Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): water use

Why an Arkansas rice farmer is betting on California’s carbon market (and you should too)

By Robert Parkhurst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: December 8, 2014

Mark Isbell on his farm. Photo credit: Farm Flavor.

Mark Isbell is a rice farmer in Arkansas. He is participating in a pilot project to generate carbon credits by modifying growing practices to reduce the generation of methane and save water.

These practices are being considered by the California Air Resources Board at their meeting on December 18. I asked Mark to tell me why he got involved in this pilot and what it means to growers in his region.

What things did you consider as a part of participating in the agricultural carbon market?

Zero Grade (fields precisely leveled to have no slope) and Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) are the primary practices we have implemented. These are the best candidates for creating carbon offsets while also increasing efficiencies in other areas. Careful nitrogen management is another practice. Extra nitrogen not only leads to unnecessary nitrous oxide emissions, but also provides no benefit to the crop. It can actually be detrimental. The key is finding just the right amount of nitrogen. We are open to trying other practices as we move forward, and have some new ideas in development that we believe may add another layer to this. Read More »

Posted in Carbon Market / Also tagged alternate wetting and drying, arkansas, California Air Resources Board, carbon market, ecosystems, irrigation, mark isbell, rice farmer, water efficiency, western water, zero grade | Comments are closed

California’s new water law a win for agriculture and the environment

By Ann Hayden / Bio / Published: December 3, 2014

Now that voter passage of a $7.5-billion water bond is firmly set in California’s rear-view mirror, it’s time to look forward and map out the road before us. How will the money be spent, and where will it drive change?

Beneficiaries of the new law will be vast, to be sure, but a good chunk of change is slated to support farm communities while restoring habitat and freeing water up for the environment. Here’s how:

$900 million for groundwater sustainability

This funding has the potential to improve the quality and reliability of groundwater resources that many agricultural communities across the state depend on. It is designed to ensure that projects are prioritized based on several criteria, including how the project will prevent the spread of groundwater contamination into storage areas, how the project will impact local water supply reliability, and whether the project can recharge vulnerable and high-use groundwater basins.

Posted in Habitat Exchange / Also tagged agriculture, california, Chinook salmon, conservation, ecosystems, endangered species, groundwater, habitat exchange, sustainable agriculture, Swainson's hawk, water bond, Western Farm Press, western water | Comments are closed

A new perspective on the risks to western lands and water

By Jennifer Pitt / Bio / Published: November 4, 2014

Photo credit: David Owen with support from Lighthawk.

EDF’s Jennifer Pitt prepares for her flight. EDF partnered with LightHawk to increase understanding of the impacts of water imports to population centers in Colorado’s Front Range. Photo credit: David Owen with support from LightHawk.

I’ve been a student of water use, storage and transportation for decades, but never before have I seen the collection and diversion systems from the air, other than a glimpse of a big reservoir from a commercial jet. That is, not until a few weeks ago, when I had the extraordinary opportunity to fly with a LightHawk volunteer pilot to see Colorado’s waterworks from the air.

Seeing the landscape from above gave me a completely new perspective.

The point of my trip was to see the effects that Colorado’s urban growth – with its increasing urban water demands – is having on the state’s working lands and rivers. One view painted a very clear picture: a footprint of idled farmland in Rocky Ford, Colorado.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged agriculture, buy and dry, colorado, colorado river, drought, ecosystems, fallowing, farmland, Lighthawk, rivers, rocky ford, water supply, western slope, western water | Comments are closed

What is climate-smart agriculture?

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: September 25, 2014

You may have heard by now about “climate-smart agriculture.” It’s the catchphrase that came out of the United Nations Climate Summit this week and the reason I was in New York to participate in a panel discussion on how to achieve food security for a growing population in a climate-changing world.

More than 20 governments and 30 organizations announced they would join the newly launched Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture, which aims to enable 500 million farmers worldwide to practice climate-smart agriculture. This is wonderful. But what does it mean in practice?

My colleagues and I have been asking ourselves this question since the concept was originally introduced by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in 2010. Over the past four years, we’ve done some hard thinking on which practices, precisely, will get us to a point where we can keep pace with the food demands of a growing global population and increase the resiliency of our food systems to the harsh impacts of climate change.

“Growing” habitat can help agriculture and wildlife weather the drought

By Ann Hayden / Bio / Published: September 11, 2014

The California drought is putting the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers at serious risk. Without a reliable water supply, many fields are going fallow. This not only threatens the state’s world-leading agricultural economy, it significantly impacts wildlife species that depend on agricultural lands for survival.

A pioneering program under development in California’s Central Valley, however, may offer farmers and wildlife some relief. It’s called the Central Valley Habitat Exchange, and while it wasn’t conceived for the express purpose of helping growers in times of drought, it can reward producers who provide habitat by growing less water-intensive crops. Here’s how.

