Despite the ongoing threat of bird flu, many homesteaders consider poultry a great place to start when raising your own livestock. There’s many things to love – poultry require less space than most other livestock, they can produce both eggs and meat, and they’re often allowed in residences where larger animals like cows or pigs couldn’t be kept. Even so, starting a journey in keeping poultry can be overwhelming – there’s a lot to learn, and some breeds have easier requirements than others. Here’s what you need to know if you’re looking to take flight into the world of poultry for the first time. 

Chickens

Chickens are likely the bird that first comes to mind when you consider domestic poultry. Often hardy and easy to care for, many chicken breeds make a perfect ‘beginner’ bird whether you’re interested in raising birds for meat, eggs or both. 

Chickens don’t have excessively large space requirements, making a small to medium-sized flock (think five to fifteen birds) perfect for beginners. Ideally, for the health and mental stimulation of the birds, outdoor runs should be provided; while chickens may not come to mind when you think of animal intelligence, multiple studies have shown that these birds do benefit from the ability to perform natural behaviors outdoors. “What you put into your animals – from clean stalls, fresh grown pastures, to clean food and attention makes the flavor better,” says Kate Osgood, who runs Birch Rise Farm, in New Hampshire, raising chickens and turkeys. 

For those who are new to keeping poultry, you may benefit from purchasing adult birds to start out your flock as raising chicks can make things more complicated. “Chicks may be very cheap to purchase, however they need more attention than sheep, cows or pigs. They are fragile and more susceptible to predators, says Osgood.” 

While there are hundreds of breeds of chickens, including rare and heritage breeds composed of only a few hundred individual birds, we’ve put together three hardy, easy to keep breeds perfect for any newcomer to chickens. 

RHODE ISLAND REDS

The Rhode Island Red is a handsome, easily recognizable chicken, with overall deep red-brown coloring and bright red combs. Originating from Rhode Island & Massachussetts in the 1840s, this breed has stuck around for so long for good reason (they’re also Rhode Island’s state bird!). This dual-purpose breed can be raised for both meat and eggs, with hens  laying up to 300 eggs in a year. This hardy breed has a lifespan of  five to eight years, so with proper care, your RIRs will be around for the long haul. This breed is known to thrive even in cold environments other chickens don’t fare well in, making them a good choice for farmers who face cold winters.

ORPINGTONS

The Orpington is a beloved breed originating from nineteenth-century Britain; they’re most commonly seen as the Buff Orpington, but they’re also found in blue, black, and white. While their egg production is lesser than Rhode Island Reds – about 160 per hen per year – their calm temperament makes them great for beginner owners, and reduces the chances of infighting in the flock. 

AUSTRALORPS

Australorps are beautiful sleek black birds with pinkish-red combs, and they’re treasured by many chicken enthusiasts. (Outside of the U.S., they’re available in other colors, too.) Most Australorp hens lay over 250 eggs a year, making them an excellent choice as a dual-purpose breed. They are popular as a 4H breed due to their notoriously sweet, docile temperament; even roosters are typically agreeable. Due to their black color, it’s easy for them to overheat in summertime, so be sure birds spending time outdoors have ample shade. 

Turkeys

Beloved as a Thanksgiving meal, the turkey is a somewhat more challenging bird to keep than the more common backyard chicken. Turkeys have higher space requirements than smaller poultry; generally,  six to 10 feet per bird is recommended, and it’s always better to aim for more space rather than meeting the minimum. 

Although some farmers have success with mixed flocks, it’s important to note that generally, turkeys and chickens are best kept seperately. Turkeys are easily susceptible to a potentially fatal disease – histomoniasis, also known as ‘blackhead’, which chickens can carry without showing symptoms. Additionally, male turkeys are often aggressive towards smaller birds, making mixed flocks of chickens and turkeys ideal only for experienced poultry keepers. There are many beautiful breeds to choose from,  but we picked out the best for beginners. 

BOURBON REDS

The Bourbon Red is an iconic heritage breed known for their beautiful coloration; overall reddish-brown coloration complimented with white flight and  tail feathers. They’re known for heavy breasts and flavorful, rich meat. The standard weights for Bourbon Reds are 23 pounds for young toms, and 14 pounds for young hens. They have the ability to mate naturally, which some newer breeds do not; this can make producing future generations for your farm that much easier. While toms are often aggressive with each other, the birds are typically sociable and docile with humans. These birds are also active foragers, and thrive with ample outdoor space to explore. 

BROAD-BREASTED WHITES

The Broad-Breasted White is the most popular commercial breed in the world; extensive selective breeding for their characteristic large breasts has rendered many of them unable to breed without artificial insemination, which can present a challenge for some farmers. This breed develops to adult size very quickly, which some argue can lead to less pleasing flavor; nonetheless, they remain a popular and easy to raise breed. These birds often mature to more than 40 pounds, making them a great choice to market for large Thanksgiving dinners. Sadly, even with proper care, these birds often have short lives due to health issues associated with obesity; however, as they’re used for meat production, they are typically slaughtered prior to any health issues becoming bothersome. 

ROYAL PALMS

The Royal Palm is a gorgeous turkey breed, even if you don’t find turkeys to be particularly pleasing to look at; their stark white coloration contrasting with the black edging on their feathers makes for an eye-catching bird. While they’re slow-growing in comparison to breeds like the Broad-Breasted White, their hardiness, foraging ability, and good temperaments make them a great choice for small-scale farms. Royal Palms’ standard weights are 16 pounds for young toms, and 10 pounds for young hens. They’re excellent as an exhibition bird in addition to being raised for meat. 

Ducks

As you might expect, keeping ducks (or any waterfowl) is often more complex than keeping other poultry. Although ducks only fundamentally need enough water to drink from and wash their faces in, it’s no surprise that ducks are happiest and healthiest when they have adequate water – a pond, or even a pool – to swim and splash in. Each duck needs about four feet of space inside their coop or enclosure; ideally, they should have 10 to20 feet of outdoor space to explore (to protect birds from predators, any poultry should be in securely fenced outdoor areas or supervised when outdoors). 

Ducks are often friendly and charming, and can be used for meat production, egg production, or both. They’re an especially great choice if you plan to open your farm to visitors – you may receive additional profits from guests who wish to feed them! Some are content with keeping domesticated versions of Mallards, while some prefer unique-looking breeds like Indian Runners, who stand upright, or Cresteds, who have an eye-catching ‘puff’ adorning their head. While there’s many good ducks to choose from, the three breeds we’ve selected are likely to give you the easiest start with raising ducks on your own.

MUSCOVY

Despite their goofy looks, due to the large caruncles above their bills, Muscovy ducks are treasured by many as a hardy – and very unique – duck. Some raise them as dual-purpose birds for meat and eggs, but they’re also wonderful at pest control, and they’ll chase off intruders much like Canada geese in any public space. They love to free-range and forage, and this ‘wild’ diet will improve the flavor of their large eggs. They’re defensive of their homestead, but typically loving and easygoing with human caretakers they’re familiar with. These ducks typically live seven to eight  years with proper care, although they have been known to live for a decade or more. 

PEKIN

The Pekin duck is typically raised for meat, but you’ve likely seen this iconic breed – all-white with an orange bill and legs – in petting zoos or at public parks. They’re also the most popular commercial duck breed in America. Their easygoing temperaments make them great for those new to raising ducks, and they’re also a popular choice for 4H or young poultry enthusiasts. They’re especially happy with a decently sized pond to spend time wading in. They typically live for  eight to12 years, making them long-lived in comparison to many other popular breeds. They grow fast and are overall hardy, but are prone to obesity, so be sure to watch what they eat and encourage foraging for natural food sources. 

KHAKI CAMPBELL

The Khaki Campbell, also known as the Campbell, is a British breed of domestic duck named for their distinct khaki-colored plumage. They’re lightweight birds that weigh about five pounds at maturity. That’s no problem – this breed is typically raised for egg production, not meat. Khaki Campbell hens are prolific layers, averaging anywhere from 250 to 340 eggs per year.  They’re energetic, curious birds who love to forage and spend time in the water, so any prospective owners should ensure they have adequate outdoor space & activities to keep these ducks stimulated. They’re typically hardy, adaptable birds that can deal with hot or cold temperatures as long as they’re provided with good care and plenty of shelter. 

Quail

Quail may not be the first bird that comes to mind when you consider raising poultry – but they can be an excellent choice for beginners without much space. Some folks even successfully keep quails wholly indoors, and while you might need to make a lot of lifestyle changes to have that work for your household, these small, quirky birds can make keeping poultry a breeze if you have a small space to work with. Quail need a minimum of one square foot per bird, but many recommend  closer to three feet per bird for your flock’s maximum health and happiness. 

Although quail eggs are tiny, they’re beloved by some and are used as specialty ingredients in some Asian dishes. Zack Greene, co-owner of Myshire Farms in Ohio, has been raising quail full-time since 2016, and he recommends the Coturnix above all else. “We did so many extra things in the beginning, and it turns out it really is that simple,” he said of raising quail. “They just need an enclosure that is predator proof, food, water, and shelter to get out of the elements, and then collect eggs. That’s simple.” 

 These are three quail species that shouldn’t give beginners too much trouble.

