An aerial view shows drought conditions in the Amazon rainforest on Feb. 20, 2015 in Brazil. Lena Trindade / Brazil Photos / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Jennifer Ann Thomas
For the first time, researchers have developed a model capable of anticipating drought periods in the Amazon up to 18 months in advance. The study was conducted by scientists from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), in Germany, as part of the Tipping Points in the Earth System (TiPES) project, led by physicist Catrin Ciemer and published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
<p>The model was developed based on surface temperature analysis of the Atlantic Ocean. The relation between the humidity of the oceans and the rainfall regime in the Amazon is part of the intrinsic functioning of the biomes. Any variation in temperature, as a result of global warming, is enough to trigger a series of consequences.</p><p>According to physicist and study co-author Niklas Boers, the early-warning system developed by the group is based on a very simple mechanism: "We discovered that every two years the surface temperatures in the north and south tropical Atlantic develop a dipole, a phenomenon that occurs when temperatures increase in one region and decrease in another."</p><p>The drought forecast alert is issued when this pattern begins to develop. "The dipole modifies the direction of the trade winds, which take moisture from the Atlantic Ocean to South America. This change of direction is responsible for causing droughts mainly in the center-south of the Amazon," Boers said. From the model they developed, the researchers were able to trace back six of the seven main drought events that have occurred in the Amazon since the 1980s.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU5MDk1Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTEyOTM5MX0.6RM-Ryoiz3vfY9Dx2ocN14yrDAN91nn3Yk0okz-s0YI/img.jpg?width=980" id="ca886" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e04a515f2eb64460d1cc274c685bbc02" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Average monthly sea surface temperature (in degrees Celsius, red scale) and average continental rainfall in South America (in millimeters/month, blue scale) from 1981 to 2016. Sea surface temperatures and precipitation are generally higher around the equator. On the left, the area where El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurs; dotted lines indicate the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in January and July, responsible for transporting heat and humidity from the oceans around the tropics.
<p>Carlos Nobre, a renowned Brazilian climate scientist who was not involved in the study, said global warming is making the northern cycle of warmer waters stronger and more present. In the future, he said, we should expect the southern Amazon to become less humid. "The mega droughts of 2005, 2010 and the ongoing one are directly associated with the increase in temperatures in the north tropical Atlantic Ocean," Nobre said.</p><p>"However, unlike in previous years, the current mega drought began in May and June, not interfering in the rains during the summer season. It is too early to say that the warmer waters will continue throughout the months and if they will cause a continued drought until the next rainy season."</p><p>In a context of global warming, there is a close connection between rising ocean temperatures and environmental balance, and the repercussions are felt deep into the forest: what happens on the high seas can impact life in the Amazon.</p><p>Janaína Bumbeer, an oceanographer and science and conservation analyst with the Boticário Group Foundation for Nature Protection, said it's not enough to only understand a single aspect of ecology — it's necessary to understand phenomena in a systemic way. "The relation between the ocean temperature, the climate and the winds is very delicate," said Bumbeer, who was not involved in the new study. "Any increase of 1° Celsius [1.8° Fahrenheit] affects the rainfall regime on the continent." The greater the frequency of anomalies in the seas, she said, the more recurrent the extreme climatic events.</p>
<p>Faced with the effects of climate change, there is a risk that the Northern Hemisphere will heat up faster than the South, which would stimulate the occurrence of the Atlantic dipole and lead to a more intense frequency of droughts in the Amazon.</p><p>Even with the possibility of predicting a drought period in the region, there is little to be done to actually mitigate the direct impacts on the forest. People who live in the Amazon, especially rural farmers, traditional communities, Indigenous people, and those who depend on river transportation to get around (water levels can become so low that navigability becomes impossible) will be the ones who will benefit from the information, the researchers say. "Indirectly, [with the drought forecast alert] it is possible to have a positive influence on the Amazon ecosystem. The more in advance farmers and traditional communities can plan, the less traumatic the interference of the climate will be," Boers said.</p><p>With drought comes another concern: an increase in fires, directly associated with illegal deforestation. According to data from Brazil's National Space Research Institute (INPE), in September of this year, 31,017 hot spots were recorded, the second-worst September in a decade and a 60% increase from the same month last year. Because the Amazon is a humid tropical forest, fire is not part of the biome's natural dynamics, as it is in the temperate forests of the U.S. West Coast. In the Amazon, fires are usually associated with human actions. And in periods of drought, hotspots have the right conditions to grow in extent and to cause greater impacts on the ecosystem.</p><p>"There are innumerous evidence on the possibility of the forest becoming a savanna through the effects of human action," Boers said. "The biome is already very close to the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/the-tipping-point-is-here-it-is-now-top-amazon-scientists-warn/" target="_blank">tipping point</a>."</p><p>Such a large-scale effect would lead to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which would further accelerate global warming. The study's underlying message is that all natural phenomena are interconnected. And it demonstrates that as humanity persists on the current economic model of consumption, the effects on the planet will only get worse, to the point of endangering the world's largest tropical forest and its rich biodiversity.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/atlantic-trends-can-predict-amazon-drought-18-months-away-study-finds/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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'Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution': New Paper Outlines Vision for Climate Action
28 September
Climate
A new white paper explains how to transform current widespread agricultural practices to regenerative agriculture. PickPik
By Andrea Germanos
A white paper out Friday declares that "there is hope right beneath our feet" to address the climate crisis as it touts regenerative agriculture as a "win-win-win" solution to tackling runaway carbon emissions.
<p>"Humans broke the planet with grave agricultural malpractice," Tom Newmark, chairman of <a href="https://thecarbonunderground.org/" target="_blank">The Carbon Underground</a> and a contributor to the research, said in a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/09/25/new-white-paper-shows-shift-regenerative-ag-could-sequester-100-percent-annual" target="_blank">statement</a>. "With this white paper, Rodale Institute shows us how regenerative agriculture has the potential to repair that damage and actually reverse some of the threatening impacts of our climate crisis."</p><p>"This is a compelling call to action!" he added.</p><p>Released by the Rodale Institute and entitled <em><a href="https://rodaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Rodale-Soil-Carbon-White-Paper_v8.pdf" target="_blank">Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution</a></em>, the white paper discusses how a transformation of current widespread agricultural practices—which now contribute indirectly and directly to the climate crisis—"can be rolled out tomorrow providing multiple benefits beyond climate stabilization."</p><p>The findings are based on Rodale's own trials, research data, and interviews with experts, and build upon the institute's 2014 <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/09/solution-soil-how-organic-farming-can-feed-world-and-save-planet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">paper</a> <em>Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change: A Down-to-Earth Solution to Global Warming</em>.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0MzM2NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzczMDk0M30.g3bMMcdsxChGxcYN8onbvkGVHEJUwfLJZTIcX_tPZQk/img.png?width=980" id="1290a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="89e0122fc2627a2a88dfe53a7c0aa395" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Graph from Rodale Institute's new white paper "Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution."
<p>The claim made in the new paper is bold: "Data from farming and grazing studies show the power of exemplary regenerative systems that, if achieved globally, would drawdown more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions.</p><p>"Regenerative agriculture, as the researchers describe, represents "a system of farming principles that rehabilitates the entire ecosystem and enhances natural resources, rather than depleting them."</p><p>In contrast to industrial practices dependent upon monocultures, extensive tillage, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers, a regenerative approach uses, at minimum, seven practices which aim to boost biodiversity both above and underground and make possible carbon sequestration in soil.</p><ul><li>Diversifying crop rotations</li><li>Planting cover crops, green manures, and perennials</li><li>Retaining crop residues</li><li>Using natural sources of fertilizer, such as compost</li><li>Employing highly managed grazing and/or integrating crops and livestock</li><li>Reducing tillage frequency and depth</li><li>Eliminating synthetic chemicals</li></ul><p>While passers-by may easily spot visual differences above ground between the divergent agricultural approaches, what's happening below ground is also vital. From the paper:</p><blockquote>Contrary to previous thought, it's not the recalcitrant plant material that persists and creates long-term soil carbon stores, instead it's the microbes who process this plant matter that are most responsible for soil carbon sequestration. Stable soil carbon is formed mostly by microbial necromass (dead biomass) bonded to minerals (silt and clay) in the soil. Long term carbon storage is dependent on the protection of the microbially-derived carbon from decomposition.<br></blockquote><p>As for claims such as agricultural transformation wouldn't be able to produce enough food, the paper counters: "Actual yields in well-designed regenerative organic systems, rather than agglomerated averages, have been shown to outcompete conventional yields for almost all food crops including corn, wheat, rice, soybean, and sunflower."</p><p>But that is far from the only benefit. "When compared to conventional industrial agriculture," the authors write, "regenerative systems improve":</p><ul><li>Biodiversity abundance and species richness</li><li>Soil health, including soil carbon</li><li>Pesticide impacts on food and ecosystems</li><li>Total farm outputs</li><li>Nutrient density of outputs</li><li>Resilience to climate shocks</li><li>Provision of ecosystem services</li><li>Resource use efficiency</li><li>Job creation and farmworker welfare</li><li>Farm profitability</li><li>Rural community revitalization</li></ul>
<p>Rather than framing it as a "wake-up call," the institute says the paper should be seen as an "invitation to journey in a new direction."</p><p>"It is intended to be both a road map to change and a call to action to follow a new path," the authors write. "One led by science and blazed by farmers and ranchers across the globe."</p><p>"Together we both sound the alarm and proclaim the regenerative farming solution: It's time to start our journey with a brighter future for our planet and ourselves as the destination," the paper states.</p><p>Resources accompanying the white paper include a sample letter to members of Congress to urge support for the Agriculture Resilience Act (H.R. 5861), <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/mike-lavender/a-resilience-roadmap-fulfilling-agricultures-role-as-a-climate-solution" target="_blank">introduced</a> in February by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), and a "buyer's guide to regenerative food" to help decipher food labels and questions to ask suppliers at farmers' markets.</p><p>"A vast amount of data on the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils has been published, including from Rodale Institute, and recent findings are starting to reinforce the benefits of regenerative agricultural practices in the fight against the climate crisis," said Dr. Andrew Smith, COO and chief scientist of Rodale Institute.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/26/regenerative-agriculture-and-soil-carbon-solution-new-paper-outlines-vision-climate?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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Trump Is Losing Farmer Support in the Climate Crisis. Will They Swing the Election?
