Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): China

Learning from shared scarcity: the Colorado River, the Yellow River and the world

By Brian Jackson / Bio / Published: October 31, 2023

This blog is co-authored by Yiwei Gan.

One of the largest rivers in the world struggles to reach the ocean. Spread across a huge slice of a continent, its basin supports millions. Yet the weight of its work to irrigate and power booming farms and cities in an increasingly arid zone is straining the river to a breaking point. For many working in the western water space, this describes the Colorado. A river whose over-work and over-allocation, despite its fundamental role in sustaining life for half a continent, seems in many ways singular.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged agriculture, climate change, colorado river, environmental defense fund, sustainability, water, water solutions, Yellow River | Comments are closed

Three areas ripe for public investment in U.S. agriculture

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: November 7, 2016

Sichuan Province, China

Agriculture doesn’t often attract big investments like those that flow to technology.

But that may have just changed.

The Chinese government recently announced plans to invest $450 billion over the next four years – yep, billions – to help modernize agriculture and scale up practices that increase food security while hopefully minimizing impacts to the environment.

This eye-popping investment should be seen as a wake up call to the United States. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged agricultural research, climate change, conservation, cover crops, data, grasslands, greenhouse gas emissions, investment, no-till, Partnerships, research funding, resilience, soil sensor, sustainable agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA | Comments are closed

How to make meat production more sustainable? Start with corn.

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: October 16, 2015

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on October 16th.

It’s World Food Day, which promotes awareness of the planet’s most challenging food issues, including eradicating global hunger. All food production depends on environmental health, but food production itself can harm the planet.

So to address hunger and increase food security, we’ll need to address the environmental impacts of food production and how the food choices we make every day affect the planet.

These choices affect the stability of the climate, the availability of clean drinking water and running rivers, and the persistence of native habitats and the wildlife they house.

No matter our political or cultural differences when it comes to food, there’s one trend that is clear: across the globe, we are making the choice to eat more meat. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, climate change, corn, ecosystems, farmers, farms, feed grain, fertilizer, food production, food security, GHG mitigation, meat, meat production, North Carolina, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, Smithfield Foods, soil health, sustainability, sustainable agriculture | Comments are closed