BUTTON 

The tiny Button quail is so fragile that one must take caution when handling them, particularly chicks. While this might sound daunting, with caution and proper care, these birds are actually quite hardy. Even when handled from chickhood, these birds are typically cautious and flighty, making them a good choice if you’d prefer a “look but don’t touch” style to managing your flock. Sadly, even with proper care, they have fairly short lifespans; in captivity, they live between three to six years. While it’s possible to sell them for meat, their small size means that most farmers prefer to sell their eggs, which are a delicacy despite being much smaller than a typical chicken egg. 

BOBWHITE

The Bobwhite, also known as the Northern Bobwhite, is actually native to the U.S.; their popularity as a gamebird is part of what drove demand for the species in captivity, for use in releases for hunting. While they’re still most commonly raised for release onto hunting preserves, increasing numbers of quail enthusiasts are raising these intriguing little birds for their meat and eggs. It’s important to note that, due to their history of being raised as gamebirds, these birds are typically aggressive with others of their species, and avoid human touch.

COTURNIX

There’s a good reason that the adorable but hardy Coturnix quail, also known as the Japanese quail,  is popular with many. “Quail are a great way to start a self-sufficient journey,” says Greene, who solely raises Coturnix quail. “We  specialize in Coturnix, as they are bred for meat and egg production, and are domesticated and not flighty. Most other quail are seasonal layers, but Coturnix lay year round.” These dual-purpose birds are often kept as pets, as they’re more sociable and tolerant of humans than most other common quail, although they’re still jumpier and less tolerant of handling than chickens. Coturnix are a good choice for small-scale farmers looking for a punchy, unique bird who won’t take up the whole yard. 

No matter what poultry you choose, remember that baby steps may make your journey easier. Try starting with a limited flock size as opposed to the maximum amount of birds you can house on your property. If you choose a more complicated breed of poultry, that’s not necessarily setting yourself up for failure–just be sure you’ve figured out shelter, food, and care for your birds so you’re ready for a smooth ride.

The post How to Choose the Right Backyard Bird appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“It’s a premium product,” says executive chef and partner Daniel Garwood. “The cow has gone through its whole life. There’s a lot of natural marbling. It has an interesting flavor and texture.”

Since opening the restaurant in October of 2024, Garwood, who hails from Australia and spent time cooking in Sweden, has served ribeye, strip loin, tenderloin, brisket, and even mince pie, all from dairy cow beef.

In the U.S., dairy cows are almost exclusively raised for dairy production. The exception is male calves, sold to the beef industry and raised for veal or beef. Once a dairy cow’s milk productivity declines, the cows are slaughtered with their meat, which is often considered of a lower quality and makes its way into dog and cat food and fast food burgers. In other parts of the world, though, such as in Sweden, where Garwood worked, meat from dairy herds is prized. 

Now, a growing number of U.S. restaurants, including ACRU, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and Gwen Restaurant in Los Angeles, have been exploring whether dairy cow meat will appeal to consumers interested in sustainability.  

“Meat from grass fed dairy cows is considered to have a lower carbon footprint than meat from traditional beef herds in part because its footprint is spread across the years of protein rich, delicious milk the animals produce in their lifetime,”  says Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

There’s an idea that beef from a dairy herd is a more sustainable option, because you are getting more food for the resources used. Instead of simply just getting milk or beef from the land, water, feed, put into the cow you’re getting both. 

Sustainability was a big draw for The Oberon Group, which owns restaurants and food markets in the Catskills and New York City. They introduced dairy beef in 2017, and while customers supported the sustainability efforts, there were concerns around texture.

“The customer pushback on the toughness was significant,” says Henry Rich, managing partner.

As dairy cows are older when they are slaughtered compared to beef cattle, which usually are culled at six to seven months for veal, or two years for beef, the meat is generally considered tougher.

“They generally don’t have a lot of intramuscular fat or marbling that gives beef the flavoring that is associated with it. And all of those things usually reduce consumer acceptance. I would guess restaurants are using some pretty unique cooking methods in order to overcome that,” says Tara Felix, an associate professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Oberon Group is focused on sustainable, environmental restaurants with a goal of carbon-neutrality and zero-waste. As he explains it, they started serving dairy beef in a meat-centric restaurant, Metta, because, at the time, they believed that because the carbon emissions of the cow were already caused by dairy, using the cows for meat would have a lower carbon footprint that cows that were just used for meat. The calculation soon felt a bit off to Rich.

“The claim that they had lower overall carbon footprints is because you’re ignoring the first however many years of life because they’d be here anywhere. That accounting started to feel a little fuzzy for me,” Rich says.

There is research that seems to agree that dairy beef has a lower carbon footprint than conventional beef. An analysis from Our World in Data, found that per 100 grams of protein beef from a beef herd had 49.89 grams of greenhouse gasses, whereas beef from a dairy herd was 16.87 grams.

“The challenge is that sustainability means something different to everyone. Is it reduced methane emissions? Is it reduced feed inputs? Is it reduced time on feed?” says Felix who added that it’s a question a number of people are currently researching in regards to the offspring from dairy farms which do already often make their way into beef herd programs.

Between the customer response and the lack of clarity over sustainability, The Oberon Group ended up phasing out the dairy beef program after about two years.

However, the company started and stopped its dairy beef program before the coronavirus pandemic upended life as we knew it. Chefs life Garwood and Barber that have started their dairy beef programs within the last year or so have done so at a time when there is perhaps more awareness of the interconnectedness of food systems, and climate-related disasters such as the wildfires in Maui or more recently in L.A., have pushed more people to think about the impacts of global warming. Garwood and Barber have so far received vastly different responses to their program. 

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Grass-fed beef and meat from dairy cows has the reputation of being tough, but some of our guests have told us it’s the best steak they’ve ever had,” says Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Blue Hill started using dairy beef in 2023, but Barber credits the cows on his family’s dairy in the Berkshires for making him want to experiment with dairy beef.

“Blue Hill Farm, my family’s dairy farm in the Berkshires, had an older dairy cow ready for culling at least once or twice a year. I bet it was my proximity to these exceptional ladies—spending years, in some cases seven or eight or more years, getting to know them well—that made their inevitable fate of becoming dog food feel disrespectful,” says Barber.

Barber and Garwood haven’t yet faced any significant negative customer response. At Blue Hill at Stone Barns, dairy cows forage on grass and hay before being slaughtered.

“The meat from grass-fed dairy cows has this incredible, idiosyncratic flavor,” says Barber. “But more than that, the idea is to showcase how delicious this often-overlooked meat can be and create a market for it.”

U.S. dairy farmers typically get only about 60 cents per pound for meat from retired dairy cows as dog food and fast food hamburgers. If they could get closer to $6 a pound or more for their animals, Barber says it could help boost revenue for dairy farmers.

Felix agrees that it could be economically appealing for dairy farmers but believes that its success would depend on the size of the dairy farm and whether or not the restaurant could take all of the animals the dairy produces.

“There are 86 million head of cattle in the United States, and each year we kill 26 to 28 million. If we’re talking about even eight or 10 restaurants using two to three cows a week, this is a very, very small market,” Felix says. “Not to discount it, because it would be great if a farmer could develop a relationship like that, but it’s probably never going to be our primary marketplace.”

That isn’t a deterrent for Garwood. Initially, he had trouble sourcing the dairy beef. “We had to buy the entire cow,” says Garwood, who is sourcing from Ends Meat in Brooklyn, which gets dairy cows from farms in upstate New York, adding that he’s had other restaurants express interest in getting primal cuts but not being able to handle the entire cow.

“We really want to pursue it,” Garwood says. “We’ll focus on whole dairy cow dinners in the coming months.”

The post Why Are Restaurants Selling Beef From Dairy Cows? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The situation was worse than she realized: Prairie dogs are among the most maligned and persecuted animal species in the Western U.S. So maligned, in fact, that a 2020 survey in northern Montana found that well over half the area’s landowners believed prairie dogs should not live on public land.

To make matters even grimmer, this particular prairie dog had fleas. And those fleas could have been carrying the bacteria that causes plague — the Black Death. “It’s not great,” commented researcher Jesse Boulerice as he adjusted his gentle grip around her midsection.

The rodent responded by biting into Boulerice’s leather glove, hanging on with her two front teeth while researchers swiped a black streak of Clairol’s Nice’n Easy hair dye down her back.

Prairie dogs are among the most maligned and persecuted animal species in the Western U.S.

Though black-tailed prairie dogs have a long-standing reputation as pests, their ingenious tunnel systems and industrious prairie pruning make them one of the West’s primary ecosystem engineers. Some researchers call them the “chicken nuggets of the prairie”; if a prairie species eats meat, it almost certainly eats prairie dogs. Without prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets would never survive outside zoos and breeding facilities, and we would have far fewer mountain plovers, burrowing owls, swift foxes, and ferruginous hawks.

Before 1800, an estimated 5 billion prairie dogs lived from Canada to Mexico, covering the West with underground apartment complexes that shifted over the centuries like sand dunes. The Lakota, Dakota and other Indigenous peoples of the prairie shaped and depended on the ecosystems prairie dogs created. Some relied on prairie dogs for nourishment during thin times, or used them as a ceremonial food.

But European settlers were remarkably effective at shooting and poisoning prairie dogs and plowing up their burrows. Today, the five prairie dog species occupy just 2% of their historic range, and some occupy even less. 