24 September
Politics
Since April 2020, farmer support for Trump has fallen from 89 percent to 71 percent, according to an August 2020 survey by DTN/The Progressive Farmer. Steve Smith / Getty Imagess
By Leanna First-Arai
In a push to capture the rural vote, 62 percent of which went to Trump in 2016, both the Trump and Biden campaigns are ramping up efforts to appeal to farmers and ranchers.
<p>On <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article245908610.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">September 22</a>, the Biden campaign launched a new radio ad blitz in eight battleground states, in which Biden appeals to older voters whose families have lived in rural areas for generations. "No longer are we going to be faced with children or grandchildren believing that the only way they can make it is to leave home and go somewhere else to get that good job," Biden's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGcsHyT0Xyw&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=JoeBiden" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">voice assures</a>. "There's no reason why it can't happen here."</p><p>In a contrasting approach, at a <a href="https://carolinapublicpress.org/37377/mountain-strength-trump-plays-to-base-with-visit-to-mills-river-nonprofit/" target="_blank">rally</a> in North Carolina, just a few hours ahead of the opening of the Republican National Convention in August, Trump claimed that, under his administration, "The American farmer has done very well. I never hear any complaints from the American farmer." Remarks later that week during the convention followed suit. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/08/24/us/rnc-fact-check#the-economy-is-coming-up-very-rapidly-our-farmers-are-doing-well-because-i-got-china-to-give-them-28-billion-because-they-were-t" target="_blank">"The economy is coming up very rapidly, our farmers are doing well because I got China to give them $28 billion because they were targeted by China,"</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/08/24/us/rnc-fact-check" target="_blank">Trump said</a> on the first night of the convention.</p><p>But that assessment doesn't square with the hardship many U.S. farmers are facing — particularly small farmers. U.S. farm bankruptcies increased <a href="https://investigatemidwest.org/2020/04/14/where-are-farm-bankruptcies-happening/" target="_blank">20 percent</a> in 2019, reaching an eight-year high, on account of factors like the trade war, increasing costs of production and crop loss related to the climate crisis.</p><p><span></span>Since April 2020, farmer support for the incumbent president <a href="https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/livestock/article/2020/08/19/agriculture-confidence-index" target="_blank">has fallen</a> from 89 percent to 71 percent, according to an August 2020 survey by DTN/The Progressive Farmer. A recent <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/708942.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by the Government Accountability Office revealed that under the Trump administration, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Market Facilitation Program payments to farmers harmed by the trade war went disproportionately to large-scale cotton and soybean farmers, ignoring the needs of small farmers who grow food. On account of Trump administration changes in payment maximums for the USDA's Market Facilitation Program, the top <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/708942.pdf" target="_blank">1.3 percent</a> of payment recipients received an additional <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/708942.pdf" target="_blank">$519 million</a>, while the average individual farmer in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania got $11,829 and $8,661, respectively. The finding is in line with earlier analyses revealing Trump's <a href="https://www.ewg.org/agmag/2019/11/trump-s-hollow-promise-trade-war-relief-small-farms" target="_blank">disproportionate financial support</a> for the largest capitalist farmers.</p>
<p>According to the USDA, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=58426" target="_blank">more than half</a> of the <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/farming-and-farm-income/" target="_blank">2 million farms</a> in the United States are "very small farms," grossing less than $10,000 annually. When asked what political capital this group could hold, Wingate University Assistant Professor of Political Science Chelsea Kaufman told <em>Truthout </em>that the increased pressure small farmers face from forces like the overlapping COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis could make them a "relatively unique" political force, as has been the case with farmers experiencing economic shocks during past election cycles.</p><p>In 1932, incumbent President Herbert Hoover <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3742831?casa_token=EH6FRgNDmyYAAAAA%3AWssxfIPB8xWfWNz2BCYonkaRYauNsUtajPGpuCJNNj-iz9yibMfSTuy0r9Zq6hytcZtHrcnNZut5CXzFLTeRYYU9oOJCyVywpxHyYQZyOEp9JxuKAg&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank">lost votes</a> from normally Republican-voting northern farmers, and the same happened for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. Academics <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3742831?casa_token=EH6FRgNDmyYAAAAA%3AWssxfIPB8xWfWNz2BCYonkaRYauNsUtajPGpuCJNNj-iz9yibMfSTuy0r9Zq6hytcZtHrcnNZut5CXzFLTeRYYU9oOJCyVywpxHyYQZyOEp9JxuKAg&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attribute this</a> to low crop prices during election years. According to the <a href="https://cookpolitical.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cook Political Report</a>, many of what are expected to be key battleground states in 2020, like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, are also <a href="https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?ID=17844" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top agricultural producers</a>.</p><p>The majority of the smaller farmers <em>Truthout </em>spoke with for this story want to see a federal government that tackles climate change head-on and restructures agriculture to be a solution by encouraging diversified farming that stores (rather than releases) carbon. Industrial agriculture is a <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25012019/climate-change-agriculture-farming-consolidation-corn-soybeans-meat-crop-subsidies#:~:text=Hot%20Topics%3A-,Industrial%20Agriculture%2C%20an%20Extraction%20Industry%20Like%20Fossil%20Fuels%2C%20a%20Growing,damage%20as%20the%20planet%20warms.&text=change%20in%20mind.-,%22I%20can%20see%20the%20impact%20of,changing%20climate%2C%22%20he%20s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">major contributor</a> to climate change, through its reliance on chemical fertilizers, the manufacturing of which releases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, and depletes the soil of nutrients. It's a system that farmers are "stuck in," says Tom Rosenfeld, who grows apples, blueberries, strawberries and peaches on 120 acres of farmland in southwest Michigan. Rosenfeld purchased a conventional orchard in 2005 and has been converting it to organic ever since, which he says has been a challenge in a system that prioritizes conventional practices. Dealing with climate change has made it even more difficult, a sentiment that reflects a wider experience among farmers. In 2018, <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/memos/regenerative-farming-and-the-green-new-deal.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">75 percent</a> of Farm Aid hotline calls were related to extreme weather and weather-related crises like wildfires.</p>
<p>Rosenfeld says more frequent late freezes due to climate change have been all but impossible to bounce back from. After temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit in May 2020, he lost 65 percent of his strawberries, 40 percent of his blueberries and all of his Red Delicious, Gala, Empire and McIntosh apples. On top of that, the changing climate has brought new pests to the region, like the apple flea weevil, which destroyed a full season's worth of crops when it first appeared in 2010. "Every year I keep thinking, is this it?" he tells <em>Truthout. </em>"I can't afford this financially; I can't afford the time and energy and it doesn't seem to be getting to any kind of manageable place."</p><p>In 2018, when President Trump signed the latest Farm Bill, he reauthorized the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provides financial and technical assistance to farmers who implement certain <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/national/technical/cp/ncps/?cid=nrcs143_026849" target="_blank">conservation practices</a> like mulching to protect soil, or "<a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/PA_NRCSConsumption/download?cid=nrcs143_026249&ext=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">karst sinkhole treatment</a>" to protect runoff from reaching groundwater supply.</p><p>But Rosenfeld, who is in the midst of transitioning all 110 acres from conventional to organic, says the program doesn't offer the kind of assistance he needs. When government representatives paid his farm a visit to assess what kind of EQIP program they might support, Rosenfeld says they proposed he build a retention wall near where he fills his sprayer, to help catch runoff. "But what good does that do?" he said, referring to his ultimate goal of moving away from using any kind of hazardous material on his land. "They're not offering the types of programs that are relevant to me as an organic grower."</p>
<p>Rosenfeld says he wants to shift away from using diesel and gas-fueled tractors and to have on-site renewable energy to power his farm. But no existing government programs make that financially feasible. When he considered investing in solar panels a few years ago, he found one program that would have cost him around $30,000, but with the kind of crop loss he has experienced, he couldn't afford it.</p><p>Two hours north of Rosenfeld's farm, in White Cloud, Michigan, Luke Eising is a farmer who uses silvopasture techniques, letting cows, pigs and chickens graze together amid integrated forest and plant landscapes. Rotating the animals to different pastures encourages plants to develop more robust root systems, which returns carbon to the soil and improves soil quality. In addition to producing food for his community, Eising says, being able to help sequester carbon and rebuild degraded soil is a major reason he chose to be a farmer. According to the 2018 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank">report</a>, sequestering carbon in the soil is the most cost-effective option for economic activity generating "negative emissions." "I very much see it as a solution for food systems," Eising told <em>Truthout</em>.</p><p>Eising would like to see subsidies for corn and soy cut, because he thinks regenerative practices like his would become competitive. "We're fighting an uphill battle when I can see chicken breasts or pork chops in the store for less than I pay to process [my product]," he says, referring to animals raised in confinement and fed monoculture corn and soy feed the federal government subsidizes. Another issue the current administration hasn't helped with, Eising says, is a major meat processing backlog. Whereas Eising can usually get a date within six to eight weeks at a meat processing plant, given meat plant shutdowns amid COVID-19, leading to short supply of meat processing facilities, it's been hard to find a date any time before 2022. "This is not okay. I have animals outside that are ready to process, I have customers lining up because they're hungry and I have a freezer that's empty," he says. Existing laws prohibit small, local butchers from processing meat headed for market.</p>
<p>Eising tends to vote for conservative or libertarian candidates in local and national elections. In 2016, he voted for libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. But Eising says he'll likely vote for Biden if polling remains close in Michigan. "Nobody else is at all interested in what regenerative farming could do for this country," he says. Biden has recently <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2009/17/se.01.html" target="_blank">talked about</a> paying farmers for "planting certain crops that in fact absorb carbon from the air," but his <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">climate plan</a> makes no mention of organic, diversified or regenerative farming. According to a <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/memos/regenerative-farming-and-the-green-new-deal.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> by Data For Progress, conventional farming practices that rely on pesticides and monoculture practices are linked to $44 billion in annual damage related to soil erosion in the United States, which is perhaps felt most acutely in areas where soil can no longer retain moisture in the advent of a heavy rain, leading to catastrophic flooding.</p><p>Ecologically minded farmers in swing states outside of Michigan similarly reflect a desire for leadership that addresses climate through agricultural reform. Kemper Burt began farming 40 years ago in California. He now lives in Arizona, where he grows lettuce and other produce on a 40-acre farm powered by solar energy. Burt points out that tackling climate change will entail decolonizing the way we produce food, in direct contrast with the "feed the world" mentality behind the so-called "<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/green-revolution-norman-borlaug-race-to-fight-global-hunger/" target="_blank">Green Revolution</a>" of the 1970s, which led to the fertilizer and pesticide-heavy monoculture farming he and other small-scale farmers want to break away from. "Let's just try feeding our community, then let's just try feeding our state, and then let's just try feeding other states," Burt says. Burt is registered as an independent, though he wouldn't say exactly how he'll vote in November. "I look to what people are doing to help protect nature, which then in turn protects you and I," he said.</p><p>Many small farmers say they've yet to see a presidential candidate or down-ballot candidate fully address their needs in this election cycle. President Trump's reelection campaign has not yet put out a climate plan. And Biden's climate plan does not yet spell out what small-scale farmers say they want, like a return to the New Deal-era concept of "parity," a supply-management strategy designed to prevent the kind of wasteful over-production of soybeans and corn that wipes the land of biodiversity and results in unstable prices. Rosenfeld wants to see a shift away from crop insurance, which comprised <a href="https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/12889-farm-income-forecast-rises-on-trade-aid-crops#:~:text=Rural%20Trade%20WEST-,USDA%3A%20Nearly%20one%2Dthird%20of%202019%20farm,earnings%20due%20to%20subsidies%2C%20insurance&text=Some%2031%25%20of%20that%20income,said%20ERS%20economist%20Carrie%20Litkowski." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one-third</a> of farmers' income in 2019, toward income insurance, which would provide financial support for people growing food, rather than cash crops.</p>
<p>As long as agriculture is considered a solution to the climate crisis, whether in a Green New Deal or as part of another climate plan, says Maine farmer Craig Hickman, he'd consider it a step forward, noting that he thinks his neighbors in Maine, many of whom are libertarians, would agree. "Investing in food infrastructure is as important as roads and bridges," he told <em>Truthout</em>.</p><p>In 2019, Maine, a "purple" state, passed the <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/labor-union-support-maine-green-new-deal-bc048eea1c91/" target="_blank">first</a> state-level Green New Deal backed by labor unions. Facing increased pressure from forces like climate change, the potential "farm vote" could build swing power, "although it is not clear whether that would happen in 2020 or a later election year," Kaufman said. "We can look to the lessons of history: Farmers had quite unique behavior at points in time where they faced economic instability, which led them to support candidates and parties that addressed these issues."</p>
<p><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <u><em><a href="https://truthout.org/" target="_blank">Truthout</a><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647787588#/" target="_self"></a> </em></u><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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MilkRun, a Portland, Oregon-based company, is supporting small, local farmers by enabling them to sell produce safely and directly to consumers' homes. Pikist
By Sean Taylor
MilkRun, a Portland, Oregon-based company, is supporting small, local farmers by enabling them to sell produce safely and directly to consumers' homes.
