farmers

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Mugabe: Whites Can't Own Land

ZImbabwe leader wants white farmers out

(Newser) - Robert Mugabe is calling for the removal of white farmers from their land in Zimbabwe. "We say no to whites owning our land and they should go," the country's president told farmers in a small town, as the Christian Science Monitor reports. Whites, he said, "can...

Parched Calif. Farmers Turn to 'Water Witches'

Vineyard owners say dowsing works; scientists disagree

(Newser) - With California in the grip of drought, farmers throughout the state are using a mysterious and some say foolhardy tool for locating underground water: dowsers, or water witches. Practitioners of dowsing use rudimentary tools—usually copper sticks or wooden "divining rods" that resemble large wishbones—and what they describe...

Your Pee Could Be Fertilizer of the Future

Team collects 3K gallons of nutrient-rich stuff

(Newser) - Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are among plants' key needs—and your urine contains all of them. That's why Vermont's Rich Earth Institute is studying the use of human urine as fertilizer, Modern Farmer reports. There's already plenty of evidence that it works. Yahoo cites one study, earlier...

Co-Op Gives Farm Workers Shot at Field of Own Dreams

Field hands get opportunity to start own businesses

(Newser) - Being an itinerant farm worker might be one of the most grueling ways to make a living in the country. But what if these workers could take their experience and turn it into a farm of their own? NPR profiles a cooperative in California's Salinas Valley that offers that...

Agriculture's Rising Force: Female Farmers

Women now account for 30% of US farmers

(Newser) - One of the biggest changes in agriculture isn't so much about what type of seeds are being planted as who is planting them: women. Grist expands on a USDA study showing that the number of farms run by women has nearly tripled in the last three decades. Add in...

Get Ready for the Biggest Corn Crop Since 1936

2012 drought sent prices soaring

(Newser) - Last year's drought sent corn prices soaring, and this year, US farmers are looking to take advantage of it. They're set to plant the biggest corn crop the country has seen since 1936, USA Today reports, sowing some 97.3 million acres of the commodity. Right now, corn...

Protesting EU Farmers Spray Cops With ... Milk?

They're protesting low milk prices

(Newser) - Thousands of enraged dairy farmers converged on the European Parliament in Brussels yesterday, and sprayed the building, and the cops who showed up to contain them, with their stock in trade: milk. The protesters arrived on tractors, blocked traffic along many of the city's main streets, then pulled out...

4 Wolves Killed First Wisconsin Hunting Day

State aiming for 116, animal lovers headed for court

(Newser) - At least two male and two female adult wolves were shot dead in the first 24 hours of Wisconsin's first wolf hunt in decades. The controversial hunt is scheduled to run through February, but the state might end it sooner if hunters hit the limit of 116 wolves. Some...

In Record Drought, Nation's Farmers Twist in Wind

Depression, lost land, ditched vacations

(Newser) - The worst drought in decades has reached farming families' personal lives, making for a year very different than they might have expected. "You probably can’t print our mood," says a South Dakota rancher. "The wife says she can’t drink enough to dull the pain of...

Frackers Battle Farmers for Water Amid Drought

Gas companies scrambling to buy up supplies for drilling

(Newser) - The drought ravaging the heartland has thrown into stark relief an ongoing battle between farmers and energy companies for that most fundamental of resources: water. As the name implies, hydrofracking requires water, and lots of it—one well can use up to 5 million gallons—so gas companies are storming...

Taxpayers on Hook for $10B as Drought Ravages Crops

Subsidized insurance program draws criticism

(Newser) - Crop farmers are on track to record about $18 billion in losses thanks to this year's historically nasty drought—and by one expert's estimate, the federal government is on the hook for about $10 billion of that, thanks to the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance program, the Washington ...

Drought Forcing Ranchers to Sell Cattle

Which means you can expect beef prices to go up

(Newser) - The lingering drought spanning much of the nation is leaving farmers with wizened pastures and crops, forcing them to sell off cattle—and fast. The AP spoke to several ranchers, including Ken Grecian of Kansas, who has already sold 40 pairs of cows and calves since the dry spell began....

No More Cowbell: Austria Court Bans Noisy Clangers

Judge sympathizes with neighbors losing sleep

(Newser) - More cowbell is no longer an option in a small Austrian town. A judge has ordered a farmer near the small town of Stallhofen to remove the noisy apparatuses from his cattle because neighbors were losing sleep, reports Der Spiegel . The farmer had refused their pleas, claiming the bells...

Fracking's Unlikely Beneficiary: India's Farmers

Tiny bean brings success to one of the world's poorest regions

(Newser) - Talk about a magic bean. Guar, a tiny, durable legume grown in Rajasthan, one of the poorest regions of India, has proven to be a moneymaker thanks to the fracking boom in the US. Indian farmers in the arid region who once grew the bean to help feed their families...

USDA Declares Biggest Disaster Ever

One-third of America's counties now natural-disaster areas

(Newser) - It's a confirmation of just how brutal this season has been: The US Department of Agriculture yesterday declared the biggest disaster in its history, identifying 1,016 counties in 26 states as natural-disaster areas. That covers about a third of America's counties, notes Bloomberg . The apocalyptic-sounding declaration brings...

10 Careers That Are Dwindling Away

Farmers, postal processors, switchboard operators face job loss

(Newser) - Unemployment may be easing , but certain jobs seem to be sliding into the dustbin of history. The Huffington Post lists 10 on the skids, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
  1. Farmers and ranchers: expected to lose 96,100 jobs by 2020. Mechanized farming is taking over.

Police Arrest Farmers for Child Sacrifice

Indian men killed girl to appease gods: police

(Newser) - Two men have been arrested in central India for allegedly killing a 7-year-old girl and cutting out her liver in a ritual sacrifice to ensure a better harvest, police said today. Lalita Tati disappeared in October and her dismembered remains were found a week later, said Rajendra Narayan Das, a...

What Downturn? Farmers Have Abundant Year

Profits set to jump 28%, cross $100B mark

(Newser) - The rest of us might be bracing for the worst, but US farmers are having a banner year. With prices soaring for crops, farmland, and livestock, farmers are set to score profits of $100.9 billion, a 28% jump, the AP reports. That's the first time the figure has...

Farmers Protest Bribery—With Bags of Snakes

Two men in India unleash 40 snakes on a tax office

(Newser) - Two farmers in northern India just wanted to obtain property tax records from a local tax office, but officials allegedly demanded bribes for the info. The miffed farmers came back with three bags, filled not with bribe cash, but with around 40 live snakes—including at least four deadly cobras—...

Terrified Farmers Flee World's Deadliest Volcano

They have long heard tales of its historic 1815 eruption

(Newser) - A volcanic eruption that kills 90,000 people and casts a shadow around the globe tends to leave an impression. That's why hundreds of Indonesian farmers fled their villages this month when the legendary Mount Tambora began rumbling, the AP reports. Well-versed in stories of its 1815 eruption, which...

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