Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): farmers

Why the sustainable agriculture glass is half full

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 8, 2015

Suzy Friedman, Director of Agricultural Sustainability at EDF

I’ve been working to promote and implement sustainable agriculture practices for nearly 15 years. But the last two years have seen more action and momentum in this space than in all of the previous 13 years combined – and I’m more enthusiastic than ever.

Let me be clear – we still have a long way to go. As a USDA report released at the Paris climate talks noted, warming temperatures pose a significant threat to agriculture and food security across the globe. And, despite technological advancements, the multimillion-dollar question of how we’re going to measure and quantify sustainable agriculture remains.

But a new progress report from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), also released last week in Paris, reaffirms my optimism and excitement. We’re headed in the right direction, and sustainable agriculture is on its way to becoming the norm. Here’s why. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, Campbell's, Climate, climate change, conservation, ecosystems, farms, fertilizer, food, food production, food security, General Mills, GHG mitigation, precision agriculture, sustainable agriculture, Unilever, USDA | Comments are closed

New climate change report is an urgent call to action for agriculture

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: December 2, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Bruno Monginoux

The USDA today released a new scientific assessment at the United Nations negotiations in Paris that found climate change will pose a significant threat to food security and to farmers.

National Public Radio’s Dan Charles said it best in his latest story:

“Chances are, you’ve picked up some chatter about the new global talks on climate change. If you can’t quite see how it matters to you, personally, you might want to take a peek inside your pantry. Or your candy jar. Because it might just affect your access to everything from cheese to chocolate.”

Today’s report represents an urgent call to action for food companies, policymakers and agribusinesses to collaborate in reducing emissions from food production and implementing farming practices that increase resilience.

We have the tools at our disposal to make sustainable agriculture a reality. But to implement these measures at scale, we need increased investment from the private sector and collaboration across the agricultural supply chain. We need to go beyond commitments and towards on-the-ground support for farmers. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, Carbon Offsets, climate change, conservation, COP 21, ecosystems, fertilizer, food production, food safety, food security, food system, food waste, GHG mitigation, nitrogen, sustainable, sustainable agriculture, USDA | Comments are closed

5 steps to move food production from transparency to sustainability

By Maggie Monast / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 1, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Brian Talbot

A new survey from the Center for Food Integrity suggests that transparency is no longer optional for food companies. Consumers want to know what’s in their food, where it’s from, and how its production helps or harms the planet.

“Consumers increasingly expect their favorite brands to assure more than quality and safety,” said the center’s CEO, Charlie Arnot. “They now expect those brands to assure the supply chain is also transparent.”

Transparency will bring companies’ environmental impacts to light– which can then motivate improvement. But it doesn’t guarantee sustainability – especially when it comes to agriculture. That’s because it’s up to food companies themselves to do the heavy lifting – to address the actual environmental impacts of food production.

For food companies to reach their sustainability goals, transparency is often just the first step. Here’s what follows. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, Center for Food Integrity, climate change, ecosystems, fertilizer, food production, food security, GHG mitigation, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, Smithfield, sustainable agriculture, Unilever, United Suppliers, Walmart, water quality | Read 1 Response

Agriculture doesn’t have a seat at the Paris climate talks, but we can’t wait for an invitation

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: November 24, 2015

Credit: Flickr user Domenico

The CEOs of 14 major food and beverage companies have now signed a joint letter asking the 190 governments attending next month’s United Nations climate change negotiations in Paris to act decisively in order to protect global food supplies. In the letter, sponsored by sustainability advocate Ceres, these businesses pledged to accelerate action on climate change and asked U.S. and world leaders to do the same.

Other stakeholders are also pushing for crop production and food security to be a major topic of discussion at the upcoming negotiations, but agriculture isn’t in the draft text for a new climate agreement. Most of the focus will be on emissions from deforestation and land use changes.

