What Is The Carbon Footprint Of A Typical Thanksgiving Dinner?

The traditional Thanksgiving Day meal might be a belt-buster, but it won't bust your carbon footprint score. (Credit: Jack Amick | Flickr CC)

Mike Berners-Lee may not be an expert on the American Thanksgiving. A native of the UK, he’s never actually had the pleasure of experiencing one. But as one of the world’s leading researchers on the carbon footprint of—well—everything (he even wrote a book subtitled “The Carbon Footprint of Everything”), he’s plenty familiar with the impacts of…

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Looking To Settle Down, Immigrant Workers Face Housing Crisis

The immigrant workers that pick crops like cotton and melons in the U.S. can have a tough time finding a place to live. The rural areas where they can find work often lack the social services and affordable housing. That means many farm worker families end up in dilapidated buildings, which can come with health…

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Farmers school themselves on soil health to revive dying dirt

Several Oklahoma farmers wander through a field of broad-leafed cover crops during a state Conservation Commission workshop in Dewey County in western Oklahoma. (Photo: Logan Layden | Harvest Public Media)

Generations of tilling and planting on the same land have left the nation’s soil in poor shape. And if farmers don’t change the way they grow crops, feeding the future won’t be easy. As farmer Jordan Shearer from Slapout, Okla., puts it, “we’re creating a desert environment by plowing the damn ground.” Taking a toll…

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Food Companies Pressure Farmers To Reduce Runoff

When it rains, topsoil and fertilizer run off the hills of Pfrantz farms. In addition to planting grass waterways and terraces to counter the threat of erosion, Pfrantz plans to plant cover crops this fall. (Photo: Abby Wendle | Harvest Public Media)

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part series on agricultural runoff from Harvest Public Media. The first part of the series ran on Flatland on September, 26. In order to grow massive amounts of corn and soybeans, two crops at the center of the U.S. food system, farmers in the Midwest typically apply hundreds…

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