January 22, 2015 | Nina Ignaczak

From fork to farm: Startup recycles grocery store food waste into organic fertilizer

Excerpt: In just 3 hours, California Safe Soil turns fresh food waste into a liquid fertilizer which promises to boost yields, cut costs, and reduce water pollution in agriculture.

Source: TreeHugger

Raise the Flag High: Queer Farming in Rural America

Excerpt: “Growing up, I recall that there were others on farms, farming alone, in the fields.” These were the bachelor farmers, living together, who claimed to sleep in twin beds, but no one really knew.

Source: Modern Farmer

Apps for Ag to host AgTech Hackathon

Excerpt: “Apps for Ag” is running a competitive hackathon partnering young farmers and mobile application developers to create open-source apps for growers. The hackathon will be held by at California AgTech Roundtable on Feb. 20-22 at the West Hills College Coalinga (WHCC) Farm of the Future.

Source: AgFunder News

San Pablo: Large property donated to sustainable agriculture group

Excerpt: SAN PABLO — A West Contra Costa urban farming nonprofit organization has just acquired a 2.2-acre parcel within view of Interstate 80 that promises to provide a green oasis amid the development on San Pablo Dam Road.

Source: The Reporter

Campaigning For Urban Agriculture In The Farm to Fork Capital

Excerpt: Trudeau had a business license to sell the food to restaurants, but he wanted to expand. He found an oddly-shaped commercial lot in a blighted area and found an owner willing to let him put a greenhouse on it. But then he ran into trouble.

“I went to the city though to check it out, like ‘what would I have to do’ and they were like, ‘Well raising food, that’s not a permitted use in the commercial zone or residential zone,'” says Trudeau. “So I kind of got stopped in my tracks there.”

Source: Capital Public Radio

cultivating youth as agents of change through urban agriculture

Excerpt: Urban Roots has been gardening with East Side high-school students since 1996, hiring them as interns for an array of positions.

Source: the line

Younger, trendier face of farming still struggling

Excerpt: Becoming a farmer has never been so cool. On TV, two dozen women are competing for the love of a farming “Bachelor” from Iowa. Elsewhere in the Midwest, entire states are courting dairy farmers from California. And in every hip urban restaurant across the country, chefs are coupling with local producers to create new restaurant menus in their image.

Source: coloradoan.com