Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

How Nut Trees Are Saving Midwest Farms And The Environment

Every summer a pond at Rusted Plowshare farm in central Missouri used to fill with algae blooms as rows of corn and soybeans stretched across the landscape with native grasses and wildflowers, and there hadn’t been a quail sighting in 40 years. That changed dramatically when Josh Payne planted 20 acres of chestnut saplings in 2017, eventually expanding to 200 acres of chestnut trees with sheep grazing beneath them after stopping corn and soy production entirely, and now the pond stays clear year round. Payne says there’s just a lot more diverse life at the farm with many things that don’t have a place in the corn and soy scenario coming back to the land naturally.

The Savanna Institute explains that incorporating trees and shrubs into working agricultural landscapes helps farmland behave more like nature intended. Across the Midwest about 127 million acres is devoted to agriculture with three quarters of that in corn and soy, crops that financially squeeze farmers through low commodity prices. Tree roots make ground spongier and better able to hold water while minimizing erosion, with dense root systems reducing nutrient runoff and mixed vegetation supporting biodiversity, all while allowing farmers to continue harvesting crops unlike conservation practices requiring land removal from production. An acre of mature chestnuts can net $10,000 or more according to the University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry, providing nice lifestyle options for small farmers where alternatives are limited, and nut trees can generate income for decades offering multi generational resilience as 70 percent of U.S. farmland changes hands in coming decades. The transformation at Rusted Plowshare and farms across the Midwest proves that switching from commodity crops to nut trees creates a yes and situation where environmental health and farmer profits can thrive together.

PrevPreviousLeopards Return After Being Gone For 170 YEARS
NextThis Family Of ELEVEN Just Got The Surprise Of A LifetimeNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

What Rescuers Did With A Bluetooth Speaker Saved This Otter Pup

November 22, 2025

When the Marine Mammal Center received a call on its public hotline about a creature crying frantically in Morro Bay, Central California, a four person team with harbor patrol assistance quickly located what they suspected was a lost otter pup because the sounds this marine mammal makes are remarkably similar

Read More
Happy News

How 5,000 Bison Are Reawakening Yellowstone National Park

November 22, 2025

Yellowstone National Park is witnessing a striking ecological recovery driven by the return of roughly 5,000 bison whose migration across the park’s grasslands is restoring ancient patterns and reshaping the landscape from the ground up according to a groundbreaking study published in Science. These bison, descendants from the last surviving

Read More
Happy News

Scientists Extract Ancient RNA From 39,000 Year Old Woolly Mammoth

November 22, 2025

When paleogeneticist Love Dalén first saw the remarkably preserved body of a juvenile woolly mammoth named Yuka lying on a lab table in eastern Siberia in 2012, he experienced what he calls a holy hell moment at seeing an animal that didn’t look like it died yesterday despite living 39,000

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2025 HappyNews.