<p>Founded by farmer and entrepreneur Julia Niiro, MilkRun is an online platform that lets farmers set their own prices, cutting out wholesalers, shippers, and truckers. Once consumers place an order through MilkRun, farmers deliver produce to an aggregation hub, which MilkRun then boxes and ships to consumers' doorsteps.</p><p>On average, farmers receive <a href="https://www.fb.org/newsroom/fast-facts" target="_blank">eight percent</a> of the purchase price from grocery stores according to The American Farm Bureau Federation. But MilkRun estimates a return of up to 70 percent of the purchase price through their platform.</p><p>The platform is also trying to provide data on consumer purchasing patterns, purchase quantities, and food mileage, information that is often difficult for small farmers to obtain.</p>
<p>"Ninety percent of our nation's farms right now don't have even simple tools…they are having to recreate every data point… how can we help them do their jobs better?" Niiro tells Food Tank.</p><p>Niiro believes that the future of farming is bright, and she hopes to help farmers achieve success. "For young farmers, they need to know there's hope…you should be able to make a living and realize your dreams," Niiro tells Food Tank. "Who are we going to leave our food system to if not them?"</p><p>Niiro says that COVID-19 is also having unexpected benefits for both MilkRun and farmers. "COVID has put farmers back in business," Niiro tells Food Tank. She explains that while wholesale orders from restaurants have decreased dramatically, direct purchasing from consumers is offsetting the loss.</p>
<p>According to Niiro, farmers are re-scaling, creating new safety practices, and adapting to direct consumer demands. She says these changes are enabling farmers to turn a profit during the pandemic.</p><p>"I've never been more proud to be someone who's in this work and serving people," Niiro says. "The pride that comes with serving people and giving them an incredible experience makes us essential."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from<a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/09/an-online-platform-is-enabling-farmers-to-deliver-straight-to-consumers/" target="_blank"> Food Tank</a>.</em></p>
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Finding fresh produce can be more challenging in the dead of winter, especially in cold regions. Pixnio / CCO
It's harvest time, and by eating what's in season locally, people can reduce the carbon pollution caused by trucking food long distances.
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<p>That's easy to do when farmers markets are open. But it can be more challenging in the dead of winter, especially in cold regions.</p><p>So Brooke Knisley of <a target="_blank" href="http://alternativerootsfarm.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html">Alternative Roots Farm</a> in Minnesota encourages her customers to do what their ancestors did: preserve food now to enjoy later.</p><p>"Items like berries, peppers, are super easy to freeze," she says.</p><p>And root vegetables can be kept in a cool pantry.</p>
<p>"We installed a new large walk-in cooler system where we can store our apples and other winter storage crops – squash, onions, garlic – late into the winter," Knisley says.<br></p><p>She provides those items to her customers, along with canned foods and greens that she grows in a passive solar greenhouse.</p><p>She says local farmers may offer more in winter than you realize. And talking to a farmer is also a chance to learn about their growing methods.</p><p>"Don't be afraid to connect with your farmers in a deeper way or reach out to them at a point in the season to find out what they might have," Knisley says. "So just rethinking what eating in season means and how you can integrate that into your life."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/how-preserving-produce-can-help-you-eat-more-local-food/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>
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An example of abandoned oil pumps and well. Martina Birnbaum / Getty Images
By Ray Levy-Uyeda
A farmer for most of his life, Sam Stewart bought farmland in Montana about 35 years ago. Since then, he's planted and harvested his wheat and other crops around 16 open oil wells on this land, which he estimates were dug in the 1920s.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Maneuvering around the wells is not an arduous process, per se, but it requires seeding the same area twice, which is wasteful and can slow his process. The real nuisance is the invisible methane wafting into the air—a greenhouse gas with an impact 10 times that of carbon dioxide. "You don't want loose gas being just emitted," Stewart says.</p><p>Unplugged wells in Montana and across the country <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/04/29/484158/congress-can-help-energy-states-weather-oil-bust-coronavirus-pandemic/" target="_blank">leak thousands of metric tons</a> of <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-DRILLING/WELLS/gjnpwylaapw/USA-DRILLING.jpg" target="_blank">greenhouse gases each year</a>. They can also leach toxins into groundwater and surface water systems, contaminating aquifers. More often than not, these wells simply aren't being cleaned up. That's in part because a lack of funding and political will has stymied the state's cleanup efforts, and in part because there's uncertainty around ownership. "I didn't know they were actually abandoned," Stewart says of the multiple orphaned wells on his property. "I thought the oil company was responsible."</p><p>A foundation formed in 2019 could finally help clean up some of these abandoned oil wells, including those on Stewart's property. "The operator who is responsible is long gone," says Curtis Shuck, founder of the Well Done Foundation. "Our focus is doing the right thing, leaving it better than the way we found it."</p>
Abandoned Wells
<p>The first oil wells in Montana were drilled at the turn of the century, and the industry <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">experienced its first boom</a> in the 1920s. <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">Energy demands of World War II</a> spurred a second boom; between 1942 and 1945, <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">oil production in the Elk Basin region</a> increased from 16,000 to 940,000 barrels annually. When those wells no longer produced oil, companies could just leave. The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission of Montana, tasked with identifying and plugging abandoned wells, wasn't created until 1954, and by that time an untold number of wells had already been drilled, produced, and abandoned. </p><p>As more companies moved into Montana, oil and gas production grew into an increasingly important part of local and state economies; by 2015, it<a href="https://montanapetroleum.org/about-us/economic-impact/" target="_blank"> made up 5.6%</a> of the state's general fund. But the industry that once was a cornerstone of Montana's economy is now in a nosedive: a yearslong decline in global oil production and demand compounded by the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063049965" target="_blank">pandemic-induced economic slowdown</a> has produced some of the worst oil <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-07/oil-companies-warn-kansas-city-fed-of-widespread-insolvencies" target="_blank">production conditions in recent years</a>.</p><p>In 2016, the most recent year for which he was able to provide data, 4,713 oil and gas wells were in operation in the state and 204 had been abandoned, according to Allen Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, a trade organization that works on behalf of the businesses. But that's a <a href="https://montanapetroleum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MPA-Booklet.pdf" target="_blank">fraction of the tens of thousands</a> that have been drilled in Montana in the past century. </p><p>Data on abandoned wells remain incomplete, which further complicates cleanup efforts. Plus, state legislatures have drastically different policies on how to address abandoned wells. One thing remains certain: The issue is enormous and far-reaching. A 2018 report from the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-06/documents/6.22.17_ghgi_stakeholder_workshop_2018_ghgi_revision_-_abandoned_wells.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Protection Agency </a>estimated that the country has 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells. </p><p>Abandoned wells in Montana—left by companies that filed for bankruptcy, for example, default to the state. Theoretically, a state-run fund pays for well adoption and closure, but even under state control, the wells often lay unplugged, because plugging abandoned wells and restoring the surface land is expensive. Olson believes that the "state regulatory agency here is doing an excellent job staying on top" of plugging wells. But the <a href="http://www.mtrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?RN=36%2E22%2E1308" target="_blank">state's plugging plan</a> doesn't explicitly address the issue of abandoned oil wells, and also neglects to lay out a time-bound plan for plugging wells. </p><p>It's not just that states like Montana don't have a legislative apparatus to hold corporations accountable, says Mitch Jones, the climate and energy program director at Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit that pushes for corporate and government accountability. He says that the lack of governmental action is by design. When wells are abandoned, Jones says, "the costs of doing business are passed on to the public instead of being paid by the shareholders in the industry."</p><p>Nationwide, the federal government's own agency in charge of plugging abandoned wells, the Bureau of Land Management, has openly acknowledged that it <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/701450.pdf" target="_blank">doesn't have the financial resources</a> to tackle the issue of plugging wells on federal land. There was no federal <a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/sites/climatecrisis.house.gov/files/Climate%20Crisis%20Action%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">nationwide bond requirement</a> to cover the cost of reclaiming wells until the 1950s, and the required value for bonds has not increased since then. </p><p>That's right: the amount required to cover the cost of cleanup has not been increased or adjusted for inflation for nearly 70 years, so the federal amount is <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/701450.pdf" target="_blank">woefully ineffective.</a> Bond standards of a couple thousand dollars often don't address wells that cost tens of thousands to plug, another cause for wells to be abandoned. </p><p>Jones believes that extractive companies are harming the environment and then escaping culpability by declaring bankruptcy. "Not pointing fingers isn't really an option in order to win this fight against climate change," he says. Identifying the sources of harm holds polluting industries accountable for supporting solutions and provides a pathway for legislation that protects the planet, Jones says. The <a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/sites/climatecrisis.house.gov/files/Climate%20Crisis%20Action%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, </a>for example, just proposed a $2 billion remediation program for orphaned wells in June, though given the political climate, that legislation has a rocky future.</p>
A Boost or a Burden?
