November 2025 Issue

$6.00

 Acres U.S.A., The Voice of Eco-Agriculture, November 2025 | Issue #653, Copyright 2025, 67 pages. 

Become an Acres U.S.A. Eco-Farmer Member here!

Contents

November 2025 • Issue #653

Photo: (Courtesy of Mark Shepard) — The only sane response to the over-proliferation of technology, according to Mark Shepard, is ecological agriculture. In this shot from his farm: acorn squash between hazelnuts; the strip of brown on the right is yellow sweet clover gone to seed between hazelnuts and hybrid poplar. Read more on page 20.


On the cover: (Courtesy of Hugonurk, Wikimedia) Straight lines are beautiful, and efficient, but have farmers become overly reliant on expensive technologies they can’t control?

FEATURES

Green or Greenwashing?
Precision agriculture is not better for the environment — and it often just leads farmers into greater debt
BY ANNELIESE ABBOTT

Technocratic Sharecroppers
Farmers are increasingly owned by their tech; the only sane response is ecological agriculture
BY MARK SHEPARD

Mauck Talk
Once you understand the motive of your plants — sunlight — you can design a system to optimize how they receive it
BY JASON MAUCK

Fertile Fertilizers
The plant-energy cost of synthetic fertilizers is large; fermented plant juices provide plant-available energy at low/no cost
BY NIGEL PALMER

Soil Critters & Plant Hormones
Unsurprisingly to eco-farmers, many of the phytohormones plants need are actually created by microbes — and these can be measured and cultivated by growers
BY SCOTT MCELVEEN

Terminal or Maternal Sires?
Different types of bulls produce different results; to improve your bottom line, ensure your bull matches the goals of your operation
BY DAN GLENN

Yield’s Best Friend
GPS-collared dogs can provide valuable crop protection services
BY JOHN JAMISON

The New-Farmer’s Dilemma
Building a resilient food future means making it easier for people to farm
BY MOLLIE ENGELHART

DEPARTMENTS

VIEW FROM THE COUNTRY
Monthly musings from Acres U.S.A.’s editor

OPINION
A Perilous Path
The proposed Mini Farm Bill seeks to reform what is grown, where and how, in order to help make American farms profitable again — eventually, without government bailouts
BY CHARLES BENBROOK

ECO-UPDATE
News in brief on developments in agronomic science

REGEN AGRONOMY
Advanced Technology?

Technology that doesn’t help overcome your limiting factor may not be worthy of adoption.

INTERVIEW
Growing Rain

Water ecologist Alpha Lo explains the different water cycles and how farmers play a role in buffering rain patterns

REVIEWS

MARKETPLACE

CLASSIFIEDS

ECO-MEETINGS

ECO-GRAPHIC

Become an Acres U.S.A. Eco-Farmer Member here!

Free Podcast

My Farmer, My Customer

New! Learn from Marty Travis's experiences converting the Spence Farm into one of the most successful farming co-ops in the United States today.