Forest restoration can benefit humans, boost biodiversity and help tackle climate change simultaneously, new research suggests. Restoring forests is often seen in terms of “trade-offs” – meaning it often focuses on a specific goal such as capturing carbon, nurturing nature or supporting human livelihoods. The new study,...

Forest restoration can boost people, nature and climate simultaneously

Alabama State

The Independent

 The Biden administration has doled out more than $2 billion in direct payments for Black and other minority farmers discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the president announced Wednesday.More than 23,000 farmers were approved for payments ranging from $10,000 to $500,000, according to the USDA. Another 20,000 who planned to start a farm but did not receive a USDA loan received between $3,500 and $6,000. Most payments went to farmers in Mississippi and Alabama. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters that the aid “is not compensation for anyone’s loss or the pain endured, but it is an...

Black and other minority farmers are getting $2 billion from USDA after years of discrimination

The USDA announced changes to the Farm Service Agency’s Farm Loan Programs that take effect on September 25, 2024. The changes are intended to increase opportunities for farmers and ranchers to be financially viable. These improvements are part of the Enhancing Program Access and Delivery for Farm Loans rule.

USDA Updates Farm Loan Programs

With the USDA cancelling its regularly scheduled July cattle inventory report due to budget cuts, a question that many would like to have answered is: How big is the U.S. cattle herd?. Fortunately, historical relationships between changes in prior and subsequent inventories and levels of cow slaughter in between or...

How big is the U.S. cattle herd?

Oklahoma State

As Jess Bray pulled up to a 21-acre farm nestled in an eastern Oklahoma valley, she instantly got a warm feeling. “This is the place,” she thought. After attempting to buy two other properties before being outbid by cash buyers, Bray and her husband Jon began to wonder whether their dream of owning and operating their own farm would become a reality.

As investors pay top-dollar for land, farmers are often priced out

Wisconsin State

The Census of Agriculture, which is conducted every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides a comprehensive picture of U.S. farms and ranches. Using data from the 2017 and 2022 censuses, we examined the recent trends in the number of farms and land in farms across several Midwestern states. We included states – Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin. The 2022 Census confirms that the 21st-century decline in number of farms and land in farms continues in those states.

Farms, land in farms continue decline

July 29, 1889 — In view of the great number of swindlers moving about the country the farmers should deal with none but home dealers. Buy your farm implements and machinery from your local dealers. If you buy them from strangers they will want some instrument in writing, which, when pay day comes around you may find not to be exactly what you thought it was.

Farmers, be careful

Farmland prices keep climbing, according to USDA’s Land Values Report. Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, talks about what farmers are facing. Munch says, “The Department of Agriculture’s Land Values Report shows that agricultural real estate values are up five percent, or an average of...

New Report Shows Land Values at Record Levels

Colorado State

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David Heitz

A bill quietly introduced this spring in the Colorado legislature to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia obtained by harm reductionists has become law. As low-key as the legislation was introduced, the bill was signed into law without fanfare June 6. It garnered little to no media attention.

Colorado legalizes needles, pipes for meth and crack if obtained by harm reduction group

Montana State

Wyoming State

WyoFile

To increase the genetic diversity of an island population of grizzly bears , Wyoming and Montana wildlife managers recently worked together to import fresh bloodlines into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Two Montana grizzly bears trucked to Wyoming to bolster genetic diversity, help states’ delisting case

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J. Souza

A retired military officer who had been struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) tragically died after jumping from the world’s largest cruise ship last month, authorities confirmed.

Cruise Passenger Who Jumped from World's Largest Ship After Dispute Suffered with PTSD

In 2024, the agricultural economy faces a series of challenges that profoundly affect the market for agricultural machinery. This article delves into the economic factors, the resulting trends in equipment sales, and the outlook for the near future. Declining net farm income. The sharp decline in net farm income is...

How is the current ag economy impacting equipment sales?

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) More than 47,000 people died in Europe as a result of high temperatures in 2023, the warmest year on record globally and the second warmest in Europe. This is the estimate of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and published in Nature Medicine. The researchers report that the vulnerability to heat of European societies has progressively decreased over the present century, and estimate that without these societal adaptation processes, the heat related mortality burden over the past year would have been 80% higher.

Heat caused over 47,000 deaths in Europe in 2023, the second highest burden of the last decade

24/7 Wall St.

24/7 Wall St. Insights The average per-acre value of farmland in the U.S. surged by nearly 30% between 2020 and 2023. Among the families on this list, land ownership ranges from 420,000 acres to over 2.4 million acres. Also: Discover the Next Nvidia American is one of the world’s largest countries, comprising a whopping 1.9 […]
The post This American Family’s Combined Land Is the Size of Puerto Rico appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..

This American Family’s Combined Land Is the Size of Puerto Rico

The Hill

The decades-long battle over nearly 9,500 acres in Oklahoma is coming to a head in Washington, D.C.  Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) secured a farm bill provision that would block transfer of the land, which currently hosts a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) research facility and sits atop sizable oil and gas reserves, “except as…

GOP lawmaker squares off with USDA, tribes over farm bill land transfer

Mature forests have a key role to play in the fight against climate change – extracting carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and locking it into new wood, a new study reveals. Researchers discovered that older trees responded to increased atmospheric levels of CO2 by increasing production of woody...

Mature forests vital in frontline fight against climate change

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The Lens

This year’s area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday. The “dead zone” is approximately 6,705 square miles , as measured last week. Within NOAA’s 38 years of measuring the dead zone, this year’s assessment marks the 12th-largest area of low to no oxygen, which can kill fish and marine life.

Gulf ‘dead zone’ larger than average, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announce

South Carolina State

Colleton County, SC

Explore Beaufort SC

Some beachgoers were in for a surprise this week when a bizarre looking prehistoric fish washed ashore in Colleton County along Edisto Beach at Edisto Beach State Park. It turned out to be an atlantic sturgeon.

Rare Atlantic sturgeon washes ashore on South Carolina beach

The Current GA

Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force .

Expert: Long COVID puzzle pieces are falling into place – picture is unsettling

NewsBreak

Expansion of agricultural land threatens climate and biodiversity

By 2030, global cultivation areas are expected to expand by 3.6 percent, increasing global agricultural production by two percent. This projection comes from the Food and...

Expansion of agricultural land threatens climate and biodiversity

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