Support Local Farmers: Virginia Ag Census Data Reveals Overall Drop In Producers, With Increasing Numbers Of Hispanic Farmers

 

Virginia Ag Census Data Reveals Overall Drop In Producers, With Increasing Numbers Of Hispanic Farmers

Virginia Farm Bureau Tue, Mar 26, 2024

RICHMOND—Though the overall number of agricultural producers in Virginia has dropped in recent years, Latino and Hispanic farmers represent a growing demographic in statewide agriculture.

Industry leaders and policymakers are paying attention to preliminary data recently released from the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, which provides a comprehensive picture of agriculture every five years. The overall number of Virginia farm producers dropped from 70,594 in the 2017 census to 67,798 in 2022. However, producers of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin rose to 1,026 from 845 in 2017. Many in that population are farming in Loudoun and Fauquier counties.

Tia Earman, Loudoun County Farm Bureau president, said she has noticed the steady growth of a younger and more diverse farming community overall since the 2017 census, and the county Farm Bureau Young Farmers committee is very active. "The face of our agriculture is changing,” she said. And so is the Washington-adjacent landscape.

"We don’t have a lot of 300-acre cow farms left,” Earman continued. "But we have really intensive vegetable farming happening on small acreage that is direct-marketed to consumers.” She noted Loudoun added 73 farms since the last agriculture census and now has 805 farms between 10 to 49 acres. "We have proximity to a stable, direct market who can afford to go to farmers markets and pay higher prices to purchase local food that supports local farmers,” Earman said.

Black farmers in Virginia number 1,603, down by 90 since 2017. Halifax County has the most Black farmers, with 147 counted by the census.

Female farmers in Virginia number 25,237. Rockingham and Loudoun counties are home to the highest numbers of female operators.

Farming is the primary occupation for 27,471 producers. And 40,327 farmers hold other jobs as primary occupations.

New and beginning producers account for 20,378 of all farmers. They are operating almost 13,000 farms on 1.7 million acres. The largest number of beginning farmers are in Rockingham and Loudoun counties.

The average age of producers crept up from 58.5 to 59.2 years old. Young producers ages 34 and younger total 5,139 farmers. Rockingham County is home to the largest number, with 390 young farmers.

Farmers ages 25 to 54 make up smaller percentages than older farmers, with most of them in the 55- to 74-year-old age range.

The census identified 7,679 military veterans who are farming, with the greatest number of them operating in Loudoun County.

Rudy Arredondo   Founder/Director  

Latino Farmers & Ranchers International, Inc.

Email: latinofarmers@gmail.com

Artificial Intelligence (AI): "....it can help solve some of the complex social issues facing the 21st century such as extreme poverty."

AI: Political Economy and Theological Discourse for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)

By Odomaro Mubangizi, SJ (PhD)

Abstract

Currently there is much talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI), with regard to its disruptive nature. There is legitimate fear that many people will lose jobs to more sophisticated robots that will be more effective and less expensive in doing tasks that were hitherto an exclusive reserve of humans. However, some more optimistic enthusiasts of digital technology are seeing great promise in AI and consider it the best thing to ever happen in the history of technological innovation. Clearly AI has ushered in a new paradigm that will have unprecedented impact on political economy and theological discourse.  If machines can be taught the way we teach human beings, this innovation will raise serious questions about the interaction between machines and human beings, and consequently pose theological and ethical issues.  

• Can a humanoid robot that makes decisions and “thinks” be accorded rights and responsibilities? 
• If a humanoid robot does harm to people, can it be held liable?
• If a machine can perform intelligent tasks better than human beings, how will this affect theological anthropology? 

This paper will attempt to address these issues from a political economic and theological perspective, and from the perspective of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and African cosmology.  I will argue that African cosmology and metaphysics that have some similarities with Teilhard de Chardin’s concepts of cosmic Christ and complexity consciousness, are better theoretical frameworks for gaining a deeper understanding of AI.  

Rather than get alarmed about AI, if well understood, it can help solve some of the complex social issues facing the 21st century such as extreme poverty

Read Entire Report Here.....  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nZt_eUM47xiWIwn-ecSk9zfN1tZVKlll/view?usp=sharing 

Water Insecurity: World Water Development Report. March 2024

Developing and maintaining a secure and equitable water future underpins prosperity and peace for all. The relationship also works in the opposite direction, as poverty and inequality, social tensions, and conflict can amplify water insecurity.

https://www.unesco.org/reports/wwdr/en/2024

Environmental and Water Insecurity: Satellites and AI Spotlight Illegal Manure Spreading March 2024

 https://undark.org/2024/03/19/satellites-illegal-manure-spreading/

In Wisconsin, Satellites Spotlight Illegal 

Manure Spreading

Researchers are using aerial imagery and artificial intelligence to monitor 

a farming practice that threatens water.

Visual: Jonathan Kirn/ The Image Bank via Getty Images

AAFTER A FRESH February snow, a satellite about the size of a shoebox, busy snapping photographs as it circuited the planet at 17,000 miles per hour, captured something dark in Wisconsin.

About 56 tons of livestock bedding and manure had been spread atop Mark Zinke’s frozen alfalfa field.

The image eventually appeared on the computers of Stanford University researchers, who relayed it to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Zinke, a Brownsville dairy farmer who cares for a herd of more than 1,300 cows, had forgotten about the whole thing until he later heard from the agency.

“Oh s—,” he recalled thinking at the time. “I guess we f—ed up. We gotta man up to it, right?”

Imagery collected by inexpensive satellites is ushering in an era of real-time monitoring. Some environmental advocates want the department to look down from the sky as it regulates livestock manure, a potential water contamination source.

Scientists from Stanford’s Regulation, Evaluation and Governance Lab are analyzing troves of aerial photographs to teach computers to recognize when farmers butter the land with livestock poop during the winter, a largely restricted but suspectedly pervasive practice in America’s Dairyland.

The research relies upon machine learning, an artificial intelligence process in which computers identify patterns to make predictions and decisions, and constellations of commercial satellites that scan Earth’s surface daily. The orbiters photographed the large farms — known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs — during snowy Wisconsin winters. Policymakers consider a livestock farm a CAFO if it houses at least 1,000 “animal units,” the equivalent of 714 dairy cows or 2,500 pigs.

Typically, the ground is frozen or snow-covered for 100 to 140 days each Wisconsin winter. Applying manure atop it heightens the risk of runoff, which can contaminate water, spread pathogens, seed algae blooms, and kill fish.

Some environmental advocates want the state to look down from the sky as it regulates livestock manure, a potential water contamination source.

Read Full Story Here:   https://undark.org/2024/03/19/satellites-illegal-manure-spreading/

Culture, Community: Washington, D.C. Unique. Odessa Madre.

 

ry You Should Know, we learn about her story and how she would die broke in the end

Odessa Madre may not be a name you know, unless you've paid close attention to the DC underworld. For many, Madre can be seen as the Al Capone of Washington, DC in her day. In a new episode of A Story You Should Know, we learn about her story and how she would die broke in the end.