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Tag: farming

Dairy farmers, Anthony Paudoie and his father Jean-Louis, harvest wheat in a field with their harvester on July 14, 2014 at a farm of Le Pin, near Nantes, western France. The Loire Atlantique department is the second milk producer in France with 840 million liters of milk per year.

The Big Ratchet: How to Feed a Hungry Planet

In her book The Big Ratchet, Ruth DeFries explains how humanity went from hunger to plenty by making more efficient use of Earth’s resources. Even with more people than ever before, “Our current problems are more about abundance than about lack of food. Our species has never had to grapple with such surplus,” she writes.

AP Photo

FAA Moves Toward Approving Commercial Drone Use

Californians could soon see drones irrigating or dusting crops. Amazon and Google told the Wall Street Journal they have recently seen a major shift in the attitude of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding critical issues to accelerate commercial drone test flights that extend beyond the sight of the operator.

Drought farm (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

How California Went Dry

Gov. Jerry Brown of California is fired up about nailing his citizens to the wall, should they dare to use more than their allotted amount of water. On Sunday, Brown said that those who did not take shorter showers would be punished with fines of up to $500, in order to cut urban water use 25 percent; now, according to CBS News, water authorities will use “smart meters” to monitor water use and update them for purposes of fines.

California Oranges (Pat Roque / Associated Press)

Cal Fruits and Crops Rotting at West Coast Ports in Union Fight

The increasingly bitter labor strife at West Coast ports between employers represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), whose members command average wages and benefits of about $1,200 a day, is causing California’s agricultural sector to watch its labors rot away.