Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): farmers

New research helps farmers set targets for reducing emissions

By Eileen McLellan / Bio / Published: May 26, 2015

Credit: photos.com

The easiest way to tackle fertilizer pollution is to lower the amount of nitrogen applied to crops, thereby reducing nutrient losses into the air and water. The problem is, reducing fertilizer rates can also shrink crop yields, which means less income for farmers and less food on our plates.

So here’s the question: how can we slash nitrous oxide emissions from agriculture without sacrificing productivity?

To meet this challenge, scientists need to understand the relationship between “nitrogen surplus” (the amount of applied nitrogen fertilizer not taken up by the plant), “nutrient use efficiency” (the ratio of how much yield you get from each pound of fertilizer applied) and nitrous oxide emissions that contribute to climate change. The more nitrogen a plant absorbs, the less it releases into the air in the form of nitrous oxide and into the water where it can contribute to harmful algal blooms. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, climate change, farms, GHG emissions, GHG mitigation, nitrogen surplus, nitrogen uptake, nitrous oxide, nutrient efficiency, tipping point | Comments are closed

How agriculture’s resilience to climate change benefits us all

By Sara Kroopf / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 21, 2015

81 percent of Americans live in cities, but rely on rural areas for everyday needs.

Traditionally, governments haven’t factored farms and ranches into their climate mitigation and adaptation planning. Instead, the focus has mostly been on protecting urban communities. But that is all changing. At the National Adaptation Forum earlier this month in St. Louis, agriculture was top-of-mind in discussions about reducing emissions and building resilience to climate change.

That’s because in order to protect people, 81 percent of whom live in urban areas, we’ll need to protect what’s around where they live, too. It’s largely rural areas, like the farming town of 1,100 people where I grew up, whose working lands and farms provide valuable services to urban areas. These services include food security, flood and drought protection, recreation and water storage. Agriculture can also play (and is already playing) a big role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The more resilient we can make agriculture, the better off we’ll all be. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged adaptation, agriculture, Air Resources Board, American Carbon Registry, climate change, compost protocol, GHG mitigation, green infrastructure, mitigation, ranchers, USDA, wetlands | Read 3 Responses

Meet Brent Bible, state trooper turned farmer and mentor

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 14, 2015

A new Purdue University study released this week found that agriculture will create nearly 60,000 jobs each year for the next five years. But to meet this growing demand, more students will need to graduate with agricultural degrees. And as the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a recent interview, the farming sector must do more to work with students and the educational system as a whole.

That’s where growers like Brent Bible come into play. Brent is inspiring the next generation of farmers, scientists, researchers, and agronomists through his work with Purdue students who help him operate his 3,000-acre grain farm in Indiana. He’s also promoting soil health, nutrient efficiency, and sustainable agriculture through changes in on-farm practices.

I asked Brent, a former Indiana state police officer, about his transition to the agricultural world, his work with the Soil Health Partnership, and what gets him out of bed every morning. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, farms, food production, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, Purdue, Purdue University, soil health, Soil Health Partnership | Comments are closed

Why the food movement is alive and well

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: May 11, 2015

Mark Bittman’s recent New York Times op-ed, “Let’s Make Food Issues Real,” is a grim assessment of the current state of the food movement – in fact, he questions whether a food movement exists at all.

Bittman states that the lack of major change to government food policies means the food movement is not winning. “I’ll believe there’s a food movement when Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are forced to talk directly about food issues,” Bittman writes.

I’ll take that bet. With the drought in California threatening the nation’s produce and the other impacts climate change pose to our food supply, I think it’s likely that the next group of presidential candidates will discuss food issues on the campaign trail. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, California Air Resources Board, Carbon Offsets, climate change, drought, farms, food movement, food production, Mark Bittman, nutrient efficiency, USDA | Read 2 Responses

Water risk: Which food companies are managing it and how can they do better?

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: May 8, 2015

Credit: Flickr user phphoto2010

Unreliable water supply and quality is a source of enormous risk to the agricultural sector. That was the key takeaway of a new report from Ceres that evaluated 37 of the world’s leading agriculture, beverage, meat and packaged food companies to see how they are managing risks from diminishing water supplies and water quality.

In a nutshell, companies need to improve their performance.

Companies use huge amounts of water in the production of crops, which also affects water quality when nitrogen fertilizer not absorbed by plants runs off into waterways. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, climate change, drought, food production, sustainability, water, water deficit, water quality, water use | Comments are closed

Why you won’t see an eco-label on your corn flakes anytime soon

By Katie Anderson / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: April 28, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Mike Mozart

Corn affects every person in the United States.

It is grown on about 90 million acres, an area roughly the size of Montana. Corn is ubiquitous in the products we buy, from shampoo and sodas to ethanol and animal feed.