These are pressing and important issues that are very closely tied to agriculture – but they don’t capture the emissions and environmental impacts that result from food production. This is problematic, since there’s a lot at stake for farmers. Reports on how climate change will impact the global food supply and crops will suffer from higher temperatures are everywhere.

That’s why we need investment, research, and tangible actions to help farmers and protect our food supply – and we need it now. Fortunately, the private sector can help – their pledges are a great step in the right direction, but it’s the demonstrations of agricultural innovation from within that can spark real change, at scale. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience / Also tagged agriculture, Campbell Soup, climate change, COP 21, crop production, deforestation, fertilizer, Field to Market, food production, General Mills, Kellogg, Paris talks, Partnerships, Smithfield Foods, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, Unilever, United Suppliers | Read 2 Responses

How a 10-year old Walmart speech fostered sustainable food production

By Elizabeth Sturcken / Bio / Published: November 18, 2015

Ten years ago the former CEO of Walmart, Lee Scott, made a speech that included three aspirational environmental goals. One of these goals was “to sell products that sustain our resources and environment.”

Yesterday Walmart announced that it will surpass its aggressive goal of reducing 20 million metric tons (MMT) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its supply chain. In total, Walmart will reduce 28 MMT of GHG from its supply chain by the end of 2015. That’s the equivalent of getting almost six million cars off the road.

To achieve this goal, Walmart tackled a diverse range of projects, including changing food date labeling to reduce waste and working with food companies and EDF to optimize fertilizer use on over 20 million acres of U.S. farmland.

As EDF president Fred Krupp said, “When you can get big companies to do important things, you can change the world.”

That’s why Walmart’s commitments have had a ripple effect with food companies across the country – 15 companies representing 30 percent of the U.S. food and beverage market created fertilizer efficiency plans – and why the retailer is helping make sustainable food production the norm. Walmart and the food companies supplying products to the retailer’s shelves understand that we’re facing environmental challenges that demand market based solutions. Read More »

Posted in Climate Resilience, Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, climate change, fertilizer, food companies, food production, greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas emissions, Partnerships, supply chain, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, the sustainability consortium, Walmart | Comments are closed

When landowners invest in sustainability, everyone wins

By Katie Anderson / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: November 12, 2015

Forty percent of the U.S. is taken up by farmland. Yet only half of these acres are actually owned by active farmers. In the Corn Belt, 70 percent of growers rent some portion of their land from a non-farming landlord. And the biggest growth in non-farming landowners is coming from investors that see farmland ownership as a good business opportunity.

Here’s the problem: non-farming landlords aren’t always informed on the best ways to care for the farm, which can present environmental and economic challenges for tenants and the owners themselves.

As more non-farmers buy up cropland, government agencies, organizations, and even the private sector will need to ramp up efforts to educate landowners on the importance of soil health, fertilizer efficiency, and other conservation measures in protecting their farm’s value and making the land more resilient to extreme weather events.

Non-farming landowners can be a powerful partner in reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint at scale and ensuring food productivity in the future. Plus, when landowners invest in sustainability and collaborate with those farming their lands, everyone wins – growers, landowners, consumers, and the planet. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged agriculture, conservation, cropland, farmland, fertilizer, food production, investment, iowa, landowners, nutrient efficiency, Oakland Institute, Partnerships, property value, soil health, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, tenants | Read 1 Response

Remembering an agricultural pioneer

By Robert Parkhurst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: October 28, 2015

Dr. Changsheng Li. Credit: University of New Hampshire

You may not know the name Dr. Changsheng Li, who passed away last week after a courageous battle with cancer, but his legacy will live on for generations.

A professor at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), Dr. Changsheng developed and refined a model that has been used in more than 20 countries to calculate methane and nitrous oxide emissions from crop production.

A UNH faculty award from 2009 noted that “it is rare to meet a person who fairly radiates humility and compassion. Changsheng Li of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space is just such an individual.” He will be sorely missed by his friends at Environmental Defense Fund – and across the entire agricultural world.

