts a rare plot of original prairie grasses and wildflowers.
Under the prairie, the soil is thick and dark, with feet of
organic matter built up and plenty of moisture. The next field
over is a recovering conventional field like Watkins’ farm, and
the effect of years of conventional practices is obvious. The
soil is pale and compacted, with only a few inches of organic
carbon, much less soil moisture, and a lot more clay.
Scientists and farmers know that agricultural soil erosion has
been a problem for decades, but quantifying soil loss from a
hundred years of farming and across multiple states has proven
difficult. Now a study led by geomorphologist Evan Thaler and
published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in
February attempts to answer the elusive question of how much
topsoil has been eroded in the Corn Belt, which stretches
roughly from Ohio to Nebraska and produces 75 percent of the
nation’s corn. The study estimated that about 35 percent of the
region has lost its topsoil completely, leaving carbon-poor
lower soil layers to do the work of supporting crops. Having
thick, healthy topsoil means plants can grow faster and
healthier, increasing crop yields and keeping the field’s
ecosystem running smoothly. Topsoil loss creates environmental
problems, such as when eroded, nutrient-laden dirt degrades
streams and rivers, and is estimated to cost the Midwest’s
agricultural industry almost $3 billion annually.
“I think it’s probably an underestimate,” says Thaler, a
graduate student at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
“There are areas where there’s probably a centimeter of topsoil
left.”[/quote]
Entire article:
HTML https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-say-nations-corn-belt-has-lost-third-its-topsoil-180977485/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
#Post#: 6627--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: acc9 Date: May 23, 2021, 3:54 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-22/Yuan-Longping-the-man-who-fed-the-Chinese-people-10tyyP9ZnMY/index.html
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2-bsHlnW-Y
[b]Salute and tribute to the man whose life-long dream was to
feed the world so there would be no more hunger - Yuan Longping
[/b]
[quote][/Yuan's biggest dream in life was to develop more hybrid
rice varieties and use it to address famine that keeps happening
in many parts of the world. Over the past 40 years, Yuan and his
team continuously held seminars and courses which taught his
methodologies to some 14,000 students from nearly 80 countries.
The agronomist, when in his old age, still traveled to as far as
Africa to help solve technical failures and boost harvests.
So far, the hybrid varieties he developed have been grown
extensively in over 40 countries, including the U.S., Brazil,
India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Madagascar among others.quote]
#Post#: 7377--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: rp Date: July 2, 2021, 6:45 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
High-tech vertical farming:
HTML https://youtu.be/AGcYApKfHuY
Transporting water to high elevations would require additional
energy than regular farming, but I assume the tradeoff would be
greater crop yield per unit land and thus a net energy gain. Of
course, rainwater harvesting could eliminate this problem
altogether.
Also, it looks like the plants are being grown with U.V. lights,
which require electricity and hence energy to power. Solar
powered electricity could reduce the dependency on fossil fuels,
but the best solution would be using the sunlight itself for
biochemical photosynthesis.
Finally, while the technology involved in crop maintenance is
impressive, it also requires electricity, and hence energy, to
run. The energy expenditure of maintaining the technology must
be calculated to determine whether it is energy efficient
compared to maintaining the crops with manual labor.
#Post#: 7640--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: guest55 Date: July 21, 2021, 9:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Grow Weeds with Vegetables for Better Garden Soil Health
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nPILj5Nc10&list=TLPQMjIwNzIwMjEIpMDs9cGqiA&index=3
#Post#: 10125--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: December 16, 2021, 2:13 am
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/farmers-ease-workers-path-citizenship-050100486.html
[quote]Dec. 13—California farmers frustrated with congressional
inaction on farmworker immigration and guest-worker reform have
settled on another way to nudge their workforce toward U.S.
citizenship.
A partnership announced last week between the California Farm
Bureau and the Washington, D.C.-based National Immigration Forum
gives ag employees access to an online portal guiding them
through the naturalization process. The platform also helps with
matters like protecting family members facing deportation.
The agreement reflects the worsening shortage of field workers
as much as it does industry's cultivation of laborers fueling
the Central Valley's economy, with restricted or no legal
status.
"Offering farm employees who are eligible for U.S. citizenship a
low-cost means to access citizenship puts them on a path to
fully share in the American bounty they work every day to
create," the president of the bureau, Jamie Johansson, said in a
news release Monday.
For years the farm bureau has sided with immigrant rights
organizations in promoting a path toward citizenship for
farmworkers. The industry also advocates wider access to guest
workers.
Farmworker immigration and visa reforms supported by the bureau
and passed by the House earlier this year have stalled in the
Senate. For the bureau, the partnership represents progress
through another channel.
Under the new contract with the National Immigration Forum,
bureau members will be able to refer their employees, free of
charge, to an online service offering application preparation
help, citizenship eligibility assessments and other legal
reviews. The service also comes with case management services
and noncitizen-related immigration inquiries such as deportation
defense work.
