Browse Sustainable Stories - Page 9

University of Georgia organic agriculture experts and economists are teaming up to present the Organic Farming Workshop to provide farmers with new ways to maximize the ecology and economical sustainability of their farm.

Overly wet weather in Georgia’s major row crop regions during February 2016 has farmers worried that soggy soil may delay corn and peanut planting or cause fungal diseases to be a major issue later this spring.

Norman Borlaug,1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the leaders the Green Revolution dedicated his career to help ending food scarcity around the world. This fall four agricultural scientists from Africa and Asia are taking up that mantle and continuing his work as part of the Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) Program at the University of Georgia.

The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences will recognize nine of its finest next month with the D.W. Brooks Awards for Excellence and the CAES Faculty and Staff Support Awards.

Led by increases in forestry and livestock values, Georgia’s agricultural output increased by $484 million in 2014, making agriculture, once again, the largest industry in the state with a value of $14.1 billion. According to the most recent University of Georgia Farmgate Value Report, published earlier this month, the value of Georgia’s livestock and aquaculture industries increased by almost 36 percent from 2013.

In a time of public debate over the effectiveness and safety of genetically modified foods, it’s hard to picture the era before crop breeders developed grain varieties that could withstand drought and common diseases.

A tiny fly is having a huge impact on American fruit farmers. Known as spotted wing drosophila, the insect is costing famers more than $700 million a year in lost produce and prevention costs.

Despite Georgians’ constant umbrella use of late, most of September 2015 was actually drier than normal.

In 2015, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) expanded a program that funds graduate student research travel, with remarkable results.

Women own 13.6 percent of America’s active farms and their farms produce almost $13 billion worth of goods each year. Just like male farmers, they need access to business and technical information to help make their farms successful. But while many pride themselves on not needing a “women’s only” class on how to work the land or run a business, many other women simply feel more comfortable learning around other female farmers.