Prairie dogs still survive in many of their historic territories: Black-tailed prairie dogs, known for their especially large, dense colonies, persist in isolated pockets of the prairie east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico. White-tailed prairie dogs live in parts of Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Gunnison’s prairie dogs eke out an existence in southern Colorado, and Utah prairie dogs live in, well, Utah. Mexican prairie dogs still hang on in small slices of northern Mexico. But many of these populations are too small to serve their ecosystems as they once did.

Within this familiar story of colonization and species decline, however, are more hopeful stories of creativity and adaptation: Researchers are using pedometer-like devices to map prairie dogs’ underground tunnels, remote-controlled badgers to understand prairie dog alarm calls and Kitchen-Aid mixers to craft solutions to deadly disease. After decades of restoration work by tribal wildlife managers, prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, swift foxes and bison are once again roaming the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana, one of the few places in the world where all four species coexist. Some private landowners, meanwhile, are finding ways to tolerate the rodents. Together, these researchers, managers and landowners are striving to conserve the West’s remaining prairie dogs and the prairie that depends on them.

ONCE THE COLLARED prairie dog was returned to her Tru Catch wire cage to await release, Boulerice reached into the next trap in line.

Boulerice is part of a team from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute that is collaring and tracking prairie dogs at American Prairie — formerly the American Prairie Reserve — in central Montana. Each collar measures the animal’s acceleration and angle; by triangulating with locations picked up by sensors posted on poles throughout the colony, researchers can determine where and how far the prairie dogs travel both above and below ground. The Clairol dye patterns provide one more way to tell who’s who in a colony of look-alikes.

Though other researchers have studied prairie dogs’ aboveground lives, no one really knows what they do underground. Satellite imagery can be used to track Arctic terns over Alaska or grizzly bears deep in the wilderness, but it can’t penetrate the Earth. Decades ago, researchers laboriously excavated a white-tailed prairie dog burrow in southern Montana, revealing features like “sleeping quarters,” hibernacula, and a “maternity area” — but such work is invasive and yields little data on the animals’ movements.

At American Prairie in September, the Smithsonian team was joined by researchers from Swansea University in Wales who had developed the tracking collars Boulerice used. The collars were originally designed to study penguins underwater, an environment similarly resistant to conventional satellite tracking.

Prairie dogs aren’t the only occupants of prairie dog burrows. The mazes of tunnels and rooms also provide shelter for black-footed ferrets, swift foxes and untold numbers of insects. Burrowing owls shimmy their puffball bodies into the tunnels, where they raise their chicks on the plentiful bugs. Prairie rattlesnakes, tiger salamanders, horned lizards and badgers use them, too. And as climate extremes become more common aboveground, these burrows may become even more important.

“By creating tunnels, they’re also creating a thermal refuge,” said Hila Shamon, the director of the Smithsonian’s Great Plains Science Program and principal investigator of the colony-mapping project. “The prairie can be so hot in the summer or brutally, brutally cold in the winter. You don’t have any shade or place to hide from the cold … and conditions in the tunnel systems are consistent.”

Prairie dogs spend much of the day and all night in their burrows, living in family coteries composed of one male, three or four females and the year’s young. Their tunnel systems, which can extend across an area larger than  a football field, are like bustling apartment complexes where every family has its separate unit. Residents periodically pop out of doors to grab food, gossip about the neighbors and scan for danger.

“In the prairie,” Shamon said, “there’s a whole world that’s happening beneath the ground that we can’t see. But it exists, and it’s very deep, and it’s important.”

Aboveground, the effect of prairie dogs on the landscape is more obvious. “Prairie dogs create an entirely novel habitat type,” said Andy Boyce, a Smithsonian research ecologist. “They graze intensely. They increase the forbs and flowering plants, and they clip woody vegetation. They will eat and nibble on a new woody plant until it tips over and dies.”

“In the prairie, there’s a whole world that’s happening beneath the ground that we can’t see, but it exists, and it’s very deep, and it’s important.”

The landscape created by prairie dogs may look barren, but the reality is more nuanced. A healthy prairie isn’t an uninterrupted sea of grass; it’s  made up of grass and shrubs, wetlands and wildflowers and even large patches of bare dirt that allow prairie dogs — and other species — to spot approaching predators.

Bison like to wallow in the dirt exposed by prairie dogs, and graze on the nutritious grass and plants that resprout after a prairie dog pruning. Mountain plovers and thick-billed longspurs frequently nest on the grazed surface of prairie dog towns. (Both birds have declined along with prairie dogs; the mountain plover has been proposed for protection under the Endangered Species Act.)

Prairie dog colonies may also provide other species with a home-alarm system. “You have 1,000 little pairs of eyeballs constantly searching for predators all around you and then vocalizing loudly when they see them,” Boyce said. To test this hypothesis, Boyce’s Ph.D. student Andrew Dreelin attached a taxidermied badger to a remote-controlled car and drove it near long-billed curlew nests in Montana prairie dog colonies. He then measured how nesting curlews responded to the badger with and without a warning from the prairie dogs.

Results are pending, said Dreelin, but he’s certain that “we’ve only just started to scratch the surface on the multifaceted ways that prairie dogs could shape the lives of birds on the prairie.”

IN EARLY OCTOBER, about 500 miles south of American Prairie, Colten Salyer also donned thick leather gloves to protect himself from an angry mammal’s teeth. Then he opened a cat carrier filled with paper shavings and a member of a species once considered extinct.

The young black-footed ferret inside bared its long white canines. Bred at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in northern Colorado, she was one of 20 about to be reintroduced to southcentral Wyoming’s Shirley Basin.

The black-footed ferret is North America’s only native ferret and one of only three ferret species in the world. And if there’s one thing black-footed ferrets need, it’s prairie dogs. They eat them almost exclusively, and they use their tunnels to live, hunt and reproduce, slipping in and out of burrows as they move like water across the landscape.

In 1980, black-footed ferrets were declared extinct, most likely extinguished by disease, development and endless prairie dog poisoning campaigns. But in 1981, a northern Wyoming ranch dog proudly presented his owners with his most recent treasure: a dead ferret. A local taxidermist confirmed that it was, in fact, a black-footed ferret, a member of a tiny remnant population.

The newly discovered ferrets lived in the wild until 1985, when biologists discovered that disease had killed all but 18. At that point, they scooped up the remaining ferrets and took them to captive breeding facilities. Only seven successfully reproduced, but those seven now have more than 11,000 descendants. In 2020, researchers used DNA from a wild-caught ferret with no surviving offspring to produce the first cloned ferret. Since then, they have created two more cloned individuals, and this past November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that one had given birth to healthy kits.

Captive-bred ferrets have now been released across the West. But to survive long-term, they need prairie dog colonies. And prairie dogs aren’t popular with their human neighbors.

Because they eat the same grass cows do. And they make holes.

“I was running to rope a yearling once, and I stood up in the saddle and was about to open my hand — and all of a sudden the horse’s front end disappeared,” said Salyer, a ranch manager in Shirley Basin who volunteered to help with the releases. His horse had sunk a hoof into a prairie dog hole, a misstep that sent Salyer tumbling to the ground.

Both Salyer and his horse were fine, and he shrugged after telling the story.But most ranchers have, or have heard, similar stories, many of which end with a valued horse breaking a leg. There’s no way to know how frequently horses injure themselves in burrows, but the stories spread as fast as a prairie fire.

What’s certain is that prairie dogs eat grass. Quite a bit of grass: A single prairie dog can devour up to 2 pounds of green grass and non-woody plants every week, according to Montana State University. For ranchers who use that vegetation to feed their cows, prairie dogs look like competition. Researchers, however, say the effects of prairie dogs on livestock forage are mixed. Black-tailed prairie dogs’ propensity to clip and mow, for instance, results in plants with higher fat and protein and lower fiber. “Across years, enhanced forage quality may help to offset reductions in forage quantity for agricultural producers,” a study published in 2019 by Rangeland Ecology and Management reported.

This uncertainty has led to some bureaucratic contradictions. The Wyoming Department of Agriculture labels prairie dogs as pest species and offers training in properly using pesticides to kill them; at the same time, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department lists the black-tailed prairie dog as a species of greatest conservation need.

Until the 1990s, said Randy Matchett, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in central Montana, prairie dogs were so despised in places like Phillips County, Montana, that the Bureau of Land Management produced maps of their colonies designed for sport shooters. Attitudes haven’t changed much: In 2020, 27 years after an initial survey of attitudes toward black-tailed prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets in Montana, researchers found that feelings about them had barely budged.

Matchett said that when he tells his Montana neighbors that only 2% of prairie dogs remain, a common attitude is: “What the hell’s the holdup getting rid of that last 2%?”

Chamois Andersen, a Defenders of Wildlife senior field representative, has spent decades working with landowners in prairie dog-rich places, and she’s persuaded some to allow researchers to survey their land for black-footed ferrets in exchange for funds for noxious weed removal. She speculates that younger generations of ranchers are more open to prairie dog conservation and to partnerships with public agencies and wildlife groups.

Matchett is less optimistic. Even the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, which together manage one of the largest black-footed ferret colonies in the world in South Dakota’s Conata Basin, poison some prairie dogs on federal land to prevent the population from moving onto private property.

Not all prairie dogs are equally reviled. White-tailed prairie dogs like those in Shirley Basin live at lower densities and tend to clip plants farther up the stems, making them less obvious to the casual observer. Landowners, as a result, are often more tolerant of them than their black-tailed cousins, said Andrew Gygli, a small-carnivore biologist for Wyoming Game and Fish.

