Seaweed Farming Can Feed Fish and Address Climate Change
Seaweed farming has enormous potential as a tool to combat climate change.
Climate Change
Mass Movement and the ‘Femininization’ of Agriculture
‘Women are the first victims of climate change’, said Dumont at the 4th World Congress on Agroforestry in Montpellier, France, in May, ‘because they depend on tree resources’.
Can We Improve Carbon Sequestration in Plants?
And here …The planet’s plants pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it in their leaves, stems and roots. Some of that carbon makes its way into the soil, and some of that soil carbon is ultimately mothballed for millennia.
These days, though, “we as humans are putting up so much CO2 that the Earth is not able to compensate,” says Wolfgang Busch, a plant biologist with the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. Busch is working on a new project: to design plants that can suck even more CO2 out of the atmosphere and lock it away for centuries.
What Farmers Can Do About Climate Change: Dynamic Cropping Systems
Dynamic cropping is an ecologically-based management strategy that optimizes production through the use of flexible crop sequencing. Here are the stories of four farmers who have found success with dynamic cropping systems.
What Farmers Can Do About Climate Change: Grazing
The policy team from the National Farmer’s Union looks at the use of prescribed grazing, silvopasture, and rotational grazing as climate smart strategies.
Plant Scientists Must Play a Role in Climate Smart Agriculture
Kevin Folta of the University of Florida explains why molecular biologists and plant breeders must play a role in Climate Smart Agriculture.
Trump’s Rash Departure From Paris Agreement Leaves Farmers Worse Off
National Farmer’s Union president Roger Johnson on why Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement will be bad for farmers.
Defending Science: How the Art of Rhetoric Can Help
When scientists gather to march for science, we want them to know about this body of research. In addition to carrying signs, they can take up the toolbox of effective communication known as the rhetorical tradition. Rhetoricians will be marching by their side, allies in the battle to protect science from politically motivated attacks on one of the greatest treasures of the nation.
Carbon Farming for Fun and Profit. Good Policy Can Help.
With shifting political winds and poor commodity prices, farmers may now be willing to consider new ways of generating income by adopting environmentally friendly practices, such as planting cover crops, extending crop rotations or eliminating tillage. Many farmers are already using these practices on a small scale. To combat climate change and stabilize incomes, farmers should look to policy to tackle both in tandem.
How Agriculture Can Help Drive a Low Carbon Economy
The Obama administration White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently released an intriguing report on how the United States can transition to a low-carbon economy by 2050 while continuing economic growth. The report gives a starring role in this job to agricultural lands.
“Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization” outlines a 3-pronged strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent while accelerating job-creating innovation. Calling each strategy “critical,” CEQ first lists the familiar call to transition to renewable and low carbon forms of energy.
The second key strategy, however, is less often discussed: the potential of cropland and grassland soils, as well as forests, to store and sequester hundreds of millions of tons of CO2 annually. The report – informed by decades of scientific research – describes the opportunities to explore in this area.
‘Meating’ in the Middle on the ‘Meat vs Vegetarian’ Climate Change Diet Debate
The contribution of animal-source foods to global warming cannot be ignored. But encouraging everyone to become vegetarian or even vegan isn’t the silver bullet solution envisioned by some. The direction we need to move in is different in the developed world than it is in the developing world.
Measuring Methane Emissions From Cows is Elusive, But We’re Getting Closer
If farmers are to mitigate methane emissions, they need to know where and under what conditions the emissions occur. And they need management options that have been proven to make a difference.
Environmental Defense Fund, thanks to a generous grant, is helping to quantify methane emissions from different management approaches. This work builds on EDF’s earlier efforts to develop good estimates of methane released through the energy sector.
4 Important Lessons Hurricane Matthew Teaches Us About Resilience
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Here’s What We Can Do About the Huge Greenhouse Gas Problems of Landfills and Food Waste
Guest author: Erica Gies | Twitter:@egies This article previously appeared in Ensia. It appears here by permission under a Creative Commons license. Food and yard […]