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May 13, 2013 The appeal of owning your own property — and all the private goods that came with it — may have convinced nomadic humans to settle down and take up farming. So says a new study that tried to puzzle out why early farmers bothered with agriculture.

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March 28, 2013 Vegans' refrigerators are empty of meat, dairy and eggs. But what if there are animal products in their medicine cabinets? Commentator Barbara J. King considers how far vegans have to go to really make a difference for animals.

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March 8, 2013 Girdles and hormone therapy for grapes? California farmers go to great lengths to plump and firm up grapes as much as possible. But don't worry: None of these techniques hurts the grapes or those who love them.

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March 5, 2013 Malt is an essential component of beer, but most comes from a handful of industrial processors that pool grains from across the U.S. and Canada. Now, a small but growing number of craft malt houses are malting grains from small regional farmers, enabling microbreweries to offer truly local beers.

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February 18, 2013 On its surface, the case is about whether farmers can use seeds derived from patented crops. But the bigger question is, how much control does a company have over its patented products once they're in the hands of consumers?

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

February 4, 2013 One of the standout ads in Super Bowl XLVII featured a nostalgic vision of American farmers, voiced by the legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey. Was this Dodge Ram ad a brilliant paean to farm life, or a distorted view of modern agriculture? Share your thoughts.

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December 5, 2012 Hay prices are up sharply because of the drought across much of the nation. So hay bales sitting in fields have become hot properties. So much so, in fact, that a sheriff in Oklahoma put a GPS tracker in one bale. It helped him track down the suspects.

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On Morning EditionPlaylist

November 9, 2012 Urban farming goes vertical, as Singapore opens a 30-feet tall greenhouse for bok choy and cabbage. The farm is already producing half a ton of veggies per day for local supermarkets. But are these vertical "farmscrapers" any more efficient than traditional, flat greenhouses?

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October 21, 2012 VPRA Vermont college's decision to slaughter two oxen after one suffered an injury has sparked some serious debate. The college cited sustainability as one of its reasons, but some students and animal rights advocates say it's just not right to serve Bill and Lou for dinner.

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On Weekend Edition SundayPlaylist

August 6, 2012 KBIAWhen it's hot and humid, you probably don't want to move much and aren't very hungry. The same goes for cows; but when they don't eat, farmers lose money. Using weather data, a new app called Thermal Aid detects the threat of heat stress and offers farmers tips to keep their cows healthy.

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On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

June 26, 2012 From an astro-biological perspective it just may be that the geometries of an agricultural society are unstable when imposed on top of a complex natural system like a planet.

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May 16, 2012 Farm robots are here, not just in Star Wars. Some dairies already use milking machines that clean udders and monitor cow health, plus do the milking, and a fully automated tractor is coming out this fall.

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March 9, 2012 Behind a bucolic dairy farm lies all the roiling tension, rising inequality and economic volatility of the 21st-century economy.

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ListenPlaylist

December 8, 2011 Over the past decade, Argentina's cattlemen have quietly shifted their cows from grass to grain. Blame soaring world prices for commodities like soybeans, as well as government policies discouraging export. Argentine chefs say the switch to grain-fed beef marks the loss of a cultural icon.

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