Five reasons to care about climate change and agriculture

By Rebecca Shaw / Bio / Published: September 4, 2014

Rebecca Shaw is an expert panelist at the 2014 Society of Environmental Journalists conference in New Orleans, talking about “Feeding Eight Billion People in a Warming World.”

You may have seen the recent news about the potential impacts of drought on craft breweries like Lagunitas. Or the articulate Mother Jones headline – Lay Off the Almond Milk, You Ignorant Hipsters. Talking about climate change in terms of beer and almond milk isn’t a bad strategy for capturing the attention of thirsty Americans, but it’s not just our favorite beverages that are at risk.

Climate change poses a number of potential threats to the global food system, namely because of the impacts to agriculture. Here are five reasons why everyone from beer drinkers in California to bean farmers in Latin America should care about climate change and agriculture.

1. Rising temperatures could burn a hole in your wallet. The 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report found that, with average temperature increases of 3 to 4ºC, we will see large negative impacts on farm yields and severe risks to food security. Not only are food markets sensitive to climate extremes, but food prices are expected to rise anywhere from 3 to 84 percent by 2050.

California’s salad bowl tosses up new ideas in sustainability

By Robert Parkhurst / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: August 27, 2014

EDF’s Robert Parkhurst participated in the 2014 California Educational Fellowship, organized by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation and its alumni.

I recently had the unique opportunity to learn firsthand how central California farmers are constantly changing the way specialty crops are grown, squeezing more from fewer resources and reducing their impacts on the environment.

I joined a handful of other ag policy experts in a visit to the Salinas Valley, considered “the salad bowl of the world,” where we learned about the current issues and complex challenges facing the state’s farmers and ranchers. The trip was organized by the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation.

Running about 90 miles from Monterey to San Luis Obispo, the Salinas Valley alone grows more than 85 percent of the nation’s artichokes, 55 percent of the nation’s lettuce and 30 percent of the nation’s strawberries. It also leads the state of California in the production of broccoli, celery, mushrooms and cabbage.

Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged drip irrigation, ecosystems, pest control, Salinas Valley, sustainable agriculture, western water | Read 1 Response

Stories of young farmers, water and resilience

By Aaron Citron / Bio / Published: August 15, 2014

Mike De Smet. Photo credit: National Young Farmers Coalition

I recently blogged about the growing gap between water supply and demand in the Colorado River Basin, and how the default solution too often involves permanently taking water out of agricultural irrigation and transferring it to meet the needs of a growing urban population.

Alternative solutions do exist – ones that don’t leave farmland unproductive and threaten the agricultural economy that sustains us all. To prove this point, I would like to turn to the stories of a few young farmers who, despite record drought in the arid Southwest, have begun to adapt through innovative drought mitigation and water-saving practices, proving that increased productivity and healthy ecosystems can coexist.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged sustainable agriculture, western water | Comments are closed

We can have food security and a healthy environment

By David Festa / Bio / Twitter profile / Published: August 13, 2014

The way we produce food is getting a lot of attention these days, and for good reason. If current projections hold, we’ll have 9 billion mouths to feed by 2050 – 2 billion more than we have today.

Throughout history, when we’ve needed to expand food production, we’ve gone to nature’s vast storehouse and made withdrawals. In doing so, we’ve filled wetlands, dried up rivers, degraded habitat, and polluted our air and water.

We’ve already drawn down nature’s account to dangerously low levels, and we still need to produce more.

If we’re going to meet growing needs for food and water, we’re going to have to do it in ways that not only stop harming the environment, but actually improve the ecosystems that serve us. Business as usual just isn’t going to cut it.

Farmers lead the way

During the past decade, we’ve been in quiet conversations with farmers and ranchers about how to facilitate this transformation. As we’ve walked their land, we’ve seen some encouraging things. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged ecosystems, farmers, food security, golden cheeked warbler, irrigation, ranchers, sustainable agriculture, water, western water, Woolf Family Farms | Read 1 Response

The Colorado River Basin can’t afford to leave farmers out to dry

By Aaron Citron / Bio / Published: July 24, 2014

On Colorado River Day, it’s worth considering how we can write the next chapter in the water story of the American West.

With the recent news that Lake Mead is at its lowest level in history, it’s impossible to ignore the trajectory of America’s hardest-working river. In the Colorado River Basin, we are already using more water annually than is being supplied by snowpack and other precipitation. The Bureau of Reclamation and others predict that this gap in water supply and demand will increase to nearly 4 million acre-feet by 2060, with significant shortages possible as early as 2017.

It has become clear that, over time, our water uses are going to have to change. In thinking about where – in what sectors – this change should take place, we must also consider the environmental, cultural and economic services that each sector provides.

Posted in Uncategorized / Also tagged agriculture, colorado river, colorado river day, denver water, drought, ecosystems, irrigation, irrigation efficiency, western water | Comments are closed