Bob Heward, whose family started ranching in Shirley Basin more than a century ago, understands that a disliked species can also be useful.

He invites recreational shooters to target prairie dogs on his land, but he won’t use poison to kill the rodents because he knows they provide food for other species. Prairie dogs are a “nuisance,” he said, but they’re also as inevitable as the wind: “We’ve learned to live with them. They’ve been here longer than I have.”

Randy Matchett said that when he tells his Montana neighbors that only 2% of prairie dogs remain, a common attitude is: “What the hell’s the holdup getting rid of that last 2%?”

THE MALE SWIFT FOX at the end of the trap line was chunky, at least by swift fox standards: Though he weighed only about 5 pounds, his belly was round beneath his fluffy fur. His black eyes carefully followed Smithsonian researcher Hila Shamon as she loaded him into the backseat of her four-door pickup, covering the trap with a blanket as she prepared to transport him from this ranch north of Laramie, Wyoming, to a new home on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in Montana.

Unlike black-footed ferrets, swift foxes can survive without prairie dogs, but when prairie dogs are scarce they suffer from the loss of food, Shamon said, and are deprived of the shelter they find in prairie dog burrows. So they, too, declined as prairie dogs were exterminated and prairie habitat was converted into cropland. By the early 1900s, they had disappeared from Canada, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

But swift foxes still live in parts of the West — and in some places, their populations are being restored. For the last five years, Shamon and her team have trapped swift foxes in Wyoming and Colorado and trucked them to Fort Belknap. This rectangle of grassland, buttes and prairie breaks near the Canadian border is home to the Nakoda (Assiniboine) and A’aninin (Gros Ventre), both Great Plains peoples. Today, it is one of the only places in the world where prairie dogs, swift foxes, black-footed ferrets and bison co-exist.

Montana State Sen. Mike Fox (Gros Ventre), D, who served as Fort Belknap’s director of Fish and Wildlife from 1991 to 2001, oversaw early efforts to restore buffalo, swift foxes and black-footed ferrets to the reservation. The goal was to “create a steady, healthy population of native animals that were driven to extinction because of the different uses of the land,” he said. “Like when they started poisoning the prairie dogs off in the ’30s and ’40s and wiped out the ferrets that were native here, and the same with the swift fox. We want to make as complete an ecosystem as we can, along with the buffalo.”

The tribes worked with the Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce black-footed ferrets, and, with researchers at the Smithsonian, World Wildlife Fund and other organizations, to bring back the swift fox. The collaborators spent two years planning the swift fox capture and translocation, Shamon said, considering factors like habitat quality, community attitudes and the overall risk to a re-established population.

Swift foxes had already been reintroduced in parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan and on the Blackfeet and Fort Peck reservations. The reintroduction at Fort Belknap continued the tribes’ restoration efforts and added a possible point of connectivity for other populations.

Tribal members living on and near the Fort Belknap Reservation have largely supported the reintroduction of native prairie species, especially after prairie dog numbers were diminished by an outbreak of disease in the late ’90s, Fox said. Now that the population is recovering and has started to clear larger areas of grass, however, some tribal members who raise cattle have begun expressing frustration to the tribal council.

“Wildlife and cattle will graze prairie dog colonies because of the new growth coming back throughout the year,” said Fox. “It makes it look even worse because it’s attractive to wildlife and domestic cattle, and they do their part. When it starts looking like a moonscape is when we get people noticing the most.”

He tells people that the little grass-eating rodents are necessary, and notes that the “moonscapes” aren’t as widespread as they may seem. But like non-Native ranchers across the West, some tribal members equate abundant prairie dogs with fewer cows. Fox doesn’t believe the council will allow widespread prairie dog poisoning on tribal lands — especially since the reservation now hosts black-footed ferrets — but he does worry that opposition could intensify.

Bronc Speak Thunder (Assiniboine), director of the Fort Belknap Buffalo Program, has also heard people complain about prairie dogs, though he added that “people complain about a lot of stuff.”

The tribes aren’t actively restoring prairie dogs, he said; they’re simply refraining from poisoning and shooting them. He sees that prairie dogs benefit tribal land by creating more habitat for ground-nesting birds and serving as food for swift foxes, coyotes, hawks and eagles. They also encourage the growth of nutritious grass for bison. “Like life, it’s a big circle, and that’s where it fits,” he said. “They’re part of the ecosystem that exists, and if you take something out, it throws everything off.”

WHEN I MET Randy Matchett, the Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, he sported a cowboy hat and graying horseshoe mustache and carried a handful of Smurf-blue flea-control pellets, each slightly smaller than a marble. The pellets, which Matchett produced in his workshop at the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Lewistown, Montana, are his latest attempt to protect prairie dogs from a fatal disease.

The pellets contain Fipronil, an insecticide used in treatments likeFrontline to keep fleas and ticks away from household pets, and are flavored with peanut butter and molasses to increase their chances of ending up in prairie dog bellies. Matchett dyes them blue because research shows prairie dogs are attracted to the color, and because the dye stains their feces, making it easy to estimate how many animals have consumed the pellets. Once ingested, Matchett hopes, his “FipBits” will kill the fleas that land on and bite prairie dogs, including the fleas carrying the bacteria that causes plague.

Yes, that plague. The bacte-ria Yersinia pestis causes bubonic plague, which became known as the Black Death after it killed at least 25 million Europeans during the 14th century.

In 1900, the disease arrived in North America via San Francisco, carried by rats stowed away on ships. During the following decades, the development of antibiotics controlled the disease in humans, but plague continued to spread among rodent species, affecting black-footed ferrets, rabbits and squirrels. First detected in prairie dogs in 1936, it devastated populations already hit hard by the conversion of the prairie to agriculture — and it remains a major threat to prairie dogs.

“Once colonies have plague, they can disappear in two weeks,” said Shamon. “There will be thousands of acres chirping with thousands or tens of thousands of animals and in two weeks, you will go map it, and they’re gone.”

A plague vaccine does exist, and is used to protect highly endangered species like black-footed ferrets. But it’s simply not possible to jab every prairie dog in the West. Matchett, who as a Fish and Wildlife biologist is responsible for conserving endangered species, got involved in plague prevention in the early 1990s, initially dusting prairie dog colonies for fleas. In 2013, he began testing oral vaccines in Montana colonies, working in parallel with researchers in seven other states. The first-generation vaccines were red, peanut-butter flavored cubes with a biomarker that tinted prairie dog whiskers pink. Matchett and his colleagues in Colorado also developed vaccine pellets that they mass-produced using a Lithuanian carp bait-making machine. Matchett helped craft a pellet shooter that could be bolted to the front of a four-wheeler.

Prairie dogs are “part of the ecosystem that exists, and if you take something out, it throws everything off.”

With the new vaccines primed to launch, Matchett felt hopeful. The World Wildlife Fund, which helped fund some of the work, felt hopeful, too. But in 2018, after years of trials with thousands of prairie dogs, he and other researchers concluded that even when a colony was given oral vaccinations, the number of prairie dogs that survived a plague outbreak was too small to support a black-footed ferret population. 

So Matchett pivoted. If he couldn’t inoculate prairie dogs against plague, maybe he could kill the fleas that carried the bacteria. What if he could persuade prairie dogs to eat Fipronil?

He made a new set of pellets with the same bait machine, this time using his wife’s grandmother’s Kitchen-Aid mixer to blend various types of flour, vital wheat gluten, peanut butter, molasses and other food-grade ingredients with a soupçon of flea killer. Early results have been promising: While adult fleas aren’t affected until they bite a prairie dog that’s ingested a pellet, not every flea needs to be killed; studies have shown that in general, fleas don’t trigger plague outbreaks until they reach a critical mass. And flea larvae appear to die when they crawl into or consume treated prairie dog poop, suggesting that the pellets could tamp down flea reproduction as well as kill the adult insects.

FipBits aren’t the only way to reduce the toll plague takes on prairie dogs, but Matchett believes they’re the most likely to work. In his office, perched on stacks of files, are the remnants of another of his many assaults on the problem: dozens of vials of alcohol, each containing bits of prairie dog ears. In 2007 and 2008, Matchett and his colleagues collected the snippets from prairie dogs that had survived plague outbreaks, hoping genetic analysis would explain their fortitude. The material has yet to be analyzed owing to a “combination of lack of funding, interest, time and capability,” Matchett said, but he hopes new funding will allow him and his collaborators to return to the project.

Despite the setbacks, Matchett believes researchers can find a way to control plague in prairie dogs. Human intolerance, as he sees it, is a more stubborn problem. Places like Fort Belknap and the Conata Basin of South Dakota — where prairie dogs are, at least for now, allowed to flourish — remain few and far between.

DRIVE SOUTH from Fort Belknap down Highway 191, head east on a straight gravel road, and you’ll find one more place where prairie dogs are left in peace.

American Prairie began in 2001 as an effort to protect and restore Montana’s grasslands. The nonprofit now manages more than 527,000 acres of private land and federal and state leases. Its ultimate goal is to connect 3.2 million acres of prairie, providing habitat for an array of species from bison to mountain plovers to black-footed ferrets. To the casual observer, American Prairie’s lands may already look like intact prairie, though ecologists like Daniel Kinka can’t help noticing the nonnative crested wheatgrass and the hundreds of miles of fencing.

