Skip to main content

food

Farmers Are Tentatively Embracing AI

Hannah Macready Ambrook Research
A growing number of farmers are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, to tackle daily tasks. One farmer said “I’ve been blown away by the information it can kick out in a host of different areas."

The Water Wars Deciding the Future of the West

Kyle Paoletta The New Republic
From conservation to importing water from the Pacific, Democrats say they have all the answers to historic drought. The one thing no one wants to talk about: stopping the sprawl.

food

The Curious Economics of Pick- Your-Own Farms

Shelby Vittek Ambrook Research
The U-pick business model, which relies on farm visitors to do the harvesting, has the potential to produce big profits. But its success depends on an array of uncontrollable variables.

food

Grim Reapers

Ian Frazier New York Review of Books
Farmers waiting for federal grants at a Resettlement Administration office, North Dakota, July 1936 Mega-agriculture is destroying the Corn Belt and the Central Valley, which the country’s food system depends on. Can midsize farms survive to save it?

food

Cacao Makes a Comeback in Puerto Rico

Jen Ruiz Modern Farmer
In the 1900s, tax incentives lured major pharmaceutical corporations to the island. Puerto Ricans left the land for the office. But gourmet crops like cacao have enticed islanders to return to agriculture, building a burgeoning chocolate hot spot.

food

Farmers Sell Their Produce

Bridget Shirvell Modern Farmer
The Southside Community Land Trust (SCLT) in Providence, Rhode Island works to give immigrant farmers opportunities to sell what they grow to wholesale markets.

Will the Next Pandemic Start With Chickens?

Boyce Upholt The New Republic
This spring, a virulent strain of bird flu ripped through U.S. farms. The public hardly noticed. That we could ignore the disease shows just how little we’ve learned about the origin of new viruses.

food

Plant of the Month: Peanut

Kristan M. Hanson Jstor.org
Weaving together new research and rich primary sources, the Plant Humanities Initiative recounts stories of global foods, such as peanuts, to illuminate their extraordinary significance to humans.
Subscribe to agriculture