Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2007 from ERS (Click on image below).
By Cynthia Nickerson, Robert Ebel, Allison Borchers, and Fernando Carriazo
Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-89) 67 pp, December 2011
Some excellent images of agricultural landscapes from space from Wired magazine. The contrast between anthropogenic and natural parts is striking.
Everett Griner at Southeast AgNET tells us today how agriculture research is slowing down in the current economic/political environment. This is not good for agriculture. American farmers now compete in an ever-changing global economy. To compete, they must innovate, and innovation means taking risks – innovative practices and crops are by definition possible (likely?) to fail. Agricultural researchers take this risk for farmers (at least some of it). Our excellent extension professionals (extension agents and TSPs at federal, state and NGO’s) pass this knowledge – sans risk - to producers. Congress should consider this in budget decisions….
“…Guess who’s going to be affected by these decisions? YOU.” – E. Griner.
The National Bobwhite Technical Committee has a new website. Lots of good publications for managing quail on their publications page.
National Geographic features “Walking Wetlands” – flooded fields for shorebirds. This has been used for waterfowl in the Mississippi Delta for a long time.
Here is a great 3-part series from Terra about agriculture, aquaculture, land development and sustainability in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Disappearing Catch
Farming Forward
Chesapeake Gold
June 22-27, 2009 is National Pollinator Week to recognize the importance of pollinators to our food system. The Pollinator Partnership and US Fish & Wildlife Service both have lots of resources about pollinators in recognition of this week.
Here are two videos for this week.
One about the problems pollinators face:
And one about what NRCS is doing and can do to help:
USDA’s Conservation Assessment Effects Project has just released two extensive reviews of the effects of agricultural conservation practices – like those used in CRP and other conservation programs (public announcement here). Part A addresses terrestrial habitats and Part B addresses aquatic habitats. Even better is the dynamic bibliography.
“At the American dinner table, about one bite in three depends on bees. “ A Philadelphia Enquirer article about how native bees may save agriculture.
