In a recent Gazette article, SILT board member Kamyar Enshayan underlines the need to go beyond creating awareness of cancer and examining the causes. 90 percent of all forms of cancer are attributable to specific environmental factors. Glyphosate, atrazine are both possible carinogenes, and health professionals "need to know one very important fact: it is totally possible and practical to have a productive agriculture without the use of pesticides." https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/focus-on-the-environmental-causes-of-cancer-20151030

Farmers and landowners are using innovative strategies to deal with the huge increase in land prices. Strategies include setting long-term (40 years!) leases with landowners or city parks. Find out more about how some farmers are bypassing lending agencies by reading this article, and learn how SILT helps farmers access land without having to purchase it. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/forrest-pritchard/farming-without-owning-land_b_8315894.html

We know farmers are aging (only 6% of American farmers are under 35, and over one-fourth of American farmers will retire in the next 25 years). The National Young Farmer Coalition is pushing Congress to pass pending federal legislation designed to help college graduates who choose to farm to deal with their student debt. How can we as a society help beginning farmers grow our food? Find out more here.

Rev. Richard Joyner has been named a 2015 Top 10 CNN Hero. In 2007, Rev. Joyner established the Conetoe Family Life Center, whose mission is to improve the health of the youth and community by increasing access to healthy foods, increasing physical activities, and providing access to health services. The nonprofit manages more than 20 plots of land, including one 25-acre site. More than 80 young people help Joyner plan, plant, and harvest nearly 50,000 pounds of fresh food a year. Learn more about this creative way land access can lead to economic opportunities and improved health in communities. [...]

The Union of Concerned Scientists list the following as the "top ten tenets of agroecology:" Amendments: not all soils or amendments are created equal Animal Integration Agroforestry Breeds and seeds (local ones!) Barriers and strips Cover crops and green manure Conservation tillage Crop rotation Diversified fields Designed landscapes https://blog.ucsusa.org/the-abcds-of-agroecology-what-is-it-all-about-926

"In Iowa, the latest figures I have, from 2007, indicate that 60% of the farmland is owned by people who are not farming. Some 20% of Iowa’s farm owners do not even live in the state. It is safe to say that most of the farmland in America is being farmed by renters. This is precisely what immigrants from Europe were fleeing when they risked their lives to come to America." https://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/who-really-owns-the-farmland/

Research shows that protecting farmland from development is an important strategy to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In California, the Governor's Strategic Growth Council launched the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation program to protect farmland. https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/soapbox/article38965995.html

The National Young Farmer Coalition recently published a guide for farmers who want to work with land trusts. "Finding and securing land to farm is one of the biggest challenges that beginning farmers and ranchers face in starting a career in agriculture. Farmland prices are at a record high across the country and land has become increasingly unaffordable for farmers. The land surrounding our nation’s cities, where market opportunities are greatest for beginning farmers, is often the most difficult to access." Help SILT support farmers who are trying to access land!

Six months after the World Health Organization's cancer research unit said it was classifying glyphosate, the active weed-killing ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides, as "probably carcinogenic to humans," a U.S. farm worker and a horticultural assistant have filed lawsuits claiming Monsanto Co.'s Roundup herbicide caused their cancers and Monsanto intentionally misled the public and regulators about the dangers of the herbicide.   https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/29/monsanto-lawsuit-idUSL1N11Z20Y20150929