The crop also uses the majority of nitrogen fertilizer in agriculture, requiring more nitrogen than soybeans, cotton and wheat combined. Nitrogen is necessary to produce corn. But when nitrogen is over-applied, crops cannot absorb it all – and this can lead to air and water pollution.

Fortunately, figuring out ways to use nutrients more efficiently to reduce loss improves a farmer’s bottom line. It also gives them a competitive advantage, as more and more food companies are embracing sustainability and fertilizer efficiency as a way to reduce risk in their supply chains. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, companies, farms, food companies, food production, nutrient efficiency | Comments are closed

USDA’s new climate strategy is a huge step in the right direction

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: April 23, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Nicholas A. Tonelli

The U.S. Department of Agriculture just announced a new national climate strategy aimed at reducing emissions from the agriculture and forestry sectors. USDA will partner with farmers and ranchers on voluntary and incentive-based approaches to implement climate-smart agriculture techniques and programs. This approach will also ensure that crops are resilient to increasing fluctuations in weather and climates, and that farmers’ livelihoods are protected.

The new focus on ‘cooperative conservation’ is a huge step in the right direction.

America’s farmers face a challenge: increase productivity to feed a growing population, but do so in an era where climate is becoming increasingly unpredictable, with warmer growing seasons, droughts, and floods. Farmers are also called upon to increase production in a way that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This is a tall order, given that if we continue with current farming practices agriculture could be responsible for 70 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, Carbon Offsets, Climate, climate change, conservation, emissions, food production, food security, GHG mitigation, nutrient efficiency, sustainability, United Suppliers, USDA, White House | Comments are closed

How to end the fertilizer guessing game

By Karen Chapman / Bio / Published: April 20, 2015

As spring planting season gets underway, many farmers are starting to wonder how much nitrogen they should apply to their crops this year to maximize yields.

The traditional approach is to apply a bit of extra fertilizer as an insurance policy to protect yields in case some of it washes away. The problem is, this is costly – nitrogen fertilizer accounts for at least half of farmers’ input costs, even though on average, 50 percent of the nitrogen applied is lost – and harmful to air and water quality.

What we need is to get to a sweet spot of fertilizer application – meaning the right amount that both protects natural resources and maximizes yields.

I asked Thomas Morris, professor of soil fertility at the University of Connecticut, about ways that research, precision agriculture tools, and data analysis can help farmers determine the right amount of fertilizer to apply to their crops. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture / Also tagged agriculture, conservation, farmer network, farms, Land Grand University, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, nutrient pollution, soil health, sustainability | Comments are closed

California’s drought is real, but it’s dusted up a lot of hot air

By Ann Hayden / Bio / Published: April 10, 2015

Credit: Shutterstock

Finger-pointing tends to sharpen during times of crisis.

Exhibit A: California, now entering its fourth year of drought.

If you’ve followed media coverage of the drought lately – which has spiraled to new heights since Gov. Jerry Brown ordered the state’s first mandatory cuts in urban water use last week – you’ve probably heard that agriculture was “spared” the knife.

An interview with Gov. Brown on PBS Newshour perfectly encapsulates the debate of the past week:

“Well, Governor, encouraging people to decrease watering their lawns seems like literally a drop in the bucket, when 80 percent of the water … is from the agriculture sector,” the reporter starts out. “We know that it costs an enormous amount of water to have a single almond to eat … Is it time for us to start zeroing in on the largest customers or users of water?”

While it’s true that agriculture is California’s biggest water user, and that some crops require more water than others, it’s unfair and inaccurate to suggest, first, that agriculture was passed over, and second, that a small nut is primarily to blame for sucking the state dry. It’s more complicated than that. Read More »

Posted in Water / Also tagged agriculture, almonds, california, central valley, drought, food production, food security, sustainability, water quality, water use | Read 3 Responses

Colorado farmers have a lot to say about the state’s first-ever water plan

By Aaron Citron / Bio / Published: April 1, 2015

This post was co-written by Mark Harris, general manager for the Grand Valley Water Users’ Association.

In a recent op-ed, the Colorado Forum – a nonpartisan organization of CEOs and civic leaders – delivered a powerful message to Governor Hickenlooper, who is drafting a first-ever Colorado Water Plan to confront the state’s growing water demands.

The forum’s message: we must all work together to secure a water future that keeps Colorado a world class place to live, visit, work and play.

The forum made a handful of recommendations in the article, but one stood out to us as particularly relevant as we attempt to balance many competing interests in a single water plan: agriculture must be given the freedom and opportunity to thrive in Colorado’s water future. Read More »

Posted in Water / Also tagged agriculture, colorado, Colorado forum, colorado water plan, drought, efficiency, governor, Grand Valley Water Users' Association, hickenlooper, irrigation, state water plan, water supply, water use | Comments are closed