A zebu cattle is silhouetted in a farm in Paulinia, Brazil July 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker
Canada Is Using Genetics to Make Cows Less Gassy
JP Brouwer, along with his father and two brothers at Sunalta Farms in central Alberta, runs the first commercial dairy farm contributing data to the Genome Canada project. One part of the project aims to increase feed efficiency—growing cows as big as possible with as little food as possible—and reduce emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 30 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide.
The 'Rewilding' of a Century-Old Cranberry Bog
Economic shifts have left landowners and communities around the country trying to figure out what to do with fallow industrial space, from abandoned farmland to empty factories and warehouses. Experts say the project here shows one path for dormant cranberry bogs; four similar, smaller efforts already are underway in Massachusetts. But they say this could also be a broader template for bringing back disappearing habitat that scientists say could be useful in an age of climate change.
The Tea Estates Being Revitalized in the Mountains of Darjeeling
In India, tea estate owners are legally obliged to support their employees by offering them basic necessities such as housing, social care, and fair wages. Yet when these plantations fail, owners often abandon them, leaving the farmers and their families with nothing. Against this backdrop, international social impact investor and co-operative Oikocredit has invested in social enterprise partner the Ambootia Tea Group, a family business and cooperative that acquires struggling tea estates in India. Ambootia provides their employees with secure livelihoods, fair wages, and help with housing, food, clothing, education, and medical treatment.
A Seattle Startup, Beta Hatch, Thinks Growing Bugs for Animal Feed Is a Billion-Dollar Opportunity
Virginia Emery is building a business on bugs. Her startup farms meal worms, which grow into beetles within 90 days. The bugs eat waste products like canola meal cast off by food producers, and they can survive without light. Emery, 30, and her team of five employees, freeze-dry the grown beetles and package them as organic feed for fish and chickens.