First introduced in Japan and Switzerland in the 1970s, community supported agriculture (CSA) is a form of partnership between farmer and consumer. They enter into a contract which provides consumers with a certain number of ‘shares’ in the farm. Each share provides the consumer a box (or bag or bucket or …) of vegetables or other products…
Direct marketing is a form of marketing that is drastically different than commodity selling. Where commodity selling is based on a market-determined price and generally focused on standardized, large-scale sales that are impersonal in nature, direct marketing involves 1:1 selling between an individual/group and the seller. In doing so, trust is established and alternative forms of value…
Small farmers are an integral part of society. They produce food, provide rural employment, and contribute to diversity in both ownership and societal structure. However, they are also faced with a number of struggles, particularly when it comes to market entry and competition with large-scale agribusiness. To address these issues and maintain profitability, small farmers must be…
Producing a vast amount of the world’s food, small farms are valuable assets that contribute to long-term economic sustainability and food security. What actually constitutes a small farm is hard to specify as there are extreme variations in societal structure, ergo many definitions exist. In the United States, a small farm is defined as any…
New plants are created via plant propagation of which there are two types: sexual and asexual. With sexual propagation, there are two sources of parental DNA resulting in the creation of a third living organism. Sexual propagation involves the floral components of the plant and is the result of the pollination of megagametophyte (egg). There…
Biochar, a form of carbon dioxide sequestration (SDR), is a solid material obtained from the carbonization of biomass. This process produces highly porous charcoal. The biomass is then buried to lock the carbon into the soil which can improve soil functions. CO2 typically produced by the natural degradation of biomass is also reduced. This practice is…
Intercropping is an ancient farming method being rediscovered. Discover the advantages and disadvantages of intercropping in this intro guide.
Intercropping is a growing method rooted in ecological diversity. In intercropped systems, two or more component crops are grown together for a given growing period. There are currently four common intercropping patterns: Strip: crops are grown simultaneously in independent rows within the same field Row: crops are grown together simultaneously and a minimum of one crop…
At the most basic level, a network is any connection between different components of a given system. The way by which the connection functions is dependent on the network variety, inclusive of the types of relationships that exist between the nodes, i.e. the people and organizations participating in the network. Relationships that do develop are…
Enhanced weathering is the process of exposing large quantities of minerals that are reactive with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and storing the resulting compound in the ocean or soil. It is considered a form of carbon dioxide removal or CDR. BENEFITS CHALLENGES Has the potential to increase terrestrial and oceanic net productivity Can be…