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Thursday, February 27, 2025

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Trump memo tells federal agencies how to conduct mass layoffs; Latinos in NM, nation urged to boycott national retailers over DEI curbs; Advocates await impacts of industrial sludge law a year later; Hearing today in CA on lawsuit to halt firings of federal workers; Push grows to save Dolly Parton's book program in Indiana.

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The House has passed a budget outline. Elon Musk attends first Trump cabinet meeting. And federal workers leave jobs despite litigation allowing them to stay.

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U.S. farmers in limbo due to federal funding freeze worry their projects will go unrealized, mass firings could wreak havoc on tourists visiting public lands this summer, while money to fight wildfires in rural areas is also jeopardized.

Research shows value of getting 'back to nature' on GA farms

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Wednesday, December 4, 2024   

A new study suggested getting "back to nature" in farming could help ward off the biggest impacts of climate change.

As Georgia experiences more frequent extreme weather events and a loss of biodiversity because of a changing climate, farmers and scientists are turning to more resilient practices mimicking what Mother Nature has been doing for thousands of years.

Liz Carlisle, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara and co-author of a new study in the science journal Frontiers, said what's known as "agroecological" farming can create tightly connected cycles of energy, water and nutrients if farmers can get the resources they need.

"If we want to have a more sustainable food system, we really need to invest in that next generation of farmers and their development of knowledge," Carlisle urged. "Think of them as the most important resource in farming."

She pointed out most farms today still rely on fossil fuel-based inputs, like chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The new approach prioritizes a living, healthy soil, and aims to replace nonrenewable chemicals with practices tapping into natural ecosystems.

Carlisle noted new farms planted in wooded landscapes would look a lot like an actual forest, with multiple layers of crops, including trees. And farming on prairie lands could include regenerative grazing patterns created by native bison and other herbivores.

"Agroecological farming systems are really trying to work with nature and the services that nature provides, in terms of pest control and fertility, rather than working against nature," Carlisle explained.

Over the past century, as family farms have been swallowed up by large corporations, farming in the U.S. has trended in the opposite direction. Carlisle observed people with deep ties to their lands have been replaced by chemical-centered practices in an effort to lower labor costs and entire rural economies have paid the price.

"It's worth investing a little bit more of our tremendous wealth as a society in the people that do that critically important work," Carlisle contended. "And the landscapes that they are caring for."


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