Mixed Crop and Livestock
Dairy Farming
Livestock ranching/fattening
Grain Farming
Market Gardening
100
Mixed crop and livestock farming is used when growing crops like corn, often involving sharing land between crops and animals to feed the animals and fuel the crops with animal manure. This climate and location are the prime location for the production of corn in the United States...
What are the corn belt and temperate, humid climates?
100
Dairy farming is an example of intensive commercial agriculture, which keeps cows in large feedlots to produce milk for years. The climate for dairy farming includes moderate temperatures and rainfall. This state is responsible for more than half the United States' dairy production...
What is California?
100
Livestock ranching is an extensive commercial agriculture that requires vast open areas where animals can graze freely and require little labor input. Specifically in cattle farming, we can see this commonly occurring in this type of climate...
What are temperate/semi-arid grasslands?
100
This cereal grain, grown extensively in temperate regions with an abundance of irrigation systems, such as China, is the primary crop that is used in most breads, pastas, and pastries...
What is wheat?
100
Lettuce production is typically intensive commercial farming for large-scale manufacturing. Often found in cooler climates, places like California use this type of manufacturing to increase the production of lettuce year-round
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What is vertical farming
200
As the largest crop, corn has significant environmental impacts, including soil degradation and erosion, groundwater depletion and creation of dead zones, and air pollution from this gas used in nitrogen fertilization...
What is ammonia?
200
Over 2/3 of the world's population is involved in the agricultural practice of dairy farming. The practice contributes to the natural habitat degradation, being converted to agricultural land, climate change from emissions of greenhouse gases, and pollution of waterways from manure and fertilizer runoff. This is one of the largest impacts that originates from overgrazing in pastures or feed crop production areas...
What is soil erosion?
200
Cattle contribute to manure runoff and utilize a lot of resources, including water, feed, and land. Cattle used in livestock ranching and beef production produce this greenhouse gas that heats the Earth’s atmosphere and causes global warming...
What is methane?
200
Grain farming environmental impacts include high water use, soil erosion, and runoff from fertilizers. Large-scale wheat production increases this by using farming machines and processing...
What are carbon emissions?
200
Negative environmental impacts of market gardening include pollution in water from fertilizer runoff, resulting in algal bloom, and soil erosion which happens from continuously growing crops without allowing this farming technique to occur to restore the land of its nutrients...
What is leaving it fallow?
300
Mixed crop and livestock farms can benefit from opportunities like using animal manure to improve soil fertility and reduce fertilizer costs naturally. However, this major future challenge threatens those gains by increasing drought, raising fee prices, and disrupting harvests for crops like corn...
What is climate change?
300
Dairy farms face rising challenges like heat stress on cows, higher feed prices, and stricter regulations on animal welfare that can make producing milk for cheese, sour cream, and queso more difficult. But many farms are turning to this style of farming that improves soil health, reduces waste, and reuses manure as a natural fertilizer...
What is sustainable farming?
300
Beef ranching and fattening face tough challenges, like high methane emissions, high feed and water demands, and manure runoff from large operations (like Harris Ranch). These environmental pressures make cattle farming more expensive and heavily regulated. But many ranchers are utilizing this major opportunity, which helps reduce reliance on traditional feedlots and spreads out environmental impacts by moving cattle more strategically across land...
What is rotational grazing?
300
Although large-scale wheat farms, like Sunrise Grain Farm in Kansas, can improve soil health and reduce erosion by using opportunities like crop rotation, this major problem still threatens their fields, reduces crop yields, and causes environmental harm through heavy water use, fertilizer runoff, and loss of soil quality...
What is environmental degradation?
300
Although market gardens can take advantage of high-tech vertical farming to grow lettuce year-round and reduce space needs for larger-scale farms, this major challenge still limits these small, labor-intensive farms by requiring significant human work and careful management for products like lettuce, salsa ingredients, and guacamole...
What is labor shortage?
400
The processing of corn in a large industry, such as Walmart, includes harvesting at the 'milky stage' of peak ripeness and, within hours, is sent to a processing facility to be inspected, where it is then husked and cleaned with machines full of brushes and water. The kernels are then stripped from the cobs and sorted through a mix of mechanical and manual inspection. This process submerges the kernels into hot water to remove any enzymes that may degrade the corn's color, flavor, or texture during storage...
What is blanching?
400
Great Value Taco Blend shredded cheese follows a process for all 3 types of cheese within the blend. Dairy farms milk their cows 2-3 times a day, then the milk is sent to a testing center and put on a refrigerated truck to a processing plant, where the milk is later standardized (recombining milk fats and solids). This process is heating the milk to kill harmful bacteria and pathogens, and it is standard for cheeses sold in retail...
What is pasteurization?
400
Kirkland Signature Organic Ground Beef is sourced at Harris Ranch - 29475 Fresno Coalinga Rd, Coalinga, CA, where their cattle spend their life grazing the land, then later sent to large feedlots in the San Joaquin Valley to finish on a high-grain diet. The cattle are sent to a USDA-inspected processing facility where they are slaughtered, butchered, and broken down into packages. This packaging type is critical for Costco-specific products before they are sent to the regional distribution center (8400 W Sherman St, Tolleson, AZ)...
What is vacuum-sealed?
400
La Banderita Soft Taco Flour Tortillas are made of wheat from Sunrise Grain Farm, where it is blended with other grains from other local farms after it has been harvested and delivered to grain elevators. The elevators consolidate and combine grains from local farms and arrange shipments to flour mills. The blended wheat is milled into flour and then goes through this process...
What is a quality check for proteins/ash/moisture?
400
Walmart, a large manufacturer, gets its lettuce from Plenty's Farm in CA (570 Eccles Ave, South San Francisco, CA), where the lettuce is grown in these kinds of farms to reduce usage of water and land...
What are vertical farms?
500
Following the blanching, the kernels are filled into sterilized cans where a syrup is added to preserve the corn. The cans are sealed using machines and then undergo processing in this to eliminate any remaining microorganisms and ensure long-term shelf stability before they are sent to distribution to Walmarts all across the U.S...
What is a retort?
500
After the pasteurization, the individual cheeses undergo a process to create a curd, which is later milled into grains, pressed into a block, and then the block is later shredded to fill the bag for production. This product is added to prevent clumping in the bag before the bag is sealed, coded with a "best by" date, and palletized into refrigerated storage...Later, it is sent to the Walmart distribution center in refrigerated warehouses, and lastly, to the grocery store to be purchased and hopefully put on a taco!
What is anti-caked?
500
After the regional distribution, the beef is sent to be redistributed based on demand throughout the country. To ship locally to us in Tennessee, the beef is sent on a refrigerated truck and travels roughly 2000+ miles to eventually arrive in this specific city...
What is Ringgold, GA?
500
The flour from Kansas arrives at Olé Mexican Foods in Atlanta, GA, to be combined with water, oil, and leavening agents. The tortillas are mixed into dough, portioned, heat-pressed, baked, cooled, and packaged. The tortillas are sent to a Costco distribution center and redistributed to our local Costco in Ringgold, GA. This country is where the tortilla manufacturing was influenced by...
What is Mexico?
500
After the lettuce is harvested from the vertical farms, it is sent to a processing facility to be washed, sliced, and bagged. It is later transported to a distribution center to be placed on trucks for delivery and sent to different Walmart centers for retail. Aside from Great Value products being manufactured in the United States, these two other countries are leading in lettuce production alongside the United States...
What is China and India?