Bruce Sherrick and Juo-Han Tsay - Using US land in Farms as the reference, foreign ownership interests amount to 0.67% of the total, and the remaining 99.33% is US owned. Forestland accounts for…

Cover crop composition, not diversity, was the strongest driver of changes to, and legacy effects on, soil microbial communities, agroecosystem multifunctionality and wheat yield. Our results highlig...

My work advanced social-justice causes I believed in. There was just one problem.

From reforming subsidies to treating ag policy as public health policy, here is roadmap for a regenerative, soil-health revolution.

Romanticized “pop ecology” oversimplifies nature and leads to costly mistakes in real-world crop management.

Andrew McGuire examines the limited evidence behind claims that high leaf-sap Brix protects crops from insect pests.

Romanticized “pop ecology” oversimplifies nature and leads to costly mistakes in real-world crop management.

Plant tropisms enable roots to navigate complex soils by responding to directional environmental cues. Biological decay, although central to nutrient cycling, also creates microbially active and poten...

Henbit is a short-season plant that grows through the winter. It seeds itself in the spring with seeds that stay dormant through the summer and germinate in the fall. Winter growth makes henbit a goo...

Sports fields are among the most intensively managed soils, raising concerns about their soil health. The primary objective of this study was to compare soil health in sports field soils with other l...

Organic and conventional systems can build soil when their practices support the dominant drivers of organic matter.

Organic and conventional systems can build soil when their practices support the dominant drivers of organic matter.

Extension professionals can apply for a week-long course on climate adaptation planning for specialty crop systems.

Biochar: A promising tool for soil health and nutrient efficiency in sustainable agriculture

Podcast Episode · Plain English with Derek Thompson · May 16, 2025 · 1h 9m

Healthy soil is the foundation of a thriving garden. Soil is not simply “dirt.” It supplies plants with important nutrients, and is home to billions of organisms that feed plants and fight pests.

Ecological biodiversity results seldom apply to agriculture due to fundamental differences in systems and goals.

Research shows why most soil inoculants struggle to establish in field soils and rarely deliver consistent crop benefits.

Although cover crops can potentially improve on-farm soil and water management to reduce erosion, their ability to bind soil and whether multi-species…

Soil contains a vast diversity of microorganisms that can directly or indirectly modulate soil processes and terrestrial ecosystems. In this Review, Fierer summarizes the challenges in characterizing ...

Our results confirm that real-world difficulties in implementing land sparing will have significant impacts on biodiversity. They also underscore the need for strategies which explicitly link yield i...

Romanticized “pop ecology” oversimplifies nature and leads to costly mistakes in real-world crop management.

Romanticized “pop ecology” oversimplifies nature and leads to costly mistakes in real-world crop management.

Meeting future food demand without expanding farmland is a key challenge, and cover crops can help. This publication summarizes research comparing diverse vs. single-species cover crop systems to supp...

Decisions from Supreme Court, EPA, and State Legislatures Expected in 2026