<p>Kirk Panasuk, a lifelong Montanan, farmer, and member of the Northern Plains Resource Council's Oil and Gas Task Force, remembers growing up with oil wells on his grandparents' farm. Panasuk says "once you've leased the land you've lost control." An oil company would lease the mineral rights—not the surface land but the profitable oil below. That lease might expire, the company would leave, and another company would come in to start the process again.</p><p>Agriculture is a difficult industry, and Panasuk says what seems like "free money" at the outset can lead to problems down the road. Water systems are connected, which means that an oil leak in Montana has the potential to leach chemicals into bodies of water such as the Yellowstone River that flows into other states through the Missouri River, a <a href="https://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/" target="_blank">river crucial</a> to municipal, industrial, and agricultural function. </p><p>Panasuk now volunteers with the NPRC to lobby state legislators on practices that would hold resource extraction companies accountable by mandating water testing and treatment. He admits that he's made money off of these companies by leasing mineral rights to oil producers who then sell the oil at market. Despite the environmental fallout, Panasuk believes that oil companies' leasing of land actually "saved a lot of small farms from failure [and] bankruptcy."</p><p>Olson of the Montana Petroleum Association says that in 2019, when oil was $60 per barrel, a company might produce 100 barrels per day and pay a royalty fee of 12.5%, which could garner a farmer $750 per day for leasing their land. Today, with prices and production down, the payoffs look different. In April, oil prices went into the <a href="https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/oil-price-collapse-hits-billings-area-businesses-hard/article_df10e954-3e0c-5b6c-9641-135208d4ad2c.html" target="_blank">negative</a>, and in August, they're <a href="https://www.oilmonster.com/crude-oil-prices/central-montana-price/159/228" target="_blank">hovering around $30 per barrel</a>. </p><p>While an oil lease might benefit a farmer initially, Jones says that oil companies are well-versed in this practice. "The oil and gas industry takes advantage of the inequities in our agriculture system to prey upon farmers and get them to sign leases for drilling on their land," Jones says, which can "undermine agricultural activity that's taking place."</p><p>In other farming communities around the country, where oil and gas companies produce natural gas through <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poor-communities-bear-greatest-burden-from-fracking/" target="_blank">hydraulic fracturing</a>, farmers and members of the local community often bear the brunt of water pollution. Not to mention that farming is dependent on a predictable and healthy climate, which is being threatened by resource extraction. </p>A Foundation Is Formed
<p>In early 2019, Curtis Shuck was in the northern town of Shelby, about 15 miles south of the Canadian border, meeting with farmers about agricultural transportation. More than three decades in the oil and gas industry hadn't prepared him for what he saw—abandoned, methane-leaking, unplugged oil wells.</p><p>He walked the area with the farmers and learned how they worked around the wells, most of which had stopped producing oil decades earlier. What was left were remnant pipes strewn across the fields and a sulfuric stench like rotten eggs. </p><p>On his journey home to Bozeman, Shuck couldn't stop thinking about what he had seen, knowing that each open well was responsible for tons of emissions. On that drive, the idea for the Well Done Foundation was born. </p><p>Just over a year after that first trip north, the Well Done Foundation plugged its first three wells and expanded beyond the Montana pilot program into dozens of other states. Shuck says that he hopes the foundation can also gather the concrete data that the government lacks, such as the number of orphaned wells and their emissions, which makes it difficult to develop solutions.</p><p>Shuck says he can acknowledge the state's shortcomings in their cleanup efforts while building relationships with those who make regulatory decisions. The "state fund is grossly underfunded," Shuck says, but "why should the public bear the burden of this orphaned well issue?"</p><p>The Well Done team identifies abandoned oil wells around the state, and then posts a financial bond to the state's Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, a way for the state to track and partially fund the plugging. In doing so, the state is holding up its end of the bargain, but without this push from Well Done, it might take the state years to accomplish what the Foundation does in months. </p><p>The foundation researches individual well emissions for about nine months as well as studying the construction of a well, how deep it goes, and the materials that are required to plug it. Shuck says it's important that the foundation does its due diligence to identify wells that have collapsed in on themselves or have an obstruction that needs to be addressed before plugging. </p><p>Then the foundation works with county commissions, private entities, and those who own the surface land to develop and execute a "plugging plan," which so far has been funded by private or anonymous donors. The actual plugging of the well takes only a few days, and then the Foundation works to restore the surface land to its "pre-drilling condition," which allows a farmer to seed the land and grow crops. </p><p>Shuck is adamant that the foundation's work is not about fighting corporations, but about taking responsibility for one's community. The foundation has built partnerships with both conservation organizations and oil and gas companies. Shuck says that abandoned wells are a "bit of a black eye to the industry," so plugging the orphaned wells demonstrates their environmental responsibility and develops a partnership that may come in <a href="https://www.rigzone.com/news/orphan_well_stimulus_would_employ_displaced_workers-04-jun-2020-162291-article/" target="_blank">useful as the industry quickly changes</a>.</p><p>"There are plenty of folks that want to blame Big Oil, little oil, or oil in general," he says. But the work, to him, is not about pointing fingers. Neither the left's demonization of fossil fuels nor the right's push for energy independence are relevant to the work, in Shuck's view. </p><p>In late April, the foundation successfully plugged its first well—a 96-year-old well called Big West Anderson #3 in Toole County that it had "adopted" by taking over legal responsibility from the state. The well, which hadn't produced oil since the 1980s, had been releasing 6,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. For comparison, one car on the road releases about <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100U8YT.pdf" target="_blank">4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide</a> per year. </p><p>Just one day after the foundation plugged Big West Anderson #3, its greenhouse gas emissions were nonexistent.</p><p>Shuck says, "What's exciting about this is that we can make an impact one well at a time."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/08/13/pollution-oil-wells-montana/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p><p><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/ray-levy-uyeda/" target="_blank"><em>Ray Levy-Uyeda</em></a><strong><em> </em></strong><em>is a Bay Area-based freelance writer who focuses on gender, politics, and activism.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Princeton Study: Up to 900,000 Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells ... ›
- Oil and Gas Wells Linked to Low Birthweight in Babies - EcoWatch ›
- BP Arctic Oil Well Still Leaking, Too Unstable to Shut Down ... ›
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The European Commission launched a new Farm to Fork strategy in an effort to reduce the social and environmental impact of the European food system. European Environmental Agency / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Katell Ané
The European Commission launched a new Farm to Fork strategy in an effort to reduce the social and environmental impact of the European food system. It is the newest strategy under the European Green Deal, setting sustainability targets for farmers, consumers, and policymakers.
