Stories - AZPM

Right in Your Backyard: Foraging for Food in the Sonoran Desert

This week we learn to harvest cholla buds, speak with expert Gary Nabhan and visit an urban farm that's doing a lot more than growing vegetables.

Pima County residents protest Monsanto company's plans to open a greenhouse to develop genetically modified corn seeds in Marana.

Monsanto Seeks Tax Break Amid Vocal Opposition in Pima County

Plus, how the governor's priorities align with technical education needs; checking in with Oro Valley.

Forever Yong’s garlic harvest is ready to go to market.

Feeding Our Future: Farmers and Markets

New ways to support small farmers and backyard gardeners, to grow our local food system

Tierra y Libertad, a collective in South Tucson’s Wakefield Neighborhood, reclaimed a back alleyway with colorful murals.

Feeding Our Future: Growing Community in Tucson’s Barrios

Home-grown efforts to improve Tucson’s struggling neighborhoods start with vegetable gardens.

Yolanda Soto, CEO and President of Borderlands Food Bank, in her office in Nogales. The bright paintings on her walls were all done by an inmate who works for Borderlands as part of a labor force program. (She’s a big fan of Kahlo’s.)

Feeding Our Future: The Politics of Produce Rescue

They share the same goal of feeding the hungry, but sometimes food banks step on each other’s toes.

ll 17 Compost Cats are OSHA-Certified equipment operators. Clarisa Avalos says, “I’m having fun!” as she maneuvers the skip loader to turn a pile of wet compost.

Feeding Our Future: Turning Garbage into Gardens

How a group of UA undergraduates are saving the environment.

There are 400 wild, edible native foods in the Sonoran Desert. This food mandala is made from mesquite, ironwood, cholla cactus buds and cactus seeds.

Feeding Our Future: Harvesting the Desert

The answer to future food shortages may be right outside our doors.

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona serves five counties and covers 23,000 square miles.

Feeding Our Future: Shortening the Line

The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona is trying new strategies to solve the root causes of hunger.

Sunlight reflects off of the water in a swimming pool.

Treated Water to Make Beer? Tucson Group Says 'Cheers!'

Pima County team fights stigma against reclaimed water; finalist for innovation distinction.

Students run the Manzo Market every two weeks, where they sell produce from their garden and eggs from the school’s chickens. Photo by Moses Thompson

Feeding Our Future: The Manzo Model for Growing a School Garden

In an age of shrinking education budgets, should school gardens be a line item?

Samantha Felix and Jesse Pablo run TOCA's Project Oidag, which means "garden." Click to listen to them describe their work teaching youth about traditional foods.

Feeding Our Future: Putting Native Foods Back on the Plate

Why did the Tohono O'odham stop eating and growing their Native foods?

Scarab or figeater beetles are common during the Sonoran desert's hot summer months when they come out to eat and breed.

Bright Green Beetle Makes a Sonoran Desert Appearance

Iridescent insect is active during summer months in Southern Arizona.

Study: Warming May Affect Microbes, Hurting Soil Fertility

Research led by NAU scientists scanned conditions in 80 dryland ecosystems around globe.

Baby chickens are pictured at the Arizona Feeds Country Store in South Tucson on April 2, 2015.

Tucson Planning Commission OKs Backyard Chickens

Proposal making urban farming easier moves to City Council for final approval.

State Rejects Requested Ban on Expanding Irrigation

Farmers in Cochise County lose petition to to stop further development in their area.

Desert harvesters are harvesting mesquite trees.

Harvesting Desert's Bounty Topic of Classes

Santa Cruz Farmer's Market will host demonstrations this month.

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