“This is kind of like the Field of Dreams model: If you build it, they will come,” said Kinka, American Prairie’s director of rewilding. “A better habitat houses more wildlife, and the wildlife that are here are perfectly capable of restoring themselves.”

American Prairie prohibits the poisoning and shooting of prairie dogs on its land, and it regularly hosts research projects such as the Smithsonian’s burrow mapping — which may help explain how plague spreads within colonies — and Matchett’s tests of plague-mitigation tools. Prairie dogs, said Kinka, are the “unsung heroes of a prairie ecosystem,” important to all the other species American Prairie is trying to foster. And as researchers have found, the woody plants that prairie dogs chew down to clear their line of sight tend to be replaced by nutritious grasses and wildflowers, suggesting that even cattle may benefit from their presence.

The possibility that prairie dogs could be good for cattle, or at least not as bad as generally believed, is met with skepticism by American Prairie’s neighbors, many of whom see the nonprofit as a threat to ranching. Signs posted along highways in Phillips County, Montana, read “Save the American Cowboy. Stop American Prairie Reserve.” For now, Kinka isn’t trying to convince anyone to like or even appreciate prairie dogs, aiming instead for tolerance.

The black-tailed prairie dog complex studied by the Smithsonian team at American Prairie is a noisy place, filled with the barks and trills of hundreds of creatures. As I stood beside researcher Jesse Boulerice, listening, it was easy to imagine that the rodents were doing just fine. But they’re not. Will they ever be allowed to exist in numbers like this throughout their historic range?

Boulerice surveyed the surface of the colony, which was covered with dried plant nubs and bare mounds of dirt, and said he wasn’t sure.

Then he released a collared prairie dog who wagged her chubby butt in the air as she scurried into a nearby hole. She promptly popped back up, chirping out a message we’ll never understand. Perhaps she was warning her colony-mates to watch out for those marshmallows and carrots; they hide a nasty trap.

Or maybe she was scolding us — telling us exactly what she thought of our species before she disappeared into her burrow, leaving us to decide the future of hers.

This story is part of High Country News’ Conservation Beyond Boundaries project, which is supported by the BAND Foundation.

This article first appeared on High Country News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.

The post Why the West Needs Prairie Dogs appeared first on Modern Farmer.

That trail of tiny footprints, indiscernible to the naked eye, is remarkably effective at protecting the tree from pathogens and pests. That makes ants, in the eyes of Ida Cecilie Jensen, a legion of unlikely warriors — one humans should consider enlisting in the fight to grow food in a warming world. “Ants are a Swiss Army knife,” said Jensen, a biologist who studies the symbiotic relationship between ants and agriculture at Aarhus University in Denmark. “Kind of like a multitool for farmers.”

With an estimated 20 quadrillion ants on Earth at any given time, the bugs are found just about everywhere on the planet. They are also among the species that humans, which they outnumber at least 2.5 million to one, have most in common with. Ants have extraordinary collective intelligence, their colonies weaving robust community networks and dividing labor. The social insects even wage war with one another and build complex agricultural systems.

Ants also have “so many of the same problems and challenges that we have,” Jensen said. “Luckily for us, they already found a lot of great solutions.”

One such challenge is how to grow food while confronting climate-wrought consequences — such as an influx of spreading plant pathogens caused by warming.

Plant diseases cost the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars every year, with between 20 to 40 percent of global crop production lost to crop diseases and pests. Climate change is ramping up outbreak risks by morphing how pathogens evolve, facilitating the emergence of new strains, and making crops more susceptible to infection. Most farmers and growers increasingly rely on chemical pesticides to combat these emerging issues, but the widespread use of such substances has created problems of its own. Synthetic pesticides can be harmful to humans and animals, and lose their efficacy as pathogens build up resistance to them. The production and use of synthetic pesticides also contribute to climate change, as some are derived from planet-warming fossil fuels.

Instead of chemicals, an army of ants may march right in. Though most people view the small insects as little more than a nuisance, colonies of them are being deployed in orchards across a handful of countries to stave off the spread of crippling infestation and disease.

In a body of recently published and forthcoming research, Jensen examined the antimicrobial effects of wood ants, a European field ant known for building dome-shaped nests in fields and open woodlands, and weaver ants, which live in ball-shaped nests within tropical tree canopies across Asia, Africa, and Australia. Her team looked at how the microbes influenced apple brown rot and apple scab in two orchards in Denmark — one commercial and one experimental — and found that wood ants effectively reduce apple scab, which can cause serious yield losses, by an average of 61 percent. The scientists also found that the number of disease-free apples more than doubled compared to when ants weren’t wielded as an alternative biological pesticide. For another experiment in Senegal, they collected weaver ants from mango orchards to investigate the bacterial communities associated with ants, discovering that they also leave microbial footprints that may inhibit fungal diseases such as mango anthracnose, which can lead to extensive yield losses.

Past studies have found that for crops from cocoa to citrus, ants could replace insecticides in a multitude of climates and locations, reducing incidences of pear scab in pear trees, coffee leaf rust in coffee shrubs, and leaf fungal attacks in oak seedlings. Weaver ant nests used as an alternative pesticide in mango, cashew, and citrus trees have all been shown to lower pest damage and produce yields on par with several chemical pesticide treatments. For more than a millennia, the species was embraced as a natural insecticide in countries like China but never quite made its way into the agricultural mainstream in North America or Europe. The method would eventually be replaced by the dawn of synthetic solutions. Still, despite that legacy, exactly how ants take on disease has remained a scientific mystery.

The answer, Jensen said, lies in how ants function. All species of the arthropod possess a body that is essentially hostile for bacteria because they produce formic acid, which they use to constantly disinfect themselves. Ants are also perpetually hungry little things that will feast on the spores of plant pathogens, among other things, and their secretion of formic acid and highly territorial nature tends to deter a medley of other insects that could be transmitting diseases or making lunch of some farmers’ crops. Ultimately, their greatest trick is what Jensen’s newest research reveals: Ants also inherently have antimicrobial bacteria and fungi on their bodies and feet, which can reduce plant diseases in afflicted crops, with these microorganisms deposited as the critters walk. When the bugs are cultivated in fruit orchards, they march all over trees, their feet coating the plants in microbial organisms that can curb emerging pathogens.

Understanding why they have this effect makes it easier to promote and implement native species of ants as biological agents in fields and farms, which Jensen advocates for. She’s not only researching how to do this as a doctoral candidate, but also founded AgroAnt in 2022, a company that leases colonies to cull plant pathogens and pests to farmers in Denmark — much like beekeepers lease hives. Her research team is now looking into boosting populations of existing ant colonies already living in orchards, rather than introducing new ones. Building rope bridges between trees to help ants better get around, and increasing the number of sugary extracts left in strategic locations to feed them, can create ant population booms, which Jensen sees as a simple and inexpensive way for farmers to ward off costly bouts of crop disease.

Others are not convinced this would be any more useful or cost-effective than existing biopesticides like canola oil and baking soda, or pest management chemicals derived from natural sources.

Kerik Cox, who researches plant pathology at Cornell University, said that many of the microbes derived from the ants in the study have already been studied, and optimized for formulation and efficacy in agricultural systems. “Many are highly effective and there are numerous commercial products available for farmers to use,” said Cox, adding that he doesn’t see “anything in this study that would be better than the existing biopesticide tools, which are registered by the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency].”

Jensen acknowledges there is always a risk when introducing any species — ants new to an area could push out other beneficial species, for example, or attract aphids, those small green plant-damaging insects that ants share a symbiotic relationship with. Still, she is adamant that as long as the species is native to the area and agricultural system they’re being introduced to and then properly managed, the possible benefits outweigh the pitfalls.

On a practical note, the money-saving argument of ants pitted against synthetic products also carries a big draw; particularly given that conventional pesticides, in addition to their organic, chemical-free counterparts, have become more expensive in recent years across Europe and the U.S. Those product prices tend to climb when extreme weather shocks disrupt production, a likelihood as climate change makes disasters more frequent and severe.

Conversely, Jensen said farmers can simply leave sugar-water solutions, cat food, or chicken bones, among any number of kitchen scraps, in fruit orchards where beneficial, pathogen-combating ants are typically already present — such as weaver ants in mango orchards. If the species already dwell there, this could increase their numbers and efficiency. The technique, however, should be approached with caution depending on location, to minimize the risk of attracting potentially harmful members of the ant family.

“I don’t believe in one solution that could fit everything, but I definitely think that ants and other biological control agents are going to be a huge part of the [climate] puzzle in the future,” she said.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/a-secret-weapon-in-agricultures-climate-fight-ants/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

The post A Secret Weapon in Agriculture’s Climate Fight: Ants appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“I’ve always had a deep attachment to veterinary medicine. My family has a cattle ranch, and I am sixth generation. I was raised around animals,” says Thompson. 

She is one of a dwindling number of veterinarians choosing to enter rural animal practice. Between three and four percent of new veterinary graduates pursue careers focusing on livestock or food systems. In 2022, more than 500 counties in the US were facing severe shortages of food animal veterinarians, some with no vet service at all.

Thompson’s hometown of Tonopah, Nevada is part of a 23,000-square-mile area she says the USDA has identified as a veterinary desert. The only time vets came to the Thompson ranch was for preventative care. 