<p>"Farmers are under extreme pressure," Stefan de Keersmaeker, European Commission Spokesperson for Public Health and Food Safety, tells Food Tank. "But our environment and health are under pressure." </p><p>The strategy aims to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50 percent, increase the proportion of land used for organic farming to 25 percent, and reduce nutrient loss by 50 percent before 2030. It is also working to tackle food waste, loss of biodiversity, and unfair wages in the food chain. </p><p>Olivier de Schutter, Co-Chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, explains on <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/new-on-the-podcast-olivier-de-schutter-on-democratic-food-policy-reform/" target="_blank">Food Tank Live</a> that the strategy comes after calls for a single, integrated food policy framework. After three years of advocacy, a <a href="https://www.arc2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/EU-FPC_Open-Letter-F2F-2.pdf" target="_blank">coalition</a> of more than 250 European organizations persuaded the newly elected European Commission to consolidate existing agricultural, health, trade, and environmental policies.</p>
<p>To achieve its goals, the European Commission plans to <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/food-farming-fisheries/sustainability_and_natural_resources/documents/analysis-of-links-between-cap-and-green-deal_en.pdf" target="_blank">reformulate</a> the Common Agricultural Policy (<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/key-policies/common-agricultural-policy/cap-glance_en" target="_blank">CAP</a>), which provides funding for farmers and rural development. The revised CAP will create <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:ea0f9f73-9ab2-11ea-9d2d-01aa75ed71a1.0001.02/DOC_1&format=PDF" target="_blank">eco-schemes</a> to support farmers engaging in sustainable agricultural practices. This new system will reward precision agriculture, agroecology, carbon farming, and agroforestry, amongst other practices.</p><p>"We really believe that if we take this step…if we can set the standard, this will be a win-win situation for all involved," de Keersmaecker tells FoodTank. "What's important is that we ensure that the ensuing value is fairly distributed along the food chain so that those that really invest in this transition are actually rewarded."</p><p>But while de Keersmaekcker says the strategy marks a turning point in food systems legislation, some activists argue that it must go further. </p>
<p>Madeleine Coste, Policy Officer at <a href="https://www.slowfood.com/sloweurope/en/" target="_blank">Slow Food Europe</a>, warns that the 50 percent pesticide reduction target is still too low. </p><p>"[We] are worried that these targets do not go far enough to trigger a much-needed radical shift to agroecological practices," Coste tells Food Tank. If member states do not help farmers transition to more sustainable practices, she explains, "bee and pollinator [species will] continue to be wiped out due to the perpetuation of a farming system based on monoculture and…chemical inputs." </p><p>Coste also fears the European Commission's focus on food waste is too narrow by accounting only for consumer and retail waste. Alongside the <a href="https://eeb.org/" target="_blank">European Environmental Bureau</a> and the <a href="https://www.wwf.eu/" target="_blank">World Wildlife Fund</a>, Slow Food Europe advocates targeting<a href="https://foodpolicycoalition.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NGO-Joint-letter_EC-Commitment-on-Tackling-Food-Waste-in-the-F2F-Strategy.pdf" target="_blank"> pre-retail waste</a>, which makes up 30-59 percent of Europe's total food waste, according to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/mb060e/mb060e.pdf" target="_blank">U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization</a>. </p>
<p>Others worry about the Farm to Fork's stance on industrial animal agriculture. The <a href="https://www.eurovia.org/" target="_blank">European Coordination of Via Campesina</a> (ECVC), joined by more than a dozen civil society organizations, <a href="https://actionaid.org/sites/default/files/publications/Less%20and%20better%20animal%20products%20in%20the%20Farm%20to%20Fork%20strategy.pdf" target="_blank">counseled</a> the European Commission to tackle the overconsumption of meat, dairy, and eggs.</p><p>These organizations argue that a reduction in the consumption of animal products would have a positive effect on the environment. But Pierre Maison, Coordination Committee Member of ECVC tells Food Tank, "we believe the capacity of the Farm to Fork strategy to facilitate this transition is very weak." Maison fears that the current policy environment may thwart the Farm to Fork's chances of moving Europe away from large industrial animal agriculture, and reaching its soil health and organic farming targets.</p><p>In order to meet the Farm to Fork's targets, the CAP must enhance <a href="https://www.eurovia.org/report-and-video-of-the-webinar-food-sovereignty-and-the-farm-to-fork-strategy-building-a-fairer-and-more-just-agricultural-model-in-the-eu/" target="_blank">food sovereignty</a> by centering small farmers, according to Maison. "Without market and product regulation, farmers will not receive decent and stable revenue, which will hinder their transition towards sustainable production systems," Maison tells Food Tank.</p>
<p>But by re-localizing supply chains and improving the resilience of farms, he believes the Farm to Fork strategy has the potential to empower small farmers. And Maison says that while organizers have a long way to go, the strategy is an important first step.</p><p>"The transition towards sustainable food systems cannot be successfully achieved if we do it on our own," de Keersmacker tells Food Tank, "it's a fight we're in together."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/08/social-and-environmental-justice-activists-react-to-eu-farm-to-fork-strategy/" target="_blank">Food Tank.</a></em></p>
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Tara Moore / DigitalVision / Getty Images
By Danielle Nierenberg and Maya Osman-Krinsky
In the United States, over 2,000 acres of agricultural land are sold every day for housing or commercial development, according to the American Farmland Trust. This has especially affected Black farmers who, since 1920, have seen nearly a 90 percent decline in land ownership, according to the U.S. Census.
<p>Over the past decade, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03066150.2019.1602520" target="_blank">as many as 200 million hectares of land</a> have undergone large-scale transactions internationally, according to a study by Oregon State University. These transactions, taking the form of <a href="https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/issues/food-farming-and-hunger/land-grabs/" target="_blank">land grabs</a> or <a href="https://www.rafiusa.org/blog/corporate-consolidation/#:~:text=The%20farmers%20help%20grow%20out,in%20poultry%20and%20livestock%20production." target="_blank">corporate consolidation of agriculture</a>, often deteriorate the economic livelihood and food security of small farmers and communities reliant on these lands for sustenance, as reported by the <a href="https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/driving-dispossession.pdf" target="_blank">Oakland Institute</a>. When communities control their own farmland, residents can invest in <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/agriculture/brief/land-and-food-security1" target="_blank">sustainable and affordable agriculture</a>, which helps to alleviate hunger and malnutrition, according to the World Bank.</p><p>Many organizations around the world are fighting to help communities regain control of their land and livelihoods. Food Tank is highlighting 19 organizations combating land grabs and protecting land for farmers.</p>
1. Alaska Farmland Trust (United States)
<p>One in five Alaskans is considered food insecure, and over 95 percent of the food consumed by Alaskans is imported from the contiguous U.S., according to the Alaska Farmland Trust Corporation (AFTC). AFTC was created in 2005 to support the existing farms in Alaska's Mat-Su valley and safeguard farmland against development. AFTC aims to protect 5,700 acres of farmland in the next 50 years to ensure productive farms, ranches, and forests for generations of Alaskan farmers to come.</p>2. American Farmland Trust (United States)
<p>Since its inception in 1980, the American Farmland Trust (AFT) has worked to protect farmland from development and promote sound farming practices. AFT leads the <a href="http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/216754/" target="_blank">conservation agriculture movement</a> by combining on-the-ground projects with research and advocacy. AFT also created the <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2018/11/14/1651476/0/en/No-Farms-No-Food-Farmland-Takes-Action-With-American-Farmland-Trust-Partnership.html" target="_blank">No Farms No Food</a> message, which aims to connect the food we eat to the farms that grow it. The organization has protected millions of acres of farmland from commercial development while helping tens of thousands of farmers adopt better farming practices.</p>3. Anera (Middle East)
<p>Since 1968, Anera has worked to provide emergency relief and sustainable long-term aid to refugee communities in Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. In 1985, they began a decade-long <a href="https://www.anera.org/what-we-do/agriculture/" target="_blank">agricultural development project</a> to help Palestinian farmers reclaim hundreds of acres of land. This project continues to grow in the West Bank, giving loans to thousands of farmers and encouraging sustainable projects to combat food insecurity and water scarcity.</p>4. Bangladesh Krishok Federation (Bangladesh)
<p>The Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF) was established in 1990 as a grassroots peasants' rights organization. Since before its founding, BKF has organized landless people to fight for policy reform by demonstrating, organizing, providing legal aid, and working with the government to negotiate fair land deals. BKF and its women-led counterpart, Bangladesh Kishani Sabha (BKS), work in tandem to secure rights for peasants, farmers, and the 112 million landless people in Bangladesh.</p>5. Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (Cambodia)
<p>The Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community (CCFC) addresses land rights issues for Cambodian farmers through community organizing and policy negotiation. CCFC's <a href="https://www.ccfccambodia.org/no-land-no-market-no-life" target="_blank">No Land No Life Campaign</a> tackles forced evictions and unjust legislation by mobilizing small farmers to speak out against Cambodian authorities on land tenure and human rights issues. CCFC has been a platform for <a href="https://www.ccfccambodia.org/archives/category/press-announcement" target="_blank">over 6,800 farming families</a> condemning forced evictions and exploitative commercial farming.</p>6. Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (United States)
<p>The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund is a non-profit cooperative association of black farmers and landowners. The Federation builds support for public policies and credit unions that help Black and family farmers expand and protect their landholdings in the South. They also hold annual events and workshops centered around education, forestry, and racial equity in food systems.</p>7. Food First Information and Action Network International (International)
<p>Food First Information and Action Network International (FIAN) was the first international human rights organization with a specific focus on adequate food and nutrition. FIAN fights for land and natural resources by holding corporations and governments accountable for violations of people's right to food. FIAN aims to secure people's access to land rights while advocating for gender, economic, agricultural, and legal equality worldwide. In 2019, FIAN's right-to-food activism reached 60 countries.</p>8. Friends of the Earth International (International)
<p>Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is a grassroots network mobilizing for climate justice, human rights, food sovereignty, and gender justice. Across its 73 member groups, FoEI supports campaigns defending peasant farming against large-scale industrial land grabs. Most recently, <a href="https://ja4change.org/2019/12/13/justica-ambiental-ja-celebrates-human-rights-day-with-the-launch-of-2-case-studies/" target="_blank">Justiça Ambiental</a>, a FoEI member group, worked with a <a href="https://www.foei.org/news/blogs/agroecology/mozambique-land-rights-acroecology" target="_blank">Mozambican village</a> fighting to reclaim their stolen land.</p>9. GRAIN (International)
<p>GRAIN is an international non-profit organization that advocates for community-controlled and biodiverse food systems. Using research and public awareness outreach campaigns, GRAIN supports small farmers in their efforts to combat corporate land deals and land grabs. In 2019, GRAIN supported struggles for land in Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Cameroon, Cambodia, and Brazil.</p>10. Grupo Semillas (Colombia)
<p>Corporación Grupo Semillas is an environmentalist NGO that backs Afro-Colombian, indigenous, and peasant organizations in Colombia. Grupo Semillas supports land tenure and reclamation efforts in their <a href="https://www.semillas.org.co/es/resultado-archivo-categoria?id=53431fcd6075e1796e6f86f9ec1b9028" target="_blank">Tierras y territorios</a> division, which focuses on pushing back against agribusiness and land monopolies. Through partnering with other regional organizations, Grupo Semillas conducts and disseminates research about land rights, food sovereignty, and biodiversity to Colombia's marginalized populations.</p>11. Hawai’ian Islands Land Trust (Hawai’i)