His work took on new meaning and unprecedented momentum over the past few months with several big developments in the field of agricultural carbon markets – successes that would not have been possible without his pioneering work. Read More »

Posted in Carbon Market, Climate Resilience, Wildlife Protection / Also tagged agriculture, carbon markets, Climate, climate change, conservation, DNDC, GHG mitigation, greenhouse gas, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, University of New Hampshire | Comments are closed

How “plant doctor” Dan Sonke is making Campbell Soups’ ingredients greener

By Suzy Friedman / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: October 26, 2015

Dan Sonke, Manager of Agricultural Sustainability at Campbell Soup.

The Campbell Soup Company, along with a growing number of major food companies, is taking action to implement and support sustainable agriculture measures. It’s in their best interest to decrease the risk of supply chain disruptions.

Plus, there’s increasing consumer demand for transparency. A new report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that 78 percent of Americans are interested in how their food is produced.

I asked Dan Sonke, manager of agricultural sustainability at Campbell’s, to explain how his company is working with farmers to reduce environmental impacts, why they’re working with Environmental Defense Fund, and about the unprecedented demand he’s seeing for sustainable grain. Read More »

Posted in Supply Chain / Also tagged agriculture, Campbell Soup, Campbell's, ecosystems, farms, fertilizer, food production, food security, GHG mitigation, nutrient efficiency, Partnerships, soil health, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, tomatoes, United Suppliers, vegetables, Walmart, wheat | Comments are closed

Fertilizer runoff is just one piece of the dead zone puzzle

By Eileen McLellan / Bio / Published: October 21, 2015

Dead zones (also called hypoxic zones) are caused by a rapid growth in algae that leads to less dissolved oxygen in the water and the death of aquatic species. Credit: Ohio Wetlands Association

It’s true that fertilizer runoff, sewage, and other pollutants from the Corn Belt have significantly boosted dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s because up to half of the fertilizer applied isn’t absorbed by crops, and in order to grow more food we’re using 20 times more fertilizer in the Corn Belt today than in the 1950s.

But even if we optimize fertilizer use on all cropland in the Upper Mississippi and Ohio River Basins, nutrients will still be lost to rivers and streams and carried into the Gulf of Mexico. Some of this loss is inevitable given factors like unpredictable weather, but my colleagues and I set out to quantify other reasons for why the Corn Belt exports so much nitrogen.

We discovered that an increase in fertilizer inputs is only one part of the problem. Three other distinct but interconnected factors also contribute to water pollution and the Gulf dead zone: the loss of perennial cover, the construction of artificial drainage systems, and the loss of wetlands. Read More »

Posted in Wildlife Protection / Also tagged agriculture, conservation, corn, cover crops, dead zone, ecosystems, farms, fertilizer, food, food production, Gulf of Mexico, nitrogen, nutrient efficiency, nutrient pollution, row crop, sustainable agriculture, western water, wetlands | Comments are closed

Why almond lovers can breathe easy again

By Sara Kroopf / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: October 20, 2015

It’s been a tough year for the almond. Vilified and beaten down, the nut has come to symbolize the California drought. While the reasons for and solutions to the drought are complicated and nuanced, the almond’s reputation has nonetheless suffered.

Meanwhile, farmers across the board are under increasing pressure – from regulatory requirements and increasing consumer demand for transparency – to modify their fertilizer application practices and thereby reduce nitrogen losses to the air and water.

Fortunately, there’s good reason for the almond to cheer up – a new Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) from the California Department of Food & Agriculture will support the state’s almond growers in their ongoing efforts to make nut production more sustainable, without sacrificing yields. Read More »

Posted in Carbon Market, Climate Resilience / Also tagged agriculture, almond board of california, almonds, california, California Air Resources Board, drought, fertilizer, food production, food security, nut, Partnerships, pistachios, soil health, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, UC Davis, USDA, walnuts, water use, western water | Read 1 Response