In regions like these where agriculture is the backbone of the economy, the absence of veterinarians can spell disaster. Thompson remembers having to trailer their horses to a vet. “If the veterinarian 1.5 hours away couldn’t treat the issue [typically colic],” she says, “we were not in a position to seek advanced care [colic surgery] due to it being another four- to fivehour drive. Typically, it would end in euthanasia,” she says. 

Fewer vets on the ground means fewer eyes to catch early signs of disease in livestock. Early detection is critical in preventing disease outbreaks, such as the 2015 bird flu that killed 50 million turkeys and chickens in Midwest states. It also heightens the danger of zoonotic diseases, which can pass from animals to humans. There is a danger that as these shortages continue, preventative care—which includes deworming and livestock vaccinations—will not happen. The ripple effect of inadequate veterinary care in rural communities, according to a report commissioned by the Farm Journal Foundation, has the potential to affect an estimated 3.7 million livestock-related positions.

“We are worried about our capacity to identify as well as respond to diseases, whether that is endemic disease and/or foreign animal diseases,” says Dr. Rosslyn Biggs, DVM, and director of continuing education and beef cattle extension specialist at Oklahoma State University (OSU) College of Veterinary Medicine.

One of the driving forces behind rural vet shortages is that starting salaries are not always compatible with vets who work in urban centers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, veterinarians in rural areas earn between $61,470 and $73,540 a year—roughly half of what they could make in a city.

“Salaries in the rural, large, mixed or food animal space,” says Biggs, “have been historically lower than those in urban or other segments of veterinary medicine.” This difference makes it difficult for newly graduating vets. In 2023, for example, 83 percent of veterinarians graduated with an average student debt of $185,000.

The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) through the USDA Food and Agriculture Institute (NIFA) is designed to help more food animal and public health veterinarians relocate to those rural areas facing veterinary shortages. The program will pay off up to $75,000 of each veterinarian’s student loans if they practice in an area designated as being short of vets for a minimum of three years. Since the program’s inception in 2010, it has helped more than 795 veterinarians. 

Need, however, has outstripped VMLRP’s ability to respond. The bipartisan Rural Veterinary Workforce Act could change this. The legislation would end the federal taxation the USDA is currently required to pay on behalf of the award recipient. This could potentially free 39 percent of the allocated money for the VMLRP, creating significant funds for new recipients. This bill was introduced into Congress on June 23, 2023.

But will it be enough to stem the tide? More than just monetary considerations—the life of a rural vet isn’t easy. “It’s hard work. It is long hours,” says Biggs. 

When Thompson graduates, she will begin a contract with a veterinary clinic in Elko, Nevada.

“Part of my contract is that I get to do outreach to areas that don’t have veterinary care,” she says. Twice a month, she will travel long distances to remote communities and provide vet services. This can, for many vets, be isolating and another reason they are deterred from entering into rural practice. Thompson credits her upbringing with making her prepared for these challenges.

“I grew up learning how to navigate without resources, coming from that background has prepared me the most,” she says. 

According to the American Veterinary Medicine Association (AVMA), 45 percent of vets practicing in rural areas are more likely to leave if they come from an urban background. Those that choose to return to urban practice say lack of time off and family concerns played a factor in their decisions.

A shortage of vets in rural areas also means a lack of mentorship for graduating vets. In essence, no one guides young vets through the practicalities of rural veterinary life.

This is something Thompson herself identifies as important. “Eventually, I would like to set up in a rural area,” she says, “but I definitely need that mentorship coming out of school.”

At OSU, things are slightly better than at other veterinary colleges. In 2023, 25 percent of OSU grads entered large or mixed animal practice, while the national average historically fluctuates between 10 and 15 percent. It is something upon which the college is hoping to build. Currently developing a Center for Rural Veterinary Medicine, the goal, among other things, is to provide that much-needed early guidance. The current vision for the program includes a service component in underserved/rural regions as well as outreach programs to mentor youth to help them prepare for and develop an interest in food medicine veterinary practice. The Integrated Beef Cattle Program for Veterinarians has already proven to be invaluable as part of the larger vision for the center. “Twenty vet students with interest in beef cattle practice are paired alongside 20 veterinarians who have some experience in beef animal medicine,” says Biggs.

Another solution, according to Thompson, is to create more opportunities for youth to be exposed to livestock, and have ranchers, farmers and vets come to speak to school-age children. “When I was in school,” she says, “we had an agriculture day in which we’d go out with the local 4H club and they had animals and would teach us handling and proper care. We got to interact with the animals, particularly livestock, and got a little more comfortable with that.” 

Eighty percent of those interested in rural veterinary care have had a significant history of livestock exposure, says Thompson. 

Still, Biggs acknowledges that being a rural vet is not easy. For one, you are going to get dirty. “But,” she says, “being in rural communities and serving farmers and ranchers—there is no better work.”

The post Where Have All the Vets Gone? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Farming at any scale – whether it’s a countertop herb garden or an acre of land – can be intimidating. But if you’re ready to get started, Modern Farmer has you covered. In these guides, you’ll learn how to raise animals like pigs, chickens, and sheep. You’ll find out how to grow hemp and other profitable crops. You’ll discover how to start farming even if you don’t own land – and how to start a community garden so everyone in your neighborhood can participate. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to make your farm profitable, no matter the size.

The post 10 Essential Guides for the Farm Curious appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“It’s always been part of what we do,” he says.

In 2018, California voters passed Prop 12, one of the most notable animal welfare laws in recent history. One of the key components of Prop 12, which went into full effect in January 2024, is that it prohibits the use of gestation crates (which are used in conventional hog farming) for pork to be sold in California. Instead, sows must be given 24 square feet per animal to move around. In gestation crates, also known as sow stalls, sows can stand up but not turn around. They cannot walk or move around. Temple Grandin, a well-known and reputable animal rights researcher, has famously compared it to a human living their entire life in an airplane seat. 

For Wurtz, this was all he’d ever known. His hogs were raised in these stalls, as were his father’s before him. But he felt interested in Prop 12 because, if his farm could be compliant, he could sell his pork at a premium, leading to a more viable business for him and his family. 

He is part of a group of 12 farming families that together invested $11.6 million to become Prop 12 compliant. No more gestation crates on his farm—all his sows enjoy more space. He makes a premium for his pork in California. He makes his debt payments. His pigs are better off, and so is he.

“We’re not animal activists, we’re just farmers,” he says.

But the US House of Representatives has passed a Farm Bill draft that could undo everything.

While animal welfare activists had lauded Prop 12, the law drew a strong negative reaction from some members of the pork industry. The House Farm Bill reflected their complaints, including language originally from the EATS Act that specifically targets the pork industry. This language would make it illegal for a state to put requirements on how hogs in other states must be raised. 

If passed, the Farm Bill would essentially walk back Prop 12, making the welfare requirements irrelevant. More than that, it would inhibit the ability of any state to make local laws about hog welfare as it affects interstate commerce.

As Wurtz knows, though, this isn’t only an animal rights issue. Farmers like him who have already invested in becoming Prop 12 compliant will be left in the lurch—holding a competitive edge for a market that could deflate overnight. 

“We all put in absolutely everything we had,” he says. “This has the potential to bankrupt us.”

Joining together

Wurtz’s farm is one of hundreds of registered distributors who are Prop 12 compliant to sell in California, and it is one of more than  75 hog farms that sell to True Story Foods. True Story Foods was founded by Phil Gatto and Russ Kremer.

“I’m a lifelong farmer, [a] fifth-generation pig farmer from Osage County, Missouri,” says Kremer, now head of farm partnerships. “That’s all I ever wanted to do.”

A few decades ago, long before Prop 12 came about, Kremer started a cooperative with several other farmers who were  “passionate about raising pigs the right way, in a very humane nature, producing pork that was good for consumers,” he says. After he met Gatto in 2007, this cooperative became the network of farms supplying what they called True Story Foods.

All of the farms that supply True Story Foods are gestation crate-free, meaning the pigs are always able to walk and turn around, simple things that aren’t possible in gestation crates. When Prop 12 was passed in California, True Story Foods was poised to meet demands. Prop 12 has commonly been framed as a burden on the industry, but Gatto sees it as the opposite.

“It opens up the opportunity for a marketplace they did not have before,” says Gatto. “We were finding out that, in California and Massachusetts, consumers are looking for welfare, but they’re also willing to pay a little premium, or a reasonable premium for that welfare.”

Going to Washington

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) has been strongly and publicly against Prop 12. Although the council didn’t respond to Modern Farmer’s requests for comment, itswebsite states that Prop 12 is a burden on small farmers who can’t make the changes, and it enables factory farms that can.

“Large companies can afford the cost burdens of Prop 12—but small family farmers will be crushed by it,” says the NPPC website. “Prop 12 will lead to consolidation, with bigger, corporate interests gaining a larger piece of the industry.”

The council’s resistance to Prop 12 made its way all the way up to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments for the case in 2022, in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross. There, representation for the NPPC argued that Prop 12 unfairly increases the burden on producers, but the Supreme Court justices decided that the burden of compliance was not any greater for other states than it is for California.

In the end, the Supreme Court ruled affirming the constitutionality of Prop 12. Now, it all comes down to the Farm Bill, the current version of which expired on September 30, 2024.

Because Prop 12 deals with the humane treatment of animals, it is largely thought of as an issue championed by animal rights groups. True Story Foods argues that this is also an issue of farmer livelihood.