<p>The Hawai'ian Islands Land Trust (HILT) takes a holistic approach to land conservation through <a href="https://www.conservationeasement.us/what-is-a-conservation-easement/" target="_blank">conservation easements</a>. HILT comprises four Hawai'ian land trusts, all of which aim to conserve Hawai'ian farms, ranches, watersheds, forests, and historical landscapes. HILT has protected over 18,000 acres of Hawai'ian land through land acquisition and protection initiatives and policy advocacy.</p>12. Institute for Poverty Land, and Agrarian Studies (South Africa)
<p>The Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) is an organization dedicated to researching land grabbing in Africa. PLAAS uses its research and policy engagement to highlight how food systems can both perpetuate and alleviate poverty. Since its founding in 1995, PLAAS has published reports calling for a restructuring of agro-food systems to aid marginalized communities harmed by parasitic land deals.</p>13. La Via Campesina (International)
<p>La Via Campesina (LVC) is an international peasant's rights movement fighting for food sovereignty, climate justice, and territory rights. LVC leads a global campaign for agrarian reform by defending food sovereignty and asserting peasant farmers' rights to seeds. LVC has covered land access efforts in Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Andalusia, and Ethiopia, carrying out nearly 50 activities across different continents in 2019 alone.</p>14. Namati (International)
<p>Namati is a legal empowerment organization that seeks to tackle problems of land, environmental, health, and citizenship justice. The organization employs paralegals who work directly with communities; with nearly 20,000 community partners, Namati reaches over 350,000 people directly. Namati's initiatives in Kenya, Myanmar, and Sierra Leone support smallholder farmers struggling to navigate administrative processes and land grab disputes.</p>15. National Black Farmers Association (United States)
<p>The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) was founded in 1995 to represent Black farmers in the U.S. They focus efforts on civil rights, land retention, access to loans, education and agricultural training, and economic development. NBFA's work has impacted tens of thousands of farmers since its inception, fighting for food sovereignty, land rights, and an end to hunger.</p>16. National Black Food & Justice Alliance (United States)
<p>The National Black Food & Justice Alliance (NBFJA) is a coalition of Black-led organizations that is working toward Black land and food sovereignty and self-determining food economies. Building off a <a href="https://www.blackfoodjustice.org/rationale-strategy" target="_blank">long legacy</a> of Black food security efforts in the U.S., NBFJA is combating anti-Blackness and inequities in the food system by building visibility of Black-led efforts, creating an organized framework around food and land issues impacting Black people, engaging in direct action, and building togetherness space.</p>17. Partners for the Land and Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples (Brazil and Sub-Saharan Africa)
<p>Partners for the Land and Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples (PLANT) is a platform that confronts the marginalization of Indigenous peoples in Brazilian Amazonia and Sub-Saharan Africa. PLANT works with their local partners on hands-on projects, public policy, and research and analysis. PLANT supports food sovereignty, condemns land grabs, and seeks to center indigenous voices in global decision-making about ecological justice.</p>18. Peconic Land Trust (United States)
<p>The Peconic Land Trust (PLT) partners with landowners, communities, and organizations in Suffolk County to conserve Long Island's working farms. PLT is working on several local projects on Long Island, including land conservation legislation and community conservation campaigns. Since 1983, they have protected over 13,000 acres of land and secured millions of dollars for land protection.</p>19. South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust (United States)
<p>South of the Sound Community Farm Land Trust (SSCFLT) is a Washington-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving affordable farmland. SSCFLT brings together local farmers, agriculture preservation advocates, affordable housing advocates, and active citizens to form a <a href="https://community-wealth.org/strategies/panel/clts/index.html" target="_blank">community land trust</a>. SSCFLT works to reduce landowning costs for farmers and demonstrate sustainable farming practices in community farm environments.</p>20. Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (United States)
<p>Iowa is <a href="https://silt.org/why-launch-a-land-trust/" target="_blank">losing 25 acres of farmland</a> each day to development and imports more than 90 percent of their food from out of state, but the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT) is fighting to change this. They believe that through the state's farming landscape, economy, and food supply, they can build more resilient communities in Iowa. SILT is working to create affordable land access for Iowa's farmers and protect land for sustainable food farming to rebuild the the state's rural economy and mitigate climate change.</p><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Over+2%2C000+acres+of+farmland+are+sold+daily+for+commercial+purposes%2C+according+to+%40Farmland.+These+20+organizations+working+to+%23ProtectFarmland+around+the+world.&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffoodtank.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F07%2Ffarms-for-the-future-19-organizations-protecting-farmland%2F&via=foodtank"><span></span></a>
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An example of an indoor vertical farm using a hydroponic system. Valcenteu / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Isabelle Gerretsen
"When I told people I was going to grow tomatoes in the desert, they thought I was crazy," Sky Kurtz, founder of Pure Harvest Smart Farms, told DW.
<p>With just an average 12 days of rain a year, less than 1% arable land, a desert location and an 80% import rate for food, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seems an unfavorable place to set up a farm.</p><p>Kurtz is one of several entrepreneurs using high-tech farming techniques to boost crop production in the Emirates. Pure Harvest built the first climate-controlled greenhouse in Abu Dhabi in 2017. </p><p>Prompted by arid conditions and a desire for greater food security, the country is investing millions in technologies — such as vertical farming — that could make it an unlikely agricultural pioneer. </p><p>Vertical farms can grow a rich variety of different crops by stacking them in layers under LED lighting in climate-controlled greenhouses and watering them with mist or drip systems. The process is tailored to each crop's specific needs, resulting in high-yield, year-round harvests.</p><p>"It takes 30 to 40 days to grow leafy greens out in the field. We can grow that same crop in 10 to 12 days," says Marc Oshima, co-founder of Aerofarms. The company received funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to build the capital's largest indoor vertical farm, with 800 different crops, by 2021.</p>
Water Scarcity and Fossil-Fuel Reliance
<p>The technology uses minimal land and up to 95% less water than conventional agriculture. </p><p>The hydroponics system places the plants' roots directly into a water-based and nutrient-rich solution instead of soil. This "closed loop" system captures and recirculates all the water, rather than allowing it to drain away — useful for a country like the UAE suffering from extremely high water stress.</p><p>Globally, agriculture accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals, and UAE is extracting groundwater faster than it can be replenished, according to the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA).</p><p>"Water is very expensive over in the UAE, but energy is cheap as it is subsidized," says Jan Westra, a strategic business developer at Priva, a company providing technology to vertical farms.</p><p>The artificially controlled environment is energy intensive because the air conditioning and LED lights need a constant source of electricity.</p><p>This bringing forth of life in the desert could come at a high environmental cost. Most of that energy comes from carbon-emitting fossil fuels, even as the Middle Eastern country feel the effects of climate change.</p><p>By 2050 Abu Dhabi's average temperature is <a href="https://benthamopen.com/FULLTEXT/TOASCJ-13-56" target="_blank">predicted to increase by around 2.5°C</a> (36.5 F) in a business-as-usual scenario. Over the next 70 years patterns of rainfall are also expected to change.</p>Integrating Renewable Energy
<p>Although Pure Harvest is building a solar-powered farm in neighboring Saudi Arabia, its UAE operations get electricity from the carbon-intensive national grid.</p><p>Investing more in renewables "is a goal of ours," Kurtz told DW. He said the company has not set a clean energy target but is working on various green power projects, including a plan to integrate solar power generated in UAE into its operations. </p><p>However, Willem van der Schans, a researcher specializing in short supply chains at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, says sustainability and clean energy should be "inherent in the technology and included in plans when starting a vertical farm." </p><p>He argues that many vertical farming companies are not sustainable in terms of energy as they still view clean power as an optional "add-on."</p><p>Ismahane Elouafi, director general of the government funded ICBA in Abu Dhabi, acknowledges that vertical farming has some way to go before achieving "real sustainability," but she believes the innovations are "promising."</p><p>Improved battery storage, increasingly efficient LED lights and cheaper solar panels will help, she adds. </p>Local Solutions
<p>By 2050, the UAE government wants to generate almost half its energy from renewable sources.</p><p>Fred Ruijgt, a vertical farming specialist at Priva, argues that it's important to factor transport and refrigeration into the energy equation. Vertical farming uses more energy to grow crops than traditional agriculture, but because crops are grown locally, they do not have to be transported by air, sea or truck over long distances. </p><p>"The energy saving is difficult to calculate exactly, but the advantages of locally grown crops are huge," he says, adding that those grown in vertical farms not only use less water and pesticides, but that they also have a longer shelf life due to minimal transportation time. </p>Food Security and Coronavirus
<p>In 2018, the UAE set out its vision to become a hub for high-tech local food production.</p><p>Companies and investors have flocked to the region, attracted by the 0% corporate tax rate, low labor costs and cheap energy. With their help, UAE aims to reduce its reliance on imports and make its food system more resilient to shocks like climate change and pandemics. </p><p>Oshima from Aerofarms says the coronavirus pandemic has brought "greater appreciation of how fragile the supply chain is and raised questions about food safety and security."</p><p>When the UAE went into lockdown in April, imported supplies of perishable goods like vegetables fell and business boomed for local suppliers.</p><p>ICBA's Elouafi said they have helped keep the UAE well-stocked during the pandemic.</p><p>"With the help of local food production and adequate imports, there has been absolutely no shortage of food in the UAE," Elouafi told DW.</p><p>Climate change, however, poses an altogether more complex threat to the country in the long-term. Given climate change's likely impact on food production, she says vertical farming has shown it is "an economically viable proposition even with harsh climatic conditions."</p>From Your Site Articles
- Vertical Farms: The Future of Agriculture? - EcoWatch ›
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In the tropics, farmers often slash and burn forests to clear fertile land for crops, but a new method avoids that technique. Inga Foundation video
Rainforests are an important defense against climate change because they absorb carbon. But many are being destroyed on a massive scale.
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<p>In the tropics, farmers often slash and burn forests to clear fertile land for crops. The practice involves cutting down vegetation and burning it. But the soil's fertility does not last long, so the farmers must clear a new patch of forest every few years.</p><p>"People believe it's the only possible way of growing crops," says ecologist Michael Hands.</p><p>But he says there's an alternative. Hands directs the Inga Foundation, which teaches farmers in Honduras and Costa Rica a method called <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingafoundation.org/alley-cropping/">inga alley cropping</a>.</p><p>The inga is a fast-growing tree with roots that fix nitrogen, so it replenishes the soil.</p>
<p>In alley cropping, farmers plant inga trees in rows. Their shade kills weeds and creates space for planting maize or beans. Then the trees are pruned back so sunlight can reach the crops until harvest.</p><p>"And you can repeat the process the following year," Hands says.</p><p>The ingas' roots keep the soil rich, so the farmer does not need to slash and burn more land. That means less carbon pollution and less labor.</p><p>"It's definitely transforming people's lives," Hands says.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/07/farmers-learn-alternative-to-slashing-and-burning-rainforests/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Land Loss Has Plagued Black America Since Emancipation, but Collective Ownership Offers a Solution
19 June
Insights + Opinion
Freed slaves harvest land for their own profit on the former plantation of Confederate General Thomas Drayton. ©Corbis / Getty Images
By Julian Agyeman and Kofi Boone
Underlying the recent unrest sweeping U.S. cities over police brutality is a fundamental inequity in wealth, land and power that has circumscribed black lives since the end of slavery in the U.S.
