The availability of information in this digital age has made it very easy to spread facts and data. However, it also makes it very easy to spread misinformation as well. When it comes to some Ag topics—such as fertilizers—the misinformation runs a bit deeper. […]
It’s National Pollinator Week, and it’s an excellent time to take steps to help pollinators in your community. If you haven’t heard, many of our go-to pollinators—bees, butterflies, moths, birds, bats and so on—are declining in number or out-and-out dying in droves. Pollinators help flowers exchange pollen, which in turn allows the plants to produce [...]
Summer is a great time for traveling and being outdoors, but those two factors combined can contribute to the spread of Agriculture pests that can ruin crops and Ag economies. According to the Florida Farm Bureau, the Sunshine State sees a new pest at least once a month. Such pests might be new to Florida, [...]
We’ve all heard the messages broadcast by environmentalists and conservationists: protect the Earth or else. We’ve also all likely heard about the types of pollution that cause the most damage and that need to be addressed first in an environmental triage of sorts. For instance, replacing the burning of fossil fuels with renewable energy will [...]
We’ve all heard the bad news about declining bee populations and the dire predictions that accompany the loss of Nature’s #1 pollinator. In short, plants need pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths and birds to reproduce, so the absence of pollinators means that plants can’t produce the fruits, vegetables and seeds we humans need to eat. [...]
USDA Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that a report on the future job growth in the field of Agriculture shows the industry is poised to offer excellent career opportunities for Ag majors. The report, compiled by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and Purdue University, shows that there is a high [...]
Avocados are a major crop in the Sunshine State, though citrus is the most well-known. The green, oily fruit is best known for making guacamole and has also made headlines recently for studies that confirm that avocados pack a lot of heart-healthy nutrition. Avocados are a $64 million dollar industry in Florida, and just like [...]
A team of researchers at Texas A&M University may be on the trail to slowing or stopping HLB altogether, using the power of a common superfood: Spinach. HLB, also referred to as citrus greening, is affecting the health of the Florida citrus industry with an infection rate of more than 75 percent of the state’s [...]
The Alliance for Food and Farming is making headway in the Safe Fruits and Veggies Initiative, which advocates on the behalf of U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable producers. The Alliance was started in 1989 by a group of agriculture associations in response to a 60 Minutes story about a pesticide used on apples. […]
The numbers prove it: the organic industry is growing at a remarkable pace, both in the U.S. and across the world. On April 15th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that data from the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP) show that the number of USDA-certified operations grew by 5 percent in the [...]
