#agriculture

Most of us are creatures so comforted by habit, it can take something on the order of religion to invoke new, more conscious behaviors--however glad we may be afterward that we went to the trouble. ↗

— Barbara Kingsolver

#religion

In a time of disorder [Laertes] has returned to the care of the earth, the foundation of life and hope. And Odysseus finds him in an act emblematic of the best and most responsible kind of agriculture: an old man caring for a young tree. (pg. 123, The Body and the Earth) ↗

— Wendell Berry

#earth #laertes #odysseus #odyssey #art

When you concentrate on agriculture and industry and are frugal in expenditures, Heaven cannot impoverish your state. ↗

— Xun Zi

#cannot #concentrate #expenditures #frugal #heaven

We do participate in the government programs, like probably 95 percent of farmers do. People who aren't familiar with the agriculture industry, you know, try and make that look like something exceptional. ↗

— Vicky Hartzler

#exceptional #familiar #farmers #government #government programs

And what we're doing in Ohio is we're moving from a basic manufacturing economy to one that's diversified, including energy and health care and agriculture and IT. ↗

— John Kasich

#basic #care #diversified #doing #economy

According to analyses conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 100 grams of fresh tomato today has 30 percent less vitamin C, 30 percent less thiamin, 19 percent less niacin, and 62 percent less calcium than it did in the 1960s. But the modern tomato does shame it's counterpart in one area: It contains fourteen times as much sodium. ↗

— Barry Estabrook

#factory-farming #food #science #tomatoes #food

In our day, there are stresses and fractures of the human-animal bond, and some forces at work would sever it once and for all. They pull us in the wrong direction and away from the decent and honorable code that makes us care for creatures who are entirely at our mercy. Especially within the last two hundred years, we've come to apply an industrial mind-set to the use of animals, too often viewing them as if they were nothing but articles of commerce and the raw material of science, agriculture, and wildlife management. Here, as in other pursuits, human ingenuity has a way of outrunning human conscience, and some things we do only because we can--forgetting to ask whether we should. ↗

— Wayne Pacelle

#animals #bond #compassion #food #humans

This is an exciting time for farmers and ranchers of all types and sizes as agriculture is a bright spot in the American economy. In 2011, agricultural exports hit a record high and producers saw their best incomes in nearly 40 years. ↗

— Tom Vilsack

#agriculture #american #american economy #best #bright

To keep farmers on the farm we must maintain a strong farm safety net, but we will also have to build a thriving companion economy to compliment production agriculture in rural America. ↗

— Tom Vilsack

#also #america #build #companion #compliment

USDA is committed to keeping pace with the needs and progress of American agriculture by supporting new markets and movements that will keep farmers profitable and help create middle class jobs across the country. ↗

— Tom Vilsack

#agriculture #american #class #committed #country