Packed pubs, sold-out hotels, a run on steak, €1.5m spent on weanling heifers to a top of €33,500... 'for anyone interested in breeding or showing cattle, or even people who just appreciate top-quality stock, this is our version of the Ploughing'
Fairtrade International is planning a sweeping overhaul of the standards that govern Fairtrade-certified coffee and other crops. The multi-year project will likely reshape how millions of farmers, workers and buyers engage with the system, which is designed to support smallholder farmer livelihoods through ethical consumerism. The Germany-based nonprofit says it is revising all generic standards - for small-scale producer organizations, hired-labor organizations and traders - along with product standards for agricultural commodities, including coffee.
The U.S. share of the global organic food market is estimated at 40%. In short, the U.S. is heavily dependent on other countries for 60% of these goods. This glaring trade imbalance means dollars that could support American farms and rural communities are flowing to foreign producers overseas. It represents billions of dollars in lost revenue left on the table here at home.
Leah Anderson, a senior executive at Land O'Lakes, has learned to make high-stakes calls even when the data is incomplete. It's a discipline that's become foundational to her leadership, especially as AI and digital tools accelerate the speed at which farmers and retailers must act. She says the biggest risk for decision-makers in this space isn't making the wrong call-it's getting stuck.
This town of around 21,000 inhabitants and known as the rose capital of the world is located in the Pedro Moncayo canton, in the province of Pichincha in Ecuador, and sits 37 miles north of Quito at an altitude of 9,400 feet. Beginning in the 1980s, the area's economy has hinged on the production of roses, thanks to its altitude, temperate climate and sunlight for up to 12 hours a day.
A door about a hand's width opens into the frigid facility that protects the seeds that may one day play a fundamental role in the event of droughts, pests, floods, or the many other disasters that can ravage the earth and, consequently, the food supply for people and animals. Ukraine possesses an immense collection of biodiversity that cannot be found anywhere else. Who knows how useful it may be to us in the future. Its qualities can still be explored; it is like a treasure.
Rub the inside of a banana peel on to your plant's leaves to clean them and leave a glossy sheen. Some swear by it as a natural and free alternative to chemical leaf-shine sprays. Banana skins contain potassium and natural oils. In theory, these lift away dust while polishing, making the leaves look healthier. It's also completely free, since it repurposes something you'd usually throw away.
This photo was taken in August, in the Sing'isi village in Arusha, northern Tanzania, where my colleagues and I were conducting a field visit to farmers. I was demonstrating how to use a mobile app - named KilimoAI - to examine crop leaves. The app, which we've developed in-house, works by analysing a photograph of the plant to detect possible disease symptoms.
For their new meta-analysis, researchers analysed and compared data from different studies where crops were grown at various CO2 levels, both indoors and outdoors. They looked at 43 edible crops in total, including rice, barley, potatoes, tomatoes, wheat, soybeans, peanuts and lettuce. According to the analysis, when the CO2 level doubles, so too does the detrimental effect on the nutrients in the crops.
Despite continued doubts over AI hype, it's clear that real-world deployments are demonstrating that AI can deliver measurable value across different sectors. Cutting costs, boosting productivity, and enabling smarter decisions are all potential benefits of AI, both generative and otherwise. Yet the most successful implementations share something in common: they start with a clear business challenge, not a fascination with technology for its own sake.
The pumpkin also claimed the record for largest by circumferences, measuring 21 feet and 3.8 inches around. The feat is preceded by decades of hobbyists capitalizing on the plant's seemingly unlimited growth potential. So, why is this type of fruit (in fact, technically, pumpkins are berries) able to grow so massive while even the largest blueberries remain relatively small? It all comes down to a three-part botanical bouquet: A combination of growing factors, genetic makeup, and selective breeding.
Everybody's talking about the forthcoming sale of the Rockwell College farms. The lands are being offered as the entire of over 800ac or in two lots: Carrigeen Farm on 270ac, with two residences; or Rockwell Farm and Dogstown Farm on 543ac with modern milking facilities.
Known for their showy flowers and long blooming season, hydrangeas make great tree filler for some of the same reasons they're great filler plants in gardens and landscape design. As trees and shrubs, hydrangeas are dense and produce large blooms in a variety of colors - many of which work well with a traditional holiday palette (white, light green, pink, and even red). The conical and round shapes of these flowers make them easy to tuck into the gaps that Christmas tree branches have.
Imagine the fear and dread that comes with opening that internal door into the poultry house each morning God help any poultry farmer right now. We have 100 hens, but that's ridiculously small compared to most commercial poultry units, where even the minimum-size shed holds 5,000 birds. The largest units house well over 100,000. So just imagine getting up every morning and heading down to your poultry shed.
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