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<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julian-agyeman-147077" target="_blank"><em>Julian Agyeman</em></a><em> is a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University.</em></p><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kofi-boone-1113883" target="_blank">Kofi Boone</a> is a Professor of Landscape Architecture, College of Design, North Carolina State University.</em></p><p><em>Disclosure statement: The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from The Conversation.</em><br/><span></span></p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140514/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>
<p>The "<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/the-truth-behind-40-acres-and-a-mule/" target="_blank">40 acres and a mule</a>" promised to formerly enslaved Africans never came to pass. There was no redistribution of land, no reparations for the wealth extracted from stolen land by stolen labor.</p><p>June 19 is celebrated by black Americans as <a href="https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm" target="_blank">Juneteenth</a>, marking the date in 1865 that former slaves were informed of their freedom, albeit two years after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation" target="_blank">Emancipation Proclamation</a>. Coming this year at a time of protest over the continued police killing of black people, it provides an opportunity to look back at how black Americans were deprived of land ownership and the economic power that it brings. An expanded concept of the "black commons" – based on shared economic, cultural and digital resources as well as land – could act as one means of redress. As professors in <a href="https://as.tufts.edu/uep/people/faculty/julian-agyeman" target="_blank">urban planning</a> and <a href="https://design.ncsu.edu/staff/kofi-boone-asla/" target="_blank">landscape architecture</a>, our research suggests that such a concept could be a part of undoing the racist legacy of chattel slavery by encouraging economic development and creating communal wealth.</p>
Land Grab
<p>The proportion of the United States under black ownership has actually shrunk over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/19/why-racial-wealth-gap-persists-more-than-years-after-emancipation/" target="_blank">the last 100 years or so</a>.</p><p>At their peak in 1910, <a href="https://psmag.com/news/african-american-farmers-make-up-less-than-2-percent-of-all-us-farmers" target="_blank">African American farmers</a> made up around 14% of all U.S. farmers, owning <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46984/19353_ra174h_1_.pdf?v=41056#:%7E:text=Land%20ownership%20by%20Black%20farmers,acres%20owned%20by%20White%20farmers." target="_blank">16 to 19 million acres of land</a>. By 2012, black Americans represented just 1.6% of the farming community, owning 3.6 million acres of land. Another study shows a <a href="https://thecounter.org/usda-black-farmers-discrimination-tom-vilsack-reparations-civil-rights/" target="_blank">98% decline</a> in black farmers between 1920 and 1997. This contrasts sharply with an <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/46984/19353_ra174h_1_.pdf?v=41056#:%7E:text=Land%20ownership%20by%20Black%20farmers,acres%20owned%20by%20White%20farmers." target="_blank">increase in acres owned by white farmers</a> over the same period.</p><p>In <a href="https://archive.org/details/timetoact1545usda" target="_blank">a 1998 report</a>, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ascribed this decline to a long and "well-documented" history of discrimination against black farmers, ranging from New Deal and USDA <a href="https://eji.org/news/one-million-black-families-have-lost-their-farms/" target="_blank">discriminatory practices</a> dating from the 1930s to 1950s-era exclusion from legal, title and loan resources.</p><p>Discriminatory practices have also affected who owns property as well as land. In 2017, the racial homeownership gap was <a href="https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/breaking-down-black-white-homeownership-gap" target="_blank">at its highest level for 50 years</a>, with 79.1% of white Americans owning a home compared to 41.8% of black Americans. This gap is even larger than it was when <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/redlining-what-is-history-mike-bloomberg-comments/" target="_blank">racist housing practices such as redlining</a>, which denied black residents mortgages to buy, or loans to renovate, property were legal.</p><p>The lack of ownership is crucial to understanding the crippling economic disparity that has <a href="https://prosperitynow.org/blog/black-and-latino-households-are-short-road-zero-wealth-hollowing-out-americas-historic-middle" target="_blank">hollowed out the black middle class</a> and continues to plague black America – making it harder to accrue wealth and pass it on to future generations.</p><p>A 2017 <a href="https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/color-of-wealth.aspx" target="_blank">report</a> found that the median net worth for non-immigrant black American households in the greater Boston region was just US $8, but for whites it was $247,500. This was due to "general housing and lending discrimination through restrictive covenants, redlining and other lending practices."</p><p>Nationally, between 1983 and 2013, median <a href="https://prosperitynow.org/resources/road-zero-wealth" target="_blank">black household wealth decreased</a> by 75% to $1,700 while median white household wealth increased 14% to $116,800.</p>Freedom Farms
<p>Land ownership today could look very different. The idea of collective ownership has a long history in the United States. Even during slavery, a piece of ground was granted by slave masters for enslaved African subsistence farming. The <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/sylvia-wynter" target="_blank">Jamaican social theorist Sylvia Wynter</a> called this land "the plot."</p><p><a href="https://www.aaihs.org/towards-usable-histories-of-the-black-commons/" target="_blank">Wynter has explained</a> how that these parcels of land were transformed into communal areas where slaves could establish their own social order, sustain traditional African folklore and foodways – growing yams, cassava and sweet potatoes. Plots were often called "<a href="https://english.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/DeLoughrey-Yam-Roots-Rot-Small-Axe.pdf" target="_blank">yam grounds</a>," so important was this staple food.</p><p>The connection between food, land, power and cultural survival was subversive in its nature. By appropriating physical space to support collective growing practices within the brutal constraints of slavery, black people also demonstrated the need for common, shared mental space to enable their survival and resistance. Herbalism, medicine and midwifery, and other African American <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807853788/working-cures-/" target="_blank">healing practices</a> were seen as acts of resistance that were "intimately tied to religion and community," according to historian Sharla M. Fett.</p><p>With the end of slavery, these plots disappeared.</p><p>The principles of collective land ownership evolved in post-slavery black America. It was central to civil rights organizer Fannie Lou Hamer's <a href="https://snccdigital.org/events/fannie-lou-hamer-founds-freedom-farm-cooperative/" target="_blank">Freedom Farms</a>, a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07409710.2017.1270647?journalCode=gfof20" target="_blank">cooperative model</a> designed to deliver economic justice to the poorest black farmers in the American South.</p><p>In Hamer's view, the fight for justice in the face of oppression required a measure of independence that could be achieved through owning land and providing resources for the community.</p><p>This idea of a black commons as a means of economic empowerment formed a focus of W.E.B. DuBois' 1907 "<a href="http://scua.library.umass.edu/digital/dubois/dubois12.pdf" target="_blank">Economic Co-operation Among Negro Americans</a>." DuBois believed that the extreme segregation of the Jim Crow era made it necessary to <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2015/10/07/dangerous-history-what-the-story-of-black-economic-development-means-for-us-today/" target="_blank">ground economic empowerment</a> in the cultural bonds between black people and that this could be achieved through cooperative ownership.</p>
Credit Unions and Co-Ops
<p>The accumulation of wealth was not the only desired consequence of a black commons.</p><p>In 1967, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/us/harold-cruse-social-critic-and-fervent-black-nationalist-dies-at-89.html" target="_blank">social critic Harold Cruse</a> argued for a "<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40034433?seq=1" target="_blank">new institutionalism</a>" that would create a "new dynamic synthesis of politics, economics, and culture." In his view, economic ventures needed to be grounded in the greater aspirations of black communities – politically, culturally and economically. This could be achieved through a black commons.</p><p>As the political economist <a href="https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/jessica-gordon-nembhard" target="_blank">Jessica Gordon Nembhard</a> <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06216-7.html" target="_blank">has noted</a> in reference to black <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/bankblack-listing-black-owned-banks-credit-unions-united-states/" target="_blank">credit unions and mutual aid funds</a>, "African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefited greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation's history."</p><p>The nonprofit <a href="https://centerforneweconomics.org/" target="_blank">Schumacher Center for a New Economics</a> is working to rejuvenate the idea of black commons. In a 2018 statement, the <a href="https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/proposal-for-a-black-commons/" target="_blank">center proposed to adopt a community land trust structure</a> "to serve as a national vehicle to amass purchased and gifted lands in a black commons with the specific purpose of facilitating low-cost access for black Americans hitherto without such access."</p><p>Meanwhile, shared equity housing schemes and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-29/alternative-homeownership-land-trusts-and-co-ops" target="_blank">community land trusts</a> <a href="https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/working-papers/tracking-growth-evaluating-performance-shared-equity-homeownership" target="_blank">continue to grow</a>, helping black families own property, <a href="https://housingmatters.urban.org/articles/how-community-land-trusts-can-advance-racial-and-economic-justice" target="_blank">advance racial and economic justice</a> and mitigate displacement resulting from gentrification.</p>Digital Commons
<p>The disproportionate effects of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/racial-ethnic-minorities.html" target="_blank">coronavirus pandemic</a> and unrest over <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/police-violence-pandemic/2020/06/05/e1a2a1b0-a669-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html" target="_blank">police brutality</a> have highlighted deeply embedded structural racism. Organizations such as Black Lives Matter and the <a href="https://m4bl.org/" target="_blank">Movement for Black Lives</a> are demonstrating a renewed vigor around collective action and a blueprint for how this can be achieved in a digital age. At the same time, black Americans are also forging a cultural commons through events such as DJ D-Nice's <a href="https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a31860967/dj-dnice-instagram-dance-party-coronavirus-quarantine/" target="_blank">Club Quarantine</a> – a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adriennegibbs/2020/03/28/dj-d-nice-just-had-the-best-quarantine-week-ever/#2c57f81c47dc" target="_blank">hugely popular</a> online dance party. Club Quarantine's success indicates the potential for using online platforms to facilitate community building, pointing toward future economic cooperation.</p><p>That's what organizations like <a href="http://urbanpatch.org/" target="_blank">Urban Patch</a> are trying to do. The nonprofit group uses crowdsourced funding to build community spaces in inner city areas of Indianapolis and encourage collective economic development that echoes the black commons of years past.</p><p>The long history of racism in the United States has held back black Americans for generations. But the current soul searching over this legacy is also an unrivaled opportunity to look again at the idea of collective black action and ownership, using it to create a community and economy that goes beyond just ownership of land for wealth's sake.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Wine cultivation, typically associated with more southern slopes in France, Spain and Italy, is now taking off in places like Denmark, Sweden (pictured) and the United Kingdom. Jonathan Nackstrand / AFP / Getty Images
By Martin Kuebler
With hotter summers, severe storms and prolonged dry spells in the forecast, the outlook for Europe's farmers is daunting.
