Growing Returns

How nature can protect farmers against droughts and floods

By Eileen McLellan / Bio / Published: February 2, 2015

Wacky weather isn’t just a fluke. According to the National Climate Assessment (NCA), extreme weather events are becoming more common and are likely to increase in the future, which poses challenges for farmers and communities.

Traditional ways of responding to weather crises, such as building higher flood walls and digging deeper wells are expensive and often fail.

The good news is that farmers are increasingly turning to more natural solutions and practices, often referred to as “green infrastructure,” that use nature to reduce the impacts of both floods and droughts.

Green infrastructure is also needed to reduce fertilizer pollution and restore the Gulf of Mexico dead zone to safe levels, as a new study published today in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) reports.

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agriculture, climate change, conservation tillage, cover crops, crops, drought, erosion, floods, food production, green infrastructure, water quality, wetland | Comments are closed

USDA-funded projects help farmers protect water and wildlife

By Eric Holst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 29, 2015

Earlier this month, the USDA authorized nearly $400 million in federal funds through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) to improve soil quality, water quality and quantity, and wildlife habitat.

The program funded 115 initiatives covering a wide range of conservation benefits, from improving wildlife conservation efforts in California’s ricelands to reducing fertilizer runoff in the Mississippi River Basin.

These projects demonstrate that by prioritizing spending of conservation dollars on projects where large numbers of farmers are committed to cooperative conservation, we can avoid the need for costly regulatory programs. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged california, California Rice Commission, central valley, central valley habitat exchange, conservation, farm bill, funding, grant, Lake Erie, phosphorus, regional conservation partnership program, Toledo, Tom Vilsak, USDA, water quality | Comments are closed

No-till farming can reduce input costs and improve soil health

By Karen Chapman / Bio / Published: January 29, 2015

No-till expert Barry Fisher. Credit: NRCS

Everyone agrees that no-till farming should be used in conjunction with other practices to maximize soil health – but in reality, “no-till” means different things to different people across the agricultural world.

To clarify what exactly is involved in no-till farming, a key topic of discussion at this week’s Soil Health Partnership (SHP) summit in St. Louis, I asked one of Indiana’s leading tillage experts, Barry Fisher, an agronomist and soil health specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agriculture, conservation, cover crops, farmers, farms, nutrient efficiency, soil health | Comments are closed

Four incentives that will push fertilizer efficiency to scale

By David Festa / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 26, 2015

We need fertilizers to maintain and increase farm productivity and feed a rapidly growing population, yet 50 percent of the nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops is lost to our waterways or into the air.

That’s not good – not for the grower, nor for the environment.

I’m optimistic that nutrient losses will soon be trending downward while productivity climbs. Here are four reasons why:

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agriculture, California Air Resources Board, GHG mitigation, nutrient efficiency, rice protocol, SUSTAIN, Walmart, water quality | Comments are closed

Full Belly Farm: The model for innovation during drought

By Ann Hayden / Bio / Published: January 22, 2015

Full Belly Farm owners in the pepper field

Credit: Paulo Vescia

It’s not always easy to incentivize private landowners to voluntarily implement water efficiency and conservation measures, particularly when there’s a drought. When drought hits, farmers desperately need water to grow thirsty crops and remain profitable. In the near term, it’s a lot easier, as “60 Minutes” recently reported, to keep drilling deeper and deeper to access quickly dwindling groundwater – at any cost.

As the “60 Minutes” story notes, groundwater is like a savings account that should primarily be used in times of need to supplement surface water supplies. With the most severe drought ever on record and surface water supplies at an all-time low, farmers all across California are pumping groundwater in record amounts – putting the state in serious risk of widespread groundwater overdraft.

That’s why the case of Full Belly Farm, a 400-acre, 30-year old certified organic farm located in Northern California – and recent winner of the prestigious Leopold Conservation Award – is especially impressive.

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged #compost, agriculture, california, drought, farmers, farms, food production, food security, soil health, water quality, water use, wildlife | Comments are closed

An agricultural marriage made in heaven: state programs & private sector initiatives

By Eileen McLellan / Bio / Published: January 14, 2015

At last week’s State Ag and Rural Leaders’ summit in Florida, legislators from across the U.S. discussed sustainability initiatives in the food supply chain. The conversations and presentations were informative for all – but what was missing from the conference was discussion about the role the private sector can play in supporting public sustainability initiatives.

