Find out about the latest publications and sustainable agriculture news.
National Farmer Survey Documents a Wide Range of Cover Crop Benefits as Acreage Continues to Expand
Despite the crippling rainfall that significantly delayed planting across much of the country in 2019, more than 90% of farmers participating in a national cover crop survey reported that cover crops allowed them to plant earlier or at the same time as non-cover-cropped fields. Among those who had “planted green,” seeding cash crops into growing […]
Conservation Tillage Systems in the Southeast: Production, Profitability and Stewardship
“What could be more important to a farmer than soil erosion and soil quality? High-quality soil is a business asset,” says Bob Rawlins, a Georgia farmer who has been using no-till farming for 40 years. SARE’s newest book, Conservation Tillage Systems in the Southeast, explores the importance of conservation tillage and provides in-depth management guidance […]
SARE Funding in Your State
Since 1988, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has helped farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators develop cutting edge innovations that improve farm profitability, protect water and land, and revitalize communities. Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture, SARE has awarded nearly $300 million to more than 7,300 […]
The Future of Agriculture Depends on New Faces and New Ideas
"I grew up on this farm and had no desire to become a farmer,” says Liz Brownlee, talking about a 250-family property near Crothersville, Ind. But eventually, Brownlee and her husband Nate came to see farming as the ideal way to combine a passion for food with an ethic of environmental stewardship. SARE’s 2019/2020 Report from […]
SARE Fellows Tour Sustainability in North Carolina
SARE Fellows Tour Sustainability in North Carolina RALEIGH, North Carolina – Organic sweet potatoes are in high demand in North Carolina, but growers face two major hurdles: weeds and wireworms. North Carolina State University researchers think cover crops might be a solution, and that would make third generation farmer Kelvin Bass a happy man. “I’m tremendously […]
Free Fact Sheets Identify Broad Benefits of Cover Crops
Along with cutting costs and increasing crop productivity, cover crops provide various ecosystem services that benefit the environment both on and off the farm. For instance, adding cover crops to a rotation can significantly increase the portion of the year when living roots are present for soil organisms to feed on, which can have a […]
Cover Crop Economics Report Now Available in Print
Cover Crops Offer Options in Wet Soil As more farmers across the nation begin to incorporate covers into their rotations, they find that this valuable conservation practice pays in more ways than one. Many farmers in states suffering from oversaturated fields that prevented or delayed planting are considering cover crops. To help farmers evaluate the […]
When Do Cover Crops Pay? New USDA-SARE Report Addresses the Question
Farmers around the country are planting cover crops on millions of acres to protect and improve the soil, and the more that farmers use cover crops, the more they value this conservation practice. Cover Crop Economics, a new report published by USDA-SARE looks at the economics of cover crops to help farmers answer that big […]
Podcast Series Finale: Why On-Farm Research Matters
The final episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future podcast series features Michigan State University Extension educator Dean Baas, who serves as the SARE co-coordinator for his state. Baas speaks with Alan Sundermeier, a fellow Extension educator with The Ohio State University and a former SARE co-coordinator in Ohio, about the importance of farmer participation in on-farm […]
Our Farms, Our Future Podcast: Aquaponics
The latest episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future podcast series features JP Knobloch, co-owner of Straw Hat Aquaponics in Ferguson, Missouri. Knobloch speaks with his fellow co-owner Tim Hydar about growing food indoors while saving water and minimizing waste. Listen to or download the episode now. Aquaponics allows Straw Hat to raise high-quality, pesticide-free produce within […]
New Release: Sustainable Production and Use of On-Farm Energy
Missouri fruit grower Dan West hated seeing so much wasted fruit littering his orchard floor, and he worried about how the supply and price of fossil fuel affected his profitability. Seemingly unrelated problems, West found one solution to both. He began fermenting the waste fruit into wine and converting some of that wine into ethanol […]
Our Farms, Our Future Podcast: Building Resilience
The latest episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future podcast series features Laura Lengnick, a soil scientist and founder of Cultivating Resilience, LLC, a consulting firm that offers ecosystem-based climate risk management and planning services. Lengnick speaks with Donn Teske, a fifth-generation farmer in northeastern Kansas who is currently transitioning from cropping to cattle grazing on his […]
Our Farms, Our Future Podcast: Protecting our Pollinators
The latest episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future podcast series features Eric Lee-Mader, co-director of the Xerces Society pollinator program speaking with Rachel Coventry, beekeeper at Curtis Orchard and Pumpkin Patch in Illinois, about the relationships between crops and pollinator conservation in agriculture. Listen to or download the episode now. “We’ve seen this ongoing trend of both hard years […]
SARE Funding in Your State
Since 1988, the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has been a go-to USDA grant and outreach program for farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators who want to develop innovations that improve farm profitability, protect water and land, and revitalize communities. SARE has awarded nearly $273 million to more than 6,800 projects. Learn more about […]
Our Farms, Our Future Podcast: Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide
The latest episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future podcast features Becca Jablonski, assistant professor and food systems extension economist at Colorado State University, speaking with Charlie Jackson, the executive director of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) in North Carolina, about diverse market channels and the impacts of interactions between farmers and consumers within […]
Our Farms, Our Future Podcast: Finding a Catalyst for Change in Agriculture
Catapulting the sustainable agriculture movement into the mainstream takes more than telling corporations, communities and producers that being sustainable is the right thing to do. It requires demonstrating how sustainable practices can be scaled to improve the resilience and profitability of agriculture as a whole. On the latest episode of SARE’s Our Farms, Our Future […]
New Video: Improving the Management of Rangeland Ecosystems
From invasive species to the effects of climate change, ranchers in California, like many parts of the West, face a raft of environmental challenges as they strive to remain both profitable and good stewards of their land and water. "It’s incredibly important that scientists and ranchers and policymakers work together, because the problems that we […]
New Video: Building a Local Food Movement
When Congress ended its tobacco support programs in 2000, thousands of tobacco growers in western North Carolina who depended on them were left without a viable way to make a living. “There wasn’t a real future for the farms in our region if we didn’t come up with something new,” says Charlie Jackson, the executive […]
New Video: Bringing Independent Farmers into the Marketplace
Access to profitable retail and wholesale markets is a challenge for small- to mid-scale family farmers. “The days of showing up with your cantaloupes in the back of the pickup are no longer a way to make a living,” says Diana Endicott of Kansas City, Mo. “So you have to be willing to make a […]
New Video: Improving Soil Through Cover Crops
Like many farmers, Jeff Frey sees the soil as his livelihood, so he does what he can to protect and improve this vital resource beneath his feet. "I remember one afternoon we had a thunderstorm that washed mud out into the road and I could actually see some of my freshly planted soybeans in with […]