Business of Agriculture: The threat of falling oil prices
Can fruit and vegetable farms in the Upper Valley survive the tumbling price of fuel? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about lately, with more than a little alarm, as both gas and diesel have fallen below the $2 per gallon mark. That’s less than half of what they were a few years ago. You might think that tumbling fuel prices would be good for local fruit and vegetable farmers, since we use gas in our trucks, diesel in our...
Business of Agriculture: The threat of falling oil prices
Can fruit and vegetable farms in the Upper Valley survive the tumbling price of fuel? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about lately, with more than a little alarm, as both gas and diesel have fallen below the $2 per gallon mark. That’s less than half of what they were a few years ago. You might think that tumbling fuel prices would be good for local fruit and vegetable farmers, since we use gas in our trucks, diesel in our...
Women and Business: Women-Powered Farms
Women have been farmers for as long as there have been farms. But data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the percentage of farms operated principally by women nearly tripled — to 14 percent from 5 percent — between 1978, when the USDA’s Census of Agriculture began recording the gender of principal farm operators, and 2007. The percentage of farms with women as the principal operators is highest in the West and in New...
Business Notes: Sept. 13, 2015
Norwich — A free public forum on modern wood pellet heating is scheduled for Tuesday, from 6-8 p.m., at the Montshire Museum of Science. The forum will focus on fully automated central wood pellet heating systems, which organizers say is a more advanced technology than pellet stoves and a clean, efficient, affordable and renewable option for homes and commercial buildings. Presenters will include Adam Sherman of the Biomass Energy...
New Ways of Feeding the Needy
Charles Scott is shopping for groceries at a Philadelphia food pantry, busily clicking away at a computer to select his choices of onions, tomatoes and frozen corn. Scott’s budget is tight since he was disabled from a work-related injury, so he turns to the Mitzvah Food Project at the Kleinlife center. The pantry is among the vanguard of hunger-relief operations that have installed a digital ordering system. “I think it’s wonderful,”...