“This isn’t necessarily an animal rights issue where people from urban areas are coming in and trying to tell farmers back in the Midwest how to raise hogs,” says Kremer. “This is a response from producers that say ‘I love raising hogs, and I love raising them the right way.’”

For farmers like Wurtz, who’ve adapted their operations to be Prop 12 compliant, EATS Act language in the Farm Bill could hurt their business. Brand manager McKiernan Flaherty of True Story Foods says they can see the danger to many of the farms with which they work.

“I think just within our farms that we have that are across Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, and Nebraska, we’re going to see that absolutely occur. A lot of these farmers are in communities that are in rural parts of America where farming is really one of a few industries that is maybe supporting that community and is really the backbone of that community. So, not only will those farmers be affected, but one of the few industries that is keeping individuals in that community will then lose viability.” 

Although so much of Prop 12’s history has been framed as animal rights activists versus farmers, the way this legislation has played out has made it clear that those lines are not actually true.

“We’re presenting the dissenting voice within the pork industry,” says Holly Bice, president and founder of Bice Policy Group, part of the True Story Foods team.

“We’re the pork industry, and we’re for Prop 12.”

The post Prop 12 Was a Landmark Animal Rights Law. Repealing it Could Hurt Farmers. appeared first on Modern Farmer.

If you grew up on the East Coast or in the Midwest, you know what I mean. Barefoot in the yard, watching the twinkling fireflies, chasing their dazzling lights: It’s quintessential summertime. In the US, there are more than 160 known species of fireflies, and while they are the most common in the eastern and southern US, they are found throughout the country, with peak firefly season in June and July. Worldwide, there are more than 2,000 types of fireflies, and they have been around for millions of years. Yet, like so many of our insects, fireflies are in trouble. However, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species, the numbers of many firefly species are decreasing; some are even at risk of extinction. 

But there are easy steps you can take to help the fireflies, and experience their magic yourself, by turning your yard into a firefly sanctuary.

“Whatever little bit of land you have, no matter how small it is, is this amazing opportunity to really help these creatures thrive,” says Deb Landau, director of ecological management for The Nature Conservancy Maryland/DC chapter.

Leave your leaves 

“Probably the number one thing we can do is avoid yard cleanup,” says Nicole Baker, a biologist with The Wild Center, a science museum in New York’s Adirondacks. “While the leaves and detritus may look messy in the yard and in the garden, you’ll need to leave this ‘waste’ in place as it serves as the winter home for thousands of invertebrates, some of which the firefly larvae are hoping to eat.”

Fireflies spend up to two years as firefly larvae. They have voracious appetites at that stage, feeding on various invertebrates, including snails, slugs, and earthworms, all of which are likely crawling on that leaf litter.

“Firefly larvae are crazy looking—they look like armored caterpillars. They’re actually pretty scary looking up close, and a lot of times, people will see them and be like, what the heck is this crazy creature in my yard? But it’s a firefly,” says Landau, who encourages people to look up pictures of firefly larvae so they become familiar with them.

Those leaves also help to build the overall soil health of your garden. They allow the soil to retain moisture, and as leaves and plant matter decompose, they add nutrients back to the soil. Keep in mind that you could also have a dedicated area in your yard for the leaves if you’re using your yard in ways that require parts of it to be neat and tidy. 

Opt for local

When you’re looking to seed your yard in the fall, look for native grasses or wildflowers in your area.

“Try to find seed supply that is local to the area; don’t mail order it if you don’t know where exactly the seeds are coming from,” says Ben Pfeiffer of Firefly Conservation & Research. 

While prioritizing native plants is a tried and true method for conserving all aspects of the natural world, it can be challenging to go all native, especially if you don’t have a blank slate to work with, and that’s OK.

“What is more feasible is to diversify and, little by little, replace and/or add in native perennials, shrubs, and trees over time. Truly, every little bit helps, whether it’s small or large scale,” says Baker.

Be patient 

While you’ve heard of “leave the leaves” in the autumn, you also want to wait for your spring cleanup. Baker says you’ll want to wait to do spring garden cleaning and yard racking until there has been about a week’s worth of temperatures over 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the threat of nighttime frost has passed.

“The point is to wait long enough for the overwintering insect life to emerge from the leaf litter, and gardens, before detritus removal. That way, your “leave the leaves” efforts pay off, and insects don’t get squashed by the rake when we gardeners inevitably get excited by the first warm day,” says Baker.

You’re also not going to see the results of your work overnight. According to Pfeiffer, it can take more than two years. If you’ve done any chemical treatment on your lawn or had a mosquito control company out, it could take even longer as those chemicals also likely killed fireflies. 

“I can’t say enough about the importance of minimizing the use of pesticides. It’s not just that it negatively impacts the firefly larvae and the adults, but all the microorganisms underneath which the firefly larvae are feeding on and dependent on,” says Landau.

Turn off your lights

Come firefly season—typically June and July—you’ll want to keep at least some of your yard a little wild with longer grass. Think about creating dark spaces for adult fireflies with the grass, but also with trees and shrubs, and turn off your outdoor lights if you can.

“Many insects are influenced by artificial light, and the firefly is no exception. Since these little beetles are reliant on their flashy display to communicate with others, they are more likely to experience negative impacts of artificial light pollution,” says Baker.

While the best solution would be to eliminate artificial lights at night or at least in June and July when the fireflies are most active, you could also switch to motion sensor lights for outdoor lights, light fixtures with top shields, or replace your bulbs with red lights, which have less of an impact.

Take in the experience

Don’t forget to enjoy the fireflies you see. 

“They are these iconic things, and I think experiencing them helps connect people across boundaries,” says Pfeiffer. “I love doing firefly walks.” 

You can also collect them and put them in a jar; it’s a great learning experience for kids; just let them go after you’ve looked at them. Don’t leave them in the jar overnight. You can even participate in citizen science projects such as Firefly Atlas, where you snap pictures of the fireflies you see. 

“Just that picture of capturing what life stage it is at what time of the year, in what location it is, is incredibly helpful to scientists trying to put together a better picture of how our fireflies are doing,” says Landau.

The post How to Create a Firefly Sanctuary appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) of swine impact the air in Sampson County. Not only is the smell overwhelming, but the odor is an indicator of what these facilities are emitting—dangerous substances such as ammonia and hydrogen sulfide. CAFOs are densely populated in communities of color in eastern North Carolina, and the pollution and impact of them has been on the books for decades. The issue, and the environmental justice advocates in the community who have spoken out against it, are well documented in the film “The Smell of Money.” 

The EPA has air sensors deployed around the country to monitor air quality. When there’s documented pollution, it can enable the government to hold polluters accountable. But rural areas can get overlooked when it comes to air quality measurements—in Sampson County there is a gap in data collection. One of the aims of this project is to make the case for a federal air monitor in the county. 

“One of the end goals is to advocate for a federal air monitor within the county,” says Wall, Community Science Manager for CleanAIRE NC. “And that’s actually something that we’ve been able to do in the past.”

CAFOs and Air Pollution

On a broad scale, very large-scale industrial livestock operations (with tens of thousands of animals) have been getting away with air pollution for a long time. 

“These facilities have not been required to report their air emissions for almost two decades,” says Carrie Apfel, deputy managing attorney for the Sustainable Food & Farming Program at Earthjustice. 

This exemption to the Clean Air Act can be traced back to a consent agreement made between the EPA and thousands of hog CAFOs in the early aughts. The EPA decided it needed to establish reporting methodologies for CAFOs in order to enforce emissions regulations—and so it traded legal immunity to some of the country’s biggest producers in exchange for a few years of data collection. Those few years came and went, producing very little useful data. Two decades later, CAFOs still get a free pass to pollute the air.

Meanwhile, a study from 2021 reports that agriculture leads to 17,900 air quality-related deaths every year in the US. This has been an urgent environmental justice issue for decades now, but the EPA is no closer to regulating air emissions from CAFOs.

Organizations such as Earthjustice have been working to hold the government accountable. It sued the EPA, challenging the reporting exemption for CAFOs under EPCRA as unlawful. This is one of the few statutes that would give the public the right to this reported information. Part of the resistance, says Apfel, has come from the idea that this will burden small farmers with having to figure out their emissions impact. But it won’t —this law would only affect the largest of operations, a small percentage overall.

“There’s a lot of mythology out there about where our food comes from and what these CAFOs are and are not, and I think that Big Ag does everything it can to keep it that way,” says Apfel. “I think that a lot of this is a narrative battle just trying to explain that these are not farms…They’re factories, and they don’t resemble anything like farms.”

While big wheels turn, Sampson County is taking action.

Community-driven data collection

CleanAire NC has seen success with its air quality work before, in Charlotte, NC.

Charlotte’s Historic West End endured redlining—the practice of banks refusing loans to communities of color. This contributed to multiple polluting industries moving into the area and impacting air quality. Residents wanted to know to what extent. So, community members approached CleanAIRE NC.

Residents and ClearnAIRE NC partnered to install PurpleAir sensors at peoples’ homes. The air sensors automatically track and record air quality, mainly through measuring particulate matter in the air. You can see the dashboard of operating air sensors here.

But measuring particulate matter presents a limited picture, and that’s where volunteer airkeepers come in. When levels get high, they can record their observations of what they see and smell and they can take pictures and videos. This will help the data set reflect the differences between highway emissions, CAFO pollution, rock dust from a quarry, and more.

