by Ariane Lotti
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Dispatches From the Fields: My ride in a combine
How commodity grain farmers have sown the seeds of their demise 2
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
A field of dried soybeans ready to be combined.Although "that time of year" in corn and soybean country is a few weeks late, it has finally arrived. Whether starting up their new $300,000 capital investment for the first… Read More
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Dispatches From the Fields: Playing chicken with local food
Small-scale slaughterhouses are vital to the health of local food economies 2
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
A trailer load of chickens.Photos: Ariane LottiIn the cold and dark that is 5:30 a.m. in North Iowa these days, I go out with Jan and Tim of One Step at a Time Gardens to load 129 sleepy… Read More
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Dispatches From the Fields: Fried-food nation
What I saw at the Iowa State Fair, the nation’s most popular annual food event 7
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
Get your deep-fried Twinkies!My roommate at college (one of those snooty, Northeastern Ivy-league institutions) was from rural Iowa, and probably the biggest offense to her about my academic interest in agriculture was that I had never been to the Iowa State Fair. That… Read More
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Dispatches From the Fields: Mowing -- and re-growing -- the grassroots
Now that farmers have gotten big or gotten out, it’s up to alternative farmers 1
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
Since the early 1970s, if not before, U.S. farm policy has hinged on the mantra, "get big or get out."
Larry Bee got big. He currently farms 5,000 acres in North Central Iowa and produces over 600,000 bushels of corn and about 90,000 bushels of soybeans. To do the work, he owns a fleet on farm machinery big enough… Read More
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Dispatches From the Fields: How CAFOs came to Iowa farm country
Ironically, a lost battle against a hog factory planted the seeds for a sustainable farm 7
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
One Step at a Time Gardens is a model of agricultural sustainability. Over 50 varieties of vegetables grow in rotation on six acres of fine Iowa topsoil that receive no synthetic chemicals. Compost, cover crops, and chicken manure feed the soil. Pests and weeds are kept at bay through the use of physical barriers, biological products, and cultivation.… Read More
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Dispatches From the Fields: The risks of farming for 'non-farmers'
No government disaster assistance for alternative farmers in Iowa 0
Posted 1 year, 4 months ago In "Dispatches From the Fields," Ariane Lotti and Stephanie Ogburn, who are working on small farms in Iowa and Colorado this season, share their thoughts on producing real food in the midst of America's agro-industrial landscape.-----
Now that Iowa has started to dry out from record flooding, farmers are looking to their fields and feeling the uncertainty of this year's crop. For conventional commodity crop farmers, that feeling is fleeting; they can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that government-backed crop insurance and disaster assistance programs [PDF] will cover their losses. For Iowa's… Read More
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