NIF said in the news release its mission is to help immigrants
eligible for access to U.S. citizenship "and we are grateful to
the California Farm Bureau for giving us access to nearly 31,000
farm bureau members whose employees can benefit from the
services we offer."
The organization also advocates for pro-immigration policies at
the federal level, which is how it started working with the farm
bureau years ago, said Bryan Little, the farm bureau's director
of employment policy.
Little interprets the partnership as the state's farmers
investing in their employees. It deepens the attachment some
workers may feel for their employers, he said, and it may help
with retention of top talent including supervisors.
"They're going to be key employees in that business so why
wouldn't you want to invest (in them)?" Little asked. He
emphasized information gathered by the portal will be kept
confidential, inaccessible to the bureau or the NIF.
For years Kern County growers have complained of a worker
shortage. The state's ag labor force has been stagnant for 15
years and averages 40 years of age, Little estimated, adding,
"There are practically no people coming to the United States now
to work in agriculture."
In its news release about the new partnership, the farm bureau
reiterated its support for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act
of 2021. The measure, passed by the House March 18 with
bipartisan support, proposes to reform the ag guest worker
program and provide a path to legal status for farm employees.
The Kern County Farm Bureau did not respond to a request for
comment on the state farm bureau's partnership with the NIF.
The president of the California Fresh Fruit Association trade
group, Ian LeMay, called the NIF's portal a "fantastic service"
that increases certainty for people who can't afford a lawyer or
advocate through the lengthy application process.
It doesn't lessen the need for changes to federal guest worker
programs, LeMay said, and comprehensive immigration reform is
still needed.
"It's an additional service to help our employees who might be
in somewhat of a limbo state to have more confidence in terms of
their status," he said.
A spokeswoman for the United Farm Workers Foundation declined to
address the farm bureau's partnership with the NIF. She instead
invited the farm bureau to add its support to the federal Build
Back Better bill, which includes measures that would protect
farmworkers and other immigrants from deportation.[/quote]
But rightists prefer food to be expensive.
#Post#: 12767--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: April 12, 2022, 9:13 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78W04nSpxSE
#Post#: 14027--------------------------------------------------
Why Crop Rotation is a Waste of Time
By: guest78 Date: June 12, 2022, 6:33 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Why Crop Rotation is a Waste of Time
[quote]Timestamps:
0:43 - Time requirements of growing food and excuses
1:46 - Crop rotation purpose and refresh of what it is
3:05 - Gardening techniques have progressed over the years
3:53 - Why crop rotation is needed
5:01 - The important link between succession planting and
rotation
6:25 - Observe and interact, inspired by nature
8:17 - Lack of flexibility of rotating
8:41 - My version of crop rotation
9:34 - How I deal with a plant disease
10:44 - Garden examples 1
11:58 - Garden examples 2
12:49 - Weather's impact on yearly yields
13:14 - Importance of creativity[/quote]
HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSd-G_o3NGI
"Low dig" and "no dig" methods. Fascinating stuff!
#Post#: 15494--------------------------------------------------
Re: Agorism
By: 90sRetroFan Date: September 5, 2022, 9:08 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
HTML https://www.yahoo.com/news/farmers-pushing-immigration-reform-counter-110000322.html
[quote]Farmers push for immigration reform to counter labor
shortages and rising food prices
Farmers across the U.S. are joining a push for national
immigration reform that they say could ease labor shortages and
lower food prices as surging production costs continue to rock
the agriculture industry.
The farm operators say the Farm Workforce Modernization Act,
already passed by the House and pending in the Senate, will
provide them with a stable reliable workforce by creating a path
to citizenship for undocumented agricultural workers and
reforming the seasonal farmworker visa program, among other
things.
...
Stephanie Mickelsen owns a large-scale potato farming operation
in Idaho and said her farm began using the H-2A program for
farmworkers, which has “made a huge difference” but because the
visa only allows temporary authorization for nine months at a
time, finding labor continues to be a problem.
“We have about 60 full-time people that work on the farm all
year long, but that is not enough when you hit harvest to be
able to get that crop out of the ground, so we need an
additional 100 to 150 employees on the farm side, that’s not
including the processing and packing facilities,”
...
As the country experiences the highest 12-month increase in food
prices since May 1979, according to the consumer price index,
farmers say this is in part because of labor problems.
A 2022 Texas A&M University study commissioned by the American
Business Coalition, a bipartisan group of 1,200 business leaders
who advocate for immigration reform, found that having more
migrant and H-2A workers were related to lower inflation, higher
average wages and lower unemployment. The study also found that
“more denied petitions for naturalizations are associated with
larger consumer prices and higher inflation.”
...
“It is very important to really pass something because labor
shortages in agriculture are getting worse every year,” he said.
“It’s very hard to know what exactly is going to happen but at
least in terms of the number of workers you have every year it
would eliminate some of the most pressing issues like the fact
that workers can stay here all year-round so that’s kind of
helpful.”[/quote]
But rightists prefer food to be expensive.
*****************************************************
DIR Next Page