climate change
Climate change will lower Farm Belt yields ‘as soon as 2030,’ says report
For decades, farmers in the Midwest and Plains have reaped ever-higher yields per acre, but “climate change threatens to slow or reverse this productivity as soon as 2030,” said the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday. The “climate burdens” would worsen through 2050, the nonprofit group said in a report.
Report: Wetter Midwest led to higher crop insurance payouts, not more cover crops
Rain, snow and sleet increased in almost all midwestern counties between 2001 and 2020. Along with that additional precipitation came increased federal crop insurance payments to farmers whose crops failed due to “excess moisture,” said a report Wednesday by the Environmental Working Group.
Farm Bureau seeks ‘unified’ farm bill of agriculture and nutrition aid
The largest U.S. farm group believes “it makes perfect sense” to combine commodity supports and SNAP in the same piece of big-ticket legislation, said president Zippy Duvall in announcing the American Farm Bureau Federation’s farm bill priorities on Thursday. The AFBF called for higher subsidy rates, at a still-to-be-determined cost, and more emphasis of stewardship on working lands rather than long-term idling of cropland.
Report: Biodiversity loss, climate change driving an ‘escalating nature crisis’
Wildlife populations plummeted 69 percent worldwide between 1970 and 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund. Food systems were a key driver of this biodiversity loss, responsible for 70 percent of the population decline of land animals and half of the decline in freshwater species. Conservation alone will not be enough to halt these declines, wrote the authors, who said that scaling up sustainable food production is crucial. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Report: Pollution cleanup is falling short in Chesapeake Bay
With three years left to meet the goals of a “pollution diet,” the three major states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have greatly improved their wastewater treatment, though they still lag in three other areas, including reducing agricultural runoff, said the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
More farmers plant cover crops for higher yields and soil health
America's biggest farmers are unchanging skeptics of climate change but they slowly are adopting cover crops, mostly to improve crop yields and soil health, said Purdue University on Tuesday. Only one in 20 growers say they planted the soil- and water-holding crops for carbon sequestration.
Analyst: Climate change is a rare focus in farm bill debate
Congress allocated nearly $20 billion for USDA land stewardship programs in the climate, healthcare and tax bill that was enacted in August — historic investments, said Jonathan Coppess, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, on Thursday. The funding could lead to a rare focus on climate change and the agriculture sector, though he said that was not assured.
Report: USDA conservation programs need to focus more on climate change mitigation
Farmers received billions of dollars from two of the largest federal agricultural conservation programs between 2017 and 2020, but only a small proportion of the money funded practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.
How a broken village became a model for ending India’s farmer suicide crisis
In the 1980s, "Hiware Bazar, a village tucked deep inside the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Back then, the hamlet was a crime-ridden backwater, desperately poor and largely abandoned by government agencies," writes Puja Changoiwala in FERN's latest story, published with Grist.
Minnesota’s new climate plan asks farmers to change how they farm
Anne Schwagerl would love to purchase an interseeder, a machine that plants cover crop seeds directly into a field where another crop like soybeans is already growing. But she and her husband, who grow a variety of grains on 400 acres in western Minnesota, can't afford the $80,000 price tag. So she was happy when the state legislature recently approved a cost-share program to help farmers to purchase such equipment.
U.S. announces $2.9 billion in global humanitarian aid
With world hunger rates rising, President Biden announced Wednesday at the United Nations an additional $2.9 billion in U.S. humanitarian assistance, including funds to feed schoolchildren and expand food production. We’re “taking on the food crisis head-on,” said Biden in a speech that denounced Russia for invading Ukraine and called for action on global warming.
Farm-state Republicans object to climate focus in land stewardship
Climate mitigation does not deserve priority over other soil and water conservation goals notwithstanding the $20 billion earmarked for it, said two senior Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. "I don't feel bound by the amount of funding or the specific program allocation passed in the partisan (climate, health and tax) bill," said Pennsylvania Rep Glenn Thompson, the Republican leader on the committee.
USDA triples funding for climate-smart ag projects
Showered by "amazing" proposals, the Biden administration said it will put $3.5 billion — three times more than originally planned — into pilot projects to mitigate global warming and create markets for climate-smart commodities. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the demonstration projects would put the United States in the lead internationally in climate-smart agriculture.
Gov. Newsom signs a fast-food labor bill but takes a measured approach toward ag
As he prepares for a possible presidential run, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has burnished some of his progressive credentials with a flurry of new legislation. On Monday, he rattled the fast food industry by signing a bill that could increase fast food workers' minimum wage to as much as $22 an hour, and he has made national news for his aggressive new policies to address the climate crisis.
Analysis: As Colorado River dwindles, water expert says ag must reform
On Tuesday, the Interior Department’s new water restrictions for the Colorado River offered a warning: If stakeholders fail to make further cuts in usage, one of the nation’s most vital watersheds could face, according to assistant secretary Tanya Trujillo, “catastrophic collapse.” Robert Glennon, one of the country’s leading experts in water policy and law, discusses what it means and what comes next. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Biogas incentives favor factory farms, critics say
Manure digesters are among the best-known ways for feedlots and dairy farms to capture greenhouse gas emissions and, in some cases, sell biomethane as a fuel. The climate, healthcare, and tax law signed this week by President Biden offers a new incentive to the biogas industry at the same time that the environmental credentials of on-farm digesters are being questioned.
Farm bill will benefit from climate funding, says Scott
Farmers will be able to adopt climate-smart practices at a faster pace, thanks to funding in the climate, healthcare and tax bill passed by Congress, said House Agriculture chairman David Scott. President Biden planned to sign the bill into law this week.
Smallest U.S. cotton crop in 13 years due to drought
U.S. cotton growers will harvest a drought-shortened crop of 12.57 million bales, their smallest since 2009, according to the USDA's monthly Crop Production report. Texas, the No. 1 producer, would account for nearly all of the nearly 5-million-bale decline in production from last year.