“Particulate matter is so variable, and so it’s hard to pinpoint what might be going on at a specific time,” says Wall. 

Thanks to the data collected by these air sensors, Mecklenburg County Air Quality installed an air sensor. 

Community leaders and CleanAIRE NC have partnered on other efforts to create a green district in the Historic West End, such as planting trees, installing electric vehicle chargers, and supporting green infrastructure.

Now, 30 sensors have been deployed in Sampson County. Just as the work in Charlotte’s Historic West End has been driven by community questions, input, and resources so, too, will be the work in Sampson County.

“That’s a way that we’re trying to fill the gap between these researchers that are coming in to be a part of our project, and maintaining our values on engaging communities,” says Wall.

The post In Eastern North Carolina, Community Science Aims to Fill an Air Quality Gap appeared first on Modern Farmer.

What she didn’t realize was that he was also against the factory farm system, having experienced first-hand the way it abuses farmers. What unfolded in the years after their first meeting was an initiative called The Transfarmation Project, which today works to help former contract farmers transition away from this system and into sustainable agriculture.

In her new book, Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming, Garcés takes a holistic approach to framing the issue of industrial animal agriculture. Not only does she detail animal rights abuses, she explores how factory farms create living and work conditions for humans that are unacceptable by any standard. Garcés takes the reader to North Carolina, Iowa, Texas, and beyond. She shows us what the conditions are like for animals and workers in slaughterhouses, and how living near hog farm sprayfields means you’ll inevitably have pig feces inside your home. 

In this book, Garcés shows that a more sustainable food system will never result from a fragmented approach, but requires a holistic view on the well-being of communities across the country.

Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us From Factory Farming is available for purchase now. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Modern Farmer: You begin this book by recounting your first meeting with Craig Watts, a former contract poultry farmer. Historically, animal activists and contract farmers have been on opposite sides of the factory farming issue. But instead of finding an enemy in Craig, you found an ally. Can you tell me about how this discovery changed your perspective on how to fight the industrial animal agriculture system?

Leah Garcés: Before I met Craig, I was a vegan animal rights activist had perceived contract farmers, poultry farmers, in one way: They’re the enemy—they’re to blame. And through a mutual journalist, I was able to make contact with him and [was] eventually invited onto his farm to see his chicken farming practice.

And I went in there with the idea that I was going to go in, get footage and get out. But when I got there, everything changed. We sat down and started talking, and he has twins that are the same age as my oldest son. It turned out he hated factory farming as much as I did. And this, I realized, was my biggest blind spot I’d ever had in all of my activism, ever. And as I listened to him, I realized I had overlooked a very important ally. 

And then that made me realize, how many other allies have I overlooked? It absolutely transformed my strategy and activism. My job after that became about building bridges to other folks, other stakeholders, other groups. And I was most curious about the ones that I perceived as my enemy, and most curious about wanting to meet them and finding what common ground we could to build power—build power to bring down a very oppressive system that impacts so many in such a negative way.

MF: You started The Transfarmation Project to assist former contract farmers in transitioning out of industrial animal agriculture. Why were you moved to create pathways for farmers to get out of this line of work?

LG: I’ve been an activist working to end factory farming for about a quarter of a century now, and what I’ve noticed is we talk a lot about the problem and a lot about the solution, but not on how to get from problem to solution. We don’t look at the path in between. I really wanted to roll up our sleeves and try to create easy runways for farmers. And I don’t pretend that a small nonprofit could transition thousands of farmers, but what I wanted to create were models, demonstrations, prototypes to test if it was possible. And it is possible, and farmers do want to transition. So, now we know. Now we have the prototypes. It’s time to move forward with creating the plans for how farmers could off-ramp.

MF: Large-scale animal agriculture CAFOs are disproportionately built in communities of color. One of your chapters focuses on eastern North Carolina, where there is an abundance of hog CAFOs in majority Black communities. You also write that the industry there has a lot of influence on policy and even local law enforcement. Residents have become environmental justice advocates, sounding the alarm on how CAFOs impact neighboring communities. What did you learn from your time in this community about how CAFOs impact their neighbors and how people can organize against them?

LG: What is happening in North Carolina is happening around the entire country. I did dive deep, though, into one particular community’s experience in North Carolina, and I had the opportunity to meet two women who in particular have been fighting the system, René and Rosemary. 

Their families had established property ownership and economic freedom post-slavery, and this was huge for this population. It created freedom. It created mobility. And owning land was very significant in that sense. And it was only later that the pork industry started to move in around these communities. And in doing so, [it] not only negatively impacted their quality of life and their health, but [it] drove their property prices down. 

[It] might not seem obvious why a farm moving next door would cause property prices to drop and health to decline, but here’s why: These giant pig farms create a giant amount of pig waste. The pig waste goes into what is euphemistically called a lagoon. The lagoons are cesspools of pig feces. Those get to be too full, and so the solution is to pump out the waste onto adjacent fields—and not fields that are necessarily growing crops, just fields to absorb the pig poop. They’re in giant sprinklers, and those sprinklers spray into the air. That spray inevitably flows through the air and onto the neighbor’s homes, their mailboxes, through their keyholes, windows, ends up on countertops, microwaves, ovens. There’s scientific evidence where that’s been shown, that there is pig feces inside of homes like Rosemary and René‘s.

And if you look at where this is happening, it is happening in Black communities around the country. If you were to spray pig feces on a field next to a white suburban home, it would be shut down right away. The reason it’s not shut down is because these communities have less political, social, and economic power. 

People like René [and] Rosemary are fighting back. There’s still a lot of work to do, but they are not giving up. And it was very inspiring to meet these women who are fighting the pig industry, to protect their land, protect their economic mobility, and protect their power.

MF: You mention many important policy priorities in this book, such as the Farm System Reform Act, the Packers and Stockyards Act, and work to reduce line speed in slaughterhouses. What are the most immediate policy priorities that readers should contact their legislators about?

LG: I think one of the policies that could make a difference on so many levels is to slow down the slaughter lines. One of the [slaughterhouse] workers told me, her name was Sandra, that on a daily basis, 10,700 pigs would pass through her hands, and that the crux of the problem, the thing that makes it dangerous and difficult, is the line speeds. And so, slowing down how fast they go would not only create better, safer working conditions, but [it] will result in higher animal welfare and less suffering of those pigs.

Same with chickens. There are three chickens every second that pass in a slaughter line. It’s so fast. If we slow those lines down, the chances of reducing their suffering during slaughter increases. The potential for less suffering increases for both the animals and the people working those lines. I also think that, as mentioned in the book, the main animals that are moving through our food and farming system, chickens, are excluded from federal protections. There are no federal laws protecting chickens that are raised for meat. They are specifically excluded from the laws that require humane slaughter. It’s unacceptable. There’s a lot we can do right away, just [on] the slaughter side of things [that] would reduce suffering and increase safety.

Beyond that, we need to provide the opportunity for farmers to shift away from factory farming. So many of them want to, but they are under the thumb of debt. The Farm System Reform Act laid out a plan for creating a transition for these farmers, if they wish to, and that involves debt relief for the farmers and transition money for them to move to better farming practices. 

This is not the first time we’ve done something like this as a country. We did it with tobacco, and when farmers were given the choice, overnight, many of them just shifted away from tobacco. It’s part of our history to adapt and adjust our agriculture policy according to the pressures that our country is under and the new information we have about the dangers of agriculture practices. Just like tobacco, this is dangerous, and it’s putting us under pressure, and we need to adjust.

MF: Industrial animal agriculture creates a cheap product. But you write that that’s because the real costs of this system are externalized to everyone but the industry itself. How do we begin to hold the industry accountable for the harm it causes to both human and animal communities?

LG: I think it’s really important for consumers to understand that cheap meat is only cheap at the register, but it is costing someone a lot. It is costing the animals suffering. It is causing people suffering. It’s causing our environment destruction, and it’s costing communities their health. And those have real prices to them. So, communities are paying medical bills. Communities are paying for environmental clean-up costs, and slaughterhouse workers are paying medical bills, and the animals are suffering. And there’s no price that can be put on that. 

But if you flip that and you say, if we take animals out of cages, that increases the cost by a percentage. That’s how we’re putting the cost back into the system, rather than the animal. If we slow down the line speeds, it means it will be a little less efficient, and it’ll cost a little bit more, but that’s where we’ve taken the cost out of the worker suffering and put it back into the meat, put it back into the system. 

MF: Last week, you got to open up the first Transfarmation demonstration hub. Can you tell me about what that experience was like and what you hope will come from it?

LG: Opening up the first Transfarmation hub was three years in the making. We had this idea that we needed to show and we actually needed to work out what a full transition would look like. We worked with consultants, we worked with architects, we worked with tech specialists, farm specialists, to help a farmer transition from growing chickens to growing microgreens in a greenhouse and mushrooms in a container. And last week, we had a launch party for that.

I was in these warehouses just after they had had chickens in them, and they smelled of ammonia. They had dust in them—the ghosts of the chickens were everywhere, and the smell of the chickens was still there. To enter this place of death and destruction and see it revitalized as growth and creation and innovation…It was so moving and gave me a lot of hope. It gave everyone a lot of hope that there are solutions. We just have to roll up our sleeves and work together towards them.

The post The Transition Away From Factory Farming appeared first on Modern Farmer.