climate change
While still above average, farm income is forecast to fall this year
U.S. farm income will tumble for the second year in a row from the record set in 2022, pulled down by lower commodity prices and rising production costs, forecast the Agriculture Department on Wednesday. Net farm income would fall 25 percent, to $116.1 billion, but still run 15 percent ahead of its 10-year average.
World’s first ethanol-to-SAF facility opens
Sustainable fuels producer LanzaJet officially opened the first ethanol-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) refinery in the world in southeastern Georgia on Wednesday. The Freedom Pines Fuels plant, which will be able to produce 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel annually, has buyers lined up for its fuel for the next 10 years, said an aviation news site.
After warmest year, world likely to cross 1.5 degree C climate-change threshold
The world in 2023 recorded its warmest calendar year since the start of the industrial era, with an average surface temperature that was 1.48 degrees C higher than preindustrial times, said the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Tuesday. Very soon, the world will see a 12-month period that exceeds the 1.5 degree threshold, where sustained high temperatures heighten the risk of climate-related catastrophes.
USDA to hire climate change fellows
Facing a record number of applications for clean energy funding, the USDA said it would hire 40 Climate Change Fellows to speed up the disbursal of $2 billion through its Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). The $2 billion was part of the 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law.
USDA announces plan to conserve old-growth forests
In a first-of-its-kind step, the Agriculture Department proposed to amend all of its 128 forest management plans to conserve and steward old-growth forests in its 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands on Tuesday. "This will provide consistent direction across the Forest Service on how to conserve and restore old-growth forest conditions across the nation," said the White House.
COP28 encourages global shift to sustainable agriculture
In their wide-ranging “stocktake” at the UN climate summit, world leaders urged the adoption of sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems on Wednesday without setting goals for the sector that produces one-third of global greenhouse gases. “We have to cross our fingers and hope that governments deliver on promises to put food in new national climate plans,” said Wanjira Mathai of the World Resources Institute.
Put more climate change into the farm bill, suggests think tank
The next farm bill, "an unwieldy pile of programs," could be the vehicle to improve the Farm Belt's response to climate change while exercising restraint in commodity subsidies, said an American Enterprise Institute publication on Monday. In essays modeled on Christmas wish lists, seven agricultural economists expressed hopes ranging from more money for agricultural research to splitting the farm bill in two.
India’s long and tortured relationship with beef
In FERN's latest story, published with Switchyard magazine as part of its special food issue, Siddhartha Deb delivers and intimate portrait of how beef has been used in India to define the social order, punish political opponents, and legitimize political power.
Despite the hype, COP28 likely to say little about agriculture and climate
As they seek consensus for action against global warming, negotiators at the UN climate summit may skip over food and agriculture while assembling a final statement on climate adaptation, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Sunday. Instead, food and agriculture's contribution to COP28 would be a non-binding endorsement of sustainable production, unveiled on the opening day of the summit in Dubai.
At COP28, 134 nations agree agriculture ‘must urgently … transform’
More than two-thirds of the nations in the world, representing 5.7 billion people and 70 percent of global food production, signed a declaration at the UN climate summit assigning agriculture and food systems a role in combatting global warming. It was the first such linkage of food and climate action and while it was applauded, the praise was salted with "show me" skepticism.
Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture grew 14 percent in 20 years
Livestock accounted for slightly more than half of the 14 percent increase in global greenhouse gas emissions by agriculture from 2000 to 2021, said a Food and Agriculture Organization report on Wednesday. The carbon footprint of cattle and sheep was several times higher than the footprint for pigs, chickens, and dairy, when calculated per kilogram of product, said the FAO’s Statistical Yearbook, released on the eve of the UN climate summit.
Food makers say they will reduce methane emissions on dairy farms
Six major food companies, from General Mills to Danone, said at the UN climate summit that they will reduce their dairy methane emissions as part of a new alliance that includes a major U.S. environmental group. The Dairy Methane Action Alliance will require members to publicly disclose emissions within their dairy supply chains and implement a methane action plan.
FERN talks COP28 and food-system reform with World Wildlife Fund
Claim: Farm bill debate pits conservation vs. commodities
The current tug-of-war among lawmakers for farm bill funding "offers a case study" of the long-running tension between conservation and crop subsidies, said Jonathan Coppess, associate professor at the University of Illinois. This time, the issue is whether to shift up to $18 billion that was earmarked for climate mitigation (in the 2022 climate, healthcare, and tax law) into crop subsidies.
Proposal would open door to carbon storage on Forest Service land
The U.S. Forest Service proposed a change in regulations on Monday that would allow it to consider requests to inject carbon dioxide beneath the 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands. Carbon sequestration is a key element in President Biden's goal of net-zero U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
DOE official: Carbon capture is key element in U.S. net-zero goal
Now an infant industry, carbon capture will play a significant role in achieving President Biden’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, said administration officials on Thursday. Senators from coal and gas states said the administration, after including incentives in the 2022 climate law, should unleash carbon capture projects.
GOP bloc urges swift passage of farm bill
Sixty-one House Republicans called on Speaker Mike Johnson for speedy passage of the new farm bill, despite a grim outlook for the legislation expressed by a leading analyst. Work on the farm bill is at an impasse among farm-state lawmakers over crop subsidy and climate funding, with conservatives itching for the chance during floor debate to constrain SNAP eligibility and outlays. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
USDA says $3 billion available to offset 2022 disasters
Row crop and specialty crop growers are eligible for more than $3 billion from the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) to offset losses from natural disasters in 2022, said the USDA. Administrator Zach Ducheneaux of the Farm Services Agency said 2022 "was another year of weather-related challenges — for some, the third consecutive year or more in a row."
How climate change could turn America’s poorest region into a produce-growing hub
In FERN’s latest story, published with Switchyard Magazine, reporter Robert Kunzig takes us to the upper Mississippi River Delta, where the idea of growing more fruits and vegetables — to ease the burden on California in the climate-change era — is taking root.