farming

A centuries old laughing ceremony was held in Japan over the weekend, where about 20 farmers took turns laughing three times to express thanks, pray for good harvests and forget the suffering they experienced in 2022.

This Thanksgiving, your pumpkin pie might have a lower carbon footprint. Farmers in central Illinois who supply 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin are adopting regenerative techniques to reduce emissions, attract bees and other pollinators and improve soil health.

In Maine, the skylines in at least two of its cities are rapidly changing. In Portland, high-rise buildings, like an 18-story apartment complex, are under construction downtown. Next door in Westbrook, a multi-story structure with a parking garage, apartments and a vertical farm is being built as well. “The site has gotten a lot of attention,” said the city’s...

Vermont farmers are making the switch from cows to goats in order to meet increasing demand for plant-based dairy substitutes.

Officials with the Vermont Agency of Agriculture say as consumers increasingly seek locally-produced and artisan food options, and with goat cheese remaining popular, more people are considering exploring goat or sheep farming. Such a path is also one of many possible solutions to bolstering the dairy industry through its economic challenges, agricultural business development officials have said. The cow’s...

As consumers increasingly look to explore locally-produced and artisan food options, and with goat cheese remaining quite popular, agriculture officials in Vermont say they are getting more and more calls from people looking to explore goat or sheep farming.

One of the worst droughts in Massachusetts state history has made it difficult for area Christmas tree farmers to plant, grow and harvest trees. Richard Luks grows more than a dozen types of trees and has lost more than 1,000 trees planted this spring. He said that adds up to a 95% loss. Luks doesn’t have an irrigation system and…

Farmworkers in South Florida are supporting efforts to create safety standards, including heat provisions and treatment for heat illness, as climate change makes working conditions deadly for some.

Harold Souther may not be an obvious candidate to join the solar power industry. The 98-year-old owner of the 200-year-old Souther Family Farm has worked his land in Livermore Falls, Maine, to produce everything from eggs to canning crops to hay. But he says the decision to turn 20 acres of his land into a solar farm was an easy...

Over 60 years in the 20th century, about 6 million Black people moved from rural communities in the South to cities in the North and West to get away from Jim Crow laws and search for economic opportunity — including the family of NBCLX storyteller Jalyn Henderson. She shares her aunt’s and uncle’s perspective on the history of this period,...

A husband and wife who operate a small farm in Beverly, Massachusetts, have gone to court in an effort to keep their roosters. The Salem News reports Friday that Brian and Anita Deeley in their complaint filed this week said the city Board of Health overstepped its authority by ordering them to remove the roosters from their 19-acre farm. The...

U.S. farmers of color are battling in the courts to save a $4 billion debt relief program approved by Congress