Latest Agriculture News

Tensions are bubbling up at thirsty Arizona alfalfa farms as foreign firms exploit unregulated water

Nov. 28, 2023 17:17 PM EST

WENDEN, Ariz. (AP) — A blanket of bright green alfalfa spreads across western Arizona's McMullen Valley, ringed by rolling mountains and warmed by the hot desert sun. Matthew Hancock's family has used groundwater to grow forage crops here for more than six decades. They're long...

Ukraine has a new way to get its grain to the world despite Russia's threat in the Black Sea

Nov. 27, 2023 21:09 PM EST

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world. Now, more of the grain is getting...

Spain announces a 1.4 billion-euro deal to help protect the prized Doñana wetland from drying up

Nov. 27, 2023 08:33 AM EST

MADRID (AP) — National and regional authorities in Spain signed an agreement Monday to invest 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in areas around the treasured national park of Doñana in a bid to stop the park from drying up. Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera said the plan...

New Hampshire man had no car and no furniture, but died with a big secret, leaving his town millions

Nov. 21, 2023 09:13 AM EST

HINSDALE, N.H. (AP) — Geoffrey Holt was unassuming as the caretaker of a mobile home park in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, where he lived a simple, but curious life. Residents would see Holt around town in threadbare clothes — riding his lawn mower, headed to the convenience store,...

Editorial Roundup: Iowa

Nov. 20, 2023 15:14 PM EST

Dubuque Telegraph Herald. November 19, 2023. Editorial: Support local communities and shop small businesses this holiday season With this week’s Thanksgiving holiday, we are about to enter a season of giving. For many of us, that begins with giving thanks for all we...

Solar panels will cut water loss from canals in Gila River Indian Community

Nov. 20, 2023 14:27 PM EST

In a move that may soon be replicated elsewhere, the Gila River Indian Community recently signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put solar panels over a stretch of irrigation canal on its land south of Phoenix. It will be the first project of its kind in the...

Extreme weather can hit farmers hard. Those with smaller farming operations often pay the price

Nov. 19, 2023 08:43 AM EST

MAYFIELD, Ky. (AP) — Justin Ralph estimates he's made about 200 trips delivering grain from the fields he farms with his brother and uncle this year. They're accustomed to using their four semi-trucks to take the harvest from a total of about 800 acres each of corn, soybeans and wheat to market....

Sugar prices are rising worldwide after bad weather tied to El Nino damaged crops in Asia

Nov. 19, 2023 00:28 AM EST

Skyrocketing sugar prices left Ishaq Abdulraheem with few choices. Increasing the cost of bread would mean declining sales, so the Nigerian baker decided to cut his production by half. For scores of other bakers struggling to stay afloat while enduring higher costs for fuel and...

Poverty is killing the Amazon rainforest. Treating soil and farmers better can help save what's left

Nov. 16, 2023 16:39 PM EST

TEKOHAW, Brazil (AP) — At dawn in this small Amazonian village in Brazil's Para state, flocks of noisy green parrots soar overhead as children run and play between wooden homes, kicking up sandy soil — in places white and bare as a beach. The ground reveals one of the paradoxes...

Beef is a way of life in Texas, but it's hard on the planet. This rancher thinks she can change that

Nov. 16, 2023 16:39 PM EST

ROSSTON, Texas (AP) — The cattle part as Meredith Ellis edges her small four-wheeler through the herd, silently counting the cows and their calves. It’s the way she starts most days on her 3,000-acre Texas ranch: ensuring all the cattle are safe, deciding when they should move to another...