State programs to support farmers

State programs can go a long way towards supporting farmers’ conservation efforts without economic downsides (and potentially increased revenues). Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agriculture, farmers, farms, food production, food security, nutrient efficiency, private sector, sustainability | Read 2 Responses

A sixth-generation farmer with a fresh and optimistic perspective on conservation

By Aaron Citron / Bio / Published: January 13, 2015

Pat O’Toole (second from left) and his family at Ladder Ranch.

Pat O’Toole is a rancher and farmer at Ladder Livestock, a sixth-generation family operation on the Little Snake River along the Wyoming-Colorado border. A leader in collaborative conservation, Pat is engaged in a number of innovative land and water conservation efforts in his capacity as president of the Family Farm Alliance and a member of the AGree advisory board.

This past September, Pat co-authored an AGree paper with Dan Keppen, Executive Director of Family Farm Alliance. The paper – Securing the Future of Western Agriculture: A Perspective of Western Producers – addresses some broad challenges facing the global food and agriculture system. Namely, the need to meet future demands for food while simultaneously enhancing water, soil and other natural resources.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Pat’s ranch to get a sense of these challenges that he and other Western producers face, and to learn more about what Pat is doing to overcome these challenges on his ranch. I asked him to give us a recap of our discussion and to tell us more about his vision for the future.
Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agree, agriculture, bird habitat, colorado, Colorado River cutthroat trout, conservation, family farm alliance, fish habitat, irrigation, pat o'toole, ranching, stream flows, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, water use, Wyoming | Comments are closed

Beyond regulation: making the business case for sustainable farming

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 7, 2015

Regulations and lawsuits generate more tension, disagreement, division, and, too often, failure to communicate, than just about anything else in the agricultural world. Regulations are on my mind of late because of several developments:

Ohio recently considered legislation to increase regulations on fertilizer applications after a toxic algae bloom last August shut down water supplies to nearly half a million people.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the final stages of a proposal to resolve ongoing confusion about the extent of federal jurisdiction over isolated wetlands and streams under the Clean Water Act (CWA), clarifying which are protected and which are not, based on science. Sixty percent of our nation’s streams lack clear protection from pollution under the CWA, yet one of every three Americans gets their drinking water from streams that are vulnerable to pollution. Just this week, new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that Congress will address this proposal in the current legislative session.

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged agriculture, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, nutrient pollution, regulation, toxic algae, Walmart, water quality | Read 1 Response

No time to wait: sage grouse delay gives urgency to conservation

By Eric Holst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: January 5, 2015

The greater sage-grouse

You may have seen a strange looking bird causing quite a stir in the news recently. That’s because there’s a lot at stake with the greater sage-grouse, especially now that a rider in the federal spending bill prevents the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the species under the Endangered Species Act in 2015 (a decision was originally expected in September). But this delay isn’t stopping ranchers, conservationists and other key stakeholder from moving full speed ahead to find a solution.

You might not get this sense from the political dialog and the media, but out on the ground, there is a real spirit of cooperation when it comes to the greater sage-grouse. That’s because everyone realizes that – rider or no rider, listing or no listing – this bird needs help.

Posted in Agriculture / Tagged conservation, environmental defense fund, eric holst, greater sage-grouse, habitat exchange, sage grouse, sally jewell, Terry Fankhauser | Comments are closed

Setting the table for more sustainable food in 2015

By EDF Staff / Published: December 29, 2014

2014 was a milestone year for sustainable agriculture across the United States and around the world. In the U.S., we saw food companies and agribusiness like United Suppliers step up to the plate to meet Walmart’s new demand for sustainable grains, and EDF’s launch of the new Sustainable Sourcing Initiative. We also saw the launch of the United Nations’ Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, which aims to enable 500 million farmers worldwide to practice sustainable farming.

On the Colorado River, countless stakeholders including U.S. and Mexican policymakers, conservation organizations and farmers came together to orchestrate and witness the Colorado River Delta pulse flow – the temporary release of water across the United States-Mexico border that brought relief and restoration to the dry, empty river delta ecosystem – an historic accomplishment for people and the environment.

Posted in Water / Tagged agriculture, California Air Resources Board, Carbon Offsets, climate change, compost protocol, farms, food security, GHG mitigation, habitat exchange, water quality, water use | Comments are closed