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Rain delays Idaho potato, wheat planting

For example, 41% of people say sustainability has an impact on their food-and-beverage-buying habits, up 6 percentage points from a year earlier, according to an online survey conducted by the International Food Information Council Foundation.

There was a time when once grain left the farm gate, little was thought about where it went. Those days are disappearing quickly.

Ever since the late 1940s, agricultural output has grown slowly but steadily at an average annual rate of about 1.5%, while input usage has only increased by about 0.05% per year during the same time period. Mapped out over seven decades, those changes have really added up.

Field to Market recently announced it is now able to integrate sustainability metrics and algorithms of its Fieldprint Platform with several leading precision ag and farm management software programs. This represents one of several moves the group hopes will help meet its ambitious goal of 50 million participating acres by 2020.

The Texas Farms and Ranch Lands Conservation Program, created by the legislature in 2005, was meant to play a vital role in protecting agricultural lands, which are disappearing as a result of the recent population boom. A 2014 Texas A&M study found that the state was losing farm and ranch land at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country.

A two-year study by researchers with the SureHarvest technology platform pegs the CO2 equivalent emissions of 1 lb. of mushrooms at just 0.7 lb. – far below many other crops.

On March 30, acting deputy agriculture secretary Michael Young announced that a contract renewal signup for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is actively underway. Applications to renew expiring contracts are due May 5.

When Paul Betcher’s phone rang last year, he had no idea how a rocky patch of land on his farm would turn into a windfall.

The company posted double-digit sustainable sourcing gains for both U.S. dairy and wheat.