Using uncertainty as an excuse to wait and see when it comes to the ecological and climate crisis is bad for business, bad for farming and bad for health.
Weeks of 100-plus-F temperatures in the West in 2023 made headlines in the U.S., but Europe had a super-heated summer, too. Likewise, flooding swamped farmers in the U.S. Northeast and in Germany over the summer. The rising severity of weather and climate impacts on the global food system became the focus of a panel held at Agritechnica 2023 in Hanover, Germany.
Farmers are becoming more open to acknowledging that carbon emissions and climate change are becoming a problem, according to Iowa State University researcher J. Arbuckle. And it’s a good thing they’re willing to talk about it, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that without cutting carbon emissions, growers will face increasing weather challenges, including severe storms, droughts, floods and pest migrations — problems that could be a major hit to the bottom line.
A weed that Central Illinoisans see along roadways, at the edges of fields or at construction sites has been domesticated in Central Illinois into a crop that researchers say has the potential to help combat climate change and provide additional income to farmers. The high-protein seed oil that derives from the pennycress plant, with genetic modifications, has a plethora of environmental positives. Read more in this article from The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL).
There is a lot of talk about climate change. Many people point to agriculture as one of the potential sources to the answer of mitigating it. Read more in this article from Seed World.
Anastasia Fyke doesn’t have time for millennials. Sort of. The fourth-generation buckwheat farmer from Manitoba (and a millennial herself) wants to help farmers transform agriculture from Canada’s sixth-largest greenhouse gas producer into a carbon sink. Read more in this article from The Humboldt Journal.
Cover crops combined with no-tillage systems can increase soil organic carbon, which could help slow climate change on farms, according to a recent study by University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment scientists. Located at UK’s Spindletop Research Farm in Lexington, the plots are only one of a few sites in the world that have been continuously in no-till agriculture for more than 50 years. Read more in this article from The Lane Report.
The National Strip-Tillage Conference returns August 8-9, 2024!Build and refine your strip-till system with dozens of new ideas and connections at the 11th Annual National Strip-Tillage Conference in Madison, Wis. Aug. 8-9, 2024. Experience an energizing 2-day agenda featuring inspiring general session speakers, expert-led Strip-Till Classrooms and collaborative Strip-Till Roundtables. Plus, Certified Crop Adviser credits will be offered.
Georgetown, Del., no-tiller Jay Baxter was planning on conducting a cover crop experiment with oats, but when Mother Nature got in the way, he quickly pivoted to another idea for a different type of cover crop experiment.