Organic farms operate 1 percent of U.S. cropland, so Yuma County in the southwestern corner of Arizona is exceptional. As much as 12 percent of farmland in the county is in organic production, reports the Yuma Sun, up from an estimated 7 percent in 2012.
Kurt Nolte, director the University of Arizona’s Yuma Agricultural Center, told the newspaper: “We’re finding more and more demand for organic production,” to the point that it’s becoming a challenge for growers to find land that is certified as organic.
In other news, a field test of 11 heritage potato varieties at two farms in England and one in Scotland, “all varieties, including newer breeds, performed well for yield and blight resistance,” said Farming Online in Britain. The Soil Association, an advocate of sustainable farming, said late blight is the bane of potato farmers, particularly as the disease adapts to overcome resistance by two widely grown potato varieties and more constraints are placed on the use of agricultural chemicals. The field trial was intended to show there are naturally resistant varieties and to lessen the reliance on chemicals and genetic engineering.