agriculture definition

A FB friend shared this encouraging news item on inhabitat from last year about the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative: � America�s first urban �agrihood� feeds 2,000 households for free :� �When you think of Detroit, �sustainable� and �agriculture� may not be the first two words that you think of. But a new urban agrihood debuted by The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) might change your mind. The three-acre development boasts a two-acre garden, a fruit orchard with 200 trees, and a sensory garden for kids. If you need a refresher on the definition of agrihood, MUFI describes it as an alternative neighborhood growth model. An agrihood centers around urban agriculture, and MUFI offers fresh, local produce to around 2,000 households for free.� From MUFI�s website : �The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that seeks to engage members of the Michigan community in sustainable agriculture. We believe that challenges unique to the Michigan community

Among the definitions for �milk� in The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary (Clarendon Press, 1993) we find: �A milky juice [like many lexical definitions, circular in construction] or latex secreted by certain plants, e.g. coconut milk.� And among the figurative uses of the word, �milk� is �[s]omething pleasant and (supposedly) nourishing,� the parenthetical qualification no doubt appreciated by dairy lobbyists. Finally, our dictionary defines milk variously as a � culinary , pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or other preparation of herbs, drugs, etc., resembling milk � [emphasis added]. Within the category of phrases, our dictionary cites �almond milk� and �rice milk,� and among several terms with �milk� in them we discover �milk stout� (�a kind of sweet stout made with lactose�) and �milk-tree� (�any of several trees having a milky juice�). Not mentioned is �mother�s milk� in the sense of something �absolutely necessary or appropriate,� not to be confused with the milk of a particular child�s ow

Migrant farmworkers harvest strawberries near Oxnard, California. Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images Two recent pieces discuss the probable agricultural effects of Trump�s proposed immigration and trade policies.   �In the Central Valley, drought fears ease, but farmers contend with a new threat: Trump� By Robin Abcarian for the Los Angeles Times , February 15, 2017 [sans embedded hyperlinks] �It�s almost impossible to get a rise from my favorite farmer, Joe Del Bosque, who grows almonds, melons and asparagus here on the perpetually water-challenged west side of the San Joaquin Valley. After years of drought, suddenly everything is green. It�s raining like crazy, the infamous pumps of the Sacramento Delta are working overtime to fill reservoirs to the south and all over the state, dry

�Plowed Under: The Next American Farm Bust Is Upon Us�   Shrinking role in global grain market coupled with a strong dollar and higher costs for seeds drives U . S . farmers out of business ; overflowing bunkers . By Jesse Newman and Patrick McGroarty (February 8, 2017) Ransom, Kansas � �The Farm Belt is hurtling toward a milestone: Soon there will be fewer than two million farms in America for the first time since pioneers moved westward after the Louisiana Purchase. Across the heartland, a multiyear slump in prices for corn, wheat and other farm commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide is pushing many farmers further into debt. Some are shutting down, raising concerns that the next few years could bring the biggest wave of farm closures since the 1980s. The U.S. share of the global grain market is less than half what it was in the 1970s. American farmers� incomes will drop 9% in 2017, the Agriculture Department estimates, extending the steepest slide since the Great Depre

Black Panther Charles Bursey serves children their breakfast. (Photograph courtesy of Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch)   This post , as was the post on �Young Blacks & Agroecology, � is motivated, in part, by the fact that this is Black History Month. More than a little of this material goes beyond the scope of African Americans, strictly speaking.   A Basic Bibliography: Alkon, Alison Hope. Black, White, and Green : Farmers Markets, Race, and the Green Economy . Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012.   Alkon, Alison Hope and Julian Agyeman, eds. Cultivating Food Justice : Race, Class, and Sustainability . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.  Allen, Will. The Good Food Revolution : Growing Healthy Food, People and Communities . New York: Gotha m Press/Penguin, 2012.   Bhopal, Raj S. Ethnicity, Race, and Health in Multicultural Societies : Foundations for Better Epidemiology, Public Health, and Health Care . New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.   Bowens, Natasha