<p>Average annual temperatures are expected to increase anywhere from 1 to 5.5 degrees Celsius (1.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit), with the strongest warming projected across the south of the continent in the summer months.</p><p><a href="https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/cc-adaptation-agriculture" target="_blank">A September 2019 report by the European Environment Agency (EEA)</a> noted that heat stress, extreme weather events like flash floods and hailstorms, and water shortages have already changed growing conditions for several crops in Europe — especially for Mediterranean staples like olives and wine grapes.</p>
<div id="7b57a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a3140c63ff0a97771d0ad3f85329d728"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1174945780358008833" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">❓How concerned are you about the impact of #climatechange on #farming in #Europe? #Adaptation will be crucial - fin… https://t.co/XPkbPic6DY</div> — EU EnvironmentAgency (@EU EnvironmentAgency)<a href="https://twitter.com/EUEnvironment/statuses/1174945780358008833">1568963878.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Places in northern Europe, meanwhile, could see agricultural benefits from climate change, including longer growing seasons and a shorter frost period "allowing the cultivation of new crops and varieties," said the report. Suitable cropland around the Baltic Sea could more than double by 2100, from 32% of land area today to about 76%, with certain crops now common to southern Europe taking root further north.</p>
UK, Scandinavian Wines
<p>Those climatic changes have already borne fruit — quite literally. In the northern German state of Lower Saxony, where average temperatures have risen nearly 2 degrees Celsius in the last several decades, some farmers have started cultivating fruits typically found further south, such as apricots and nectarines. And wine cultivation, typically associated with more southern slopes in France, Spain and Italy, is now taking off in places like Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom.</p><p><a href="https://www.ryedalevineyards.co.uk/" target="_blank">Ryedale Vineyards</a>, in northeastern England, has been producing British wines since 2006. As one of the UK's northernmost wineries, it relies mainly on hybrid disease-resistant grape varieties more suited to northern Europe's cooler regions.</p><p>The warming trend of the past decades has seen the UK's wine industry quadruple in size since 2000, with English vineyards producing some 13.2 million bottles in 2018. But the changing climate does pose other challenges, including unusual weather patterns and increased risk of disease associated with wetter summers. which have been linked to climate change.</p><p>"Unpredictable weather events, droughts and intense summer storms are a real problem and seem to have increased in frequency," said Jon Fletcher, who runs Ryedale Vineyards with his family. In an email to DW, he listed off the challenges: late frosts, destructive hailstorms and dry spells that can last for months. "This year we have already had the sunniest May on record and no rainfall for two months, so the unpredictable weather continues."</p><p>"Climate change is posing a risk for the sustainability of vineyard management at global scale and, particularly, in Europe," said Josep Maria Sole of <a href="http://visca.eu/" target="_blank">VISCA (Vineyards Integrated Smart Climate Application)</a>, an EU-funded project that aims to help Europe's wine industry develop medium- and long-term adaption strategies. He said wine producing areas will increasingly suffer from intense heat waves and droughts and, in certain regions in Spain, more intense spring frosts, which can damage grapevine buds.</p><p>Blaz Kurnik, an expert on climate change impacts and adaptation at the EEA, said these higher temperatures, especially warmer winters, will also favor the introduction of new diseases and pests, including the olive fruit fly. Increasing swarms are threatening Europe's olive oil industry, responsible for around three-quarters of the world's supply. "In the worst-case scenario, up to 80% of [Italy's] olive trees will be affected by this every year," said Kurnik, adding that flies were also infesting Spain's olive groves.</p>Mango, Avocado and Lychee: Europe's Future Cash Crops?
<p>Italy, which ranks second in the world for olive oil production, saw a disastrous harvest in 2018. Bad weather and frost caused production to drop by 57%, representing a loss of nearly €1 billion ($1.13 billion).</p><p>Sicily is one of Italy's top olive oil-producing regions, along with Calabria and Puglia. But some farmers there have begun focusing their attention on crops native to tropical regions, including mangoes, avocado and lychee fruit. </p><p>Tropical crops were first introduced to Sicily back in the 1970s, but recent years have seen an exponential growth of these crops and the introduction of new species such as papaya, replacing citrus fruits which "are no longer remunerative," said Vittorio Farina, an associate professor in agriculture at the University of Palermo.</p><p>"The favorable climate of many areas in the Mediterranean basin is promoting tropical fruit cultivations," he said in an email to DW. "In fact, the predominant mango and avocado production is concentrated in tropical countries, but recently its cultivation has spread outside the traditional geographical regions to the Mediterranean basin and in particular in Egypt, Israel, South Africa, Europe, mainly Spain and Italy."</p><p>Farina said a succession of milder winters has favored the expansion of mango, avocado and papaya orchards destined for export markets further north, though the corresponding drier summers and extreme weather events remain a challenge.</p><p><span></span>"The problem of the scarcity of water resources for agriculture will increasingly impose the introduction of species with low water requirements," said Farina, suggesting the possible introduction of fruit like the cactus pear. "For most other tropical species, irrigation in the warm months in the dry areas is an essential condition for obtaining a quality product." Farina said they were testing precision irrigation strategies to limit the water footprint of the tropical crops.</p>Finding the Right Solution
<p>Margarita Ruiz-Ramos, an associate professor at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, told DW that new crops were also being tested in Spain, including pistachios. However, she stressed that the priority now was experimenting with different varieties of existing crops that could withstand new growing conditions — such as types of fruit that don't rely as heavily on winter chill to produce spring blossoms.</p><p>"There already is the possibility to adapt the variety without changing the [main] crop in the short to medium term," she said, pointing out that some crops could also shift to other more suitable areas within the same country.</p><p>As part of her work at the <a href="http://ceigram.upm.es/" target="_blank">Research Center for the Management of Agricultural and Environmental Risks</a>, Ruiz-Ramos analyzes crop varieties, planting schedules, soil conditions, irrigation options and many other variables to find the optimum strategy for farmers and "design locally tailored adaptations." The most promising solutions are then tested in the field.</p><p>"It's a compromise between different needs. And that's why it's not so obvious as to just bring in some African crops," she said. However, she didn't rule out the fact that dramatic temperature changes could one day lead growers to take a chance on non-native crops.</p><p>Yves Madre, a co-founder of <a href="https://www.farm-europe.eu/" target="_blank">Brussels-based think tank Farm Europe</a>, said the EU's farming sector needs to be more open to new breeding techniques that would introduce drought and disease-tolerance genes to existing crops, which can include genome editing.</p><p>With more innovation and investment, he said the EU would be able to meet its goals in terms of food security and growth, especially in rural areas.</p>From Your Site Articles
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A worker at a flower farm in Kiambu County, Kenya, piles up roses to be dumped on March 24, 2020. Patrick Meinhardt / AFP / Getty Images
By Peyton Fleming
Gerison Ndwiga, a small rural farmer in Kenya, felt the economic sting of COVID-19 just days after the government announced a curfew and travel restrictions in late March.
<p>For Ndwiga, who grows vine ripe tomatoes and exotic French beans 75 miles north of the nation's capital, the pain was double: He couldn't transport his tomatoes to Nairobi and traders stopped exporting his beans to Europe.</p><p>Within days, he made a tough choice: he left more than 16,000 pounds of ripe beans in the ground unpicked – a loss he estimated at more than US$4,000. "I didn't pick anything because there were no flights in and out of Nairobi," Ndwiga said, noting that most Kenyans have no interest in buying his long skinny beans known as haricot verts.</p><p>COVID-19 is eating away at most sectors of the world's economy. But in Kenya, which has enjoyed a booming <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2020/03/26/many-of-africas-economies-are-doing-well" target="_blank">trade relationship</a> with Europe in recent years, the global lockdown has hit small and large commercial farmers especially hard. Europeans are noticing this as favorite roses and passion fruits are hard to find in stores. Meanwhile, Kenyan producers are pivoting at jet speed to develop new markets closer to home, creating new revenue streams and new outlets for small farmers like Ndwiga trying to sell their crops.</p><p>"After decades of high dependency on exports, the opportunities for tapping local and regional markets are becoming clearer, especially as African economies and income levels grow," said Jane Ambuko, associate professor and Head of Horticulture at the University of Nairobi. "Exports aren't going away, but growing domestic markets opens new frontiers for trade while supporting our local populations, many of whom are small farmers."</p>
<p>Kenya's horticulture industry is a much-heralded success story. Fresh produce and flower exports that totaled $68 million in 1991 sprouted 20-fold to <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/19/c_138892693.htm" target="_blank">$1.37 billion</a> by 2019, much of it from roses, avocados and French beans. Every day, dozens of airplanes filled with cut flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables take off from Nairobi, most of them heading to Europe. Three million Kenyans were directly involved in growing and processing those crops.</p><p>When Europe closed its borders and economy in March, the flights – and exporters' lifeline – snapped shut.</p><p>"The last two months have been really tough," said Frank Obure, general manager packhouses at AAA Growers Ltd., Kenya's third largest exporter which provides premium roses, fruits and vegetables all across Europe. Obure has wrestled with worker layoffs, cancelled deliveries, rotting crops, safety protocols and devastating rains. "I've never been through an experience like this before."</p><p>How bad has it been? Before the pandemic, AAA Growers was exporting 1.4 million flowers every week. When Holland's vast flower markets were shuttered, shipments dropped to virtually zero. Millions of roses that should have been adorning homes across Europe on Easter Sunday were wilting instead at two flower farms near Mount Kenya.</p>
<p>"We're harvesting and throwing, harvesting and throwing. Upwards of 250,000 stems a day are going into the bin," Obure said, estimating overall flower losses at 70 to 80 percent.</p><p>Fruit and vegetable exports have also been hurt, although not as badly since some fresh produce can be redirected to local markets – at substantially marked down prices.</p><p>All told, with produce exports down by 70 to 75 percent, Kenya's horticulture industry is losing about EU $3 million a day, according to Industry trade group <a href="https://www.coleacp.org/?lang=en" target="_blank">COLEACP</a>. But that figure does not account for thousands of small growers like Ndwiga who have been largely cut off from export markets and Nairobi's informal urban markets due to travel bans. </p><p>Due to paperwork limitations, Ndwiga, who owns 10 acres, says he can only get into Nairobi once every two weeks to sell his tomatoes in informal markets. "I'm selling many of my tomatoes locally at village prices because they're getting overripe." he said, noting that prices are half what he'd fetch in Nairobi.</p><p>Ndwiga's predicament is common, say local industry experts<strong>.</strong> "For bigger companies whose trucks are registered, they don't have problems moving produce into Nairobi, but the small farmers who don't have the necessary paperwork, they're the ones who are suffering the most," said Emmanuel Oriedo, a food and farming system consultant who works with small farmers.</p>
Uncertainty and Hope
<p>To be sure, the situation has improved the past few weeks, particularly as flight restrictions to Europe are loosening a bit and more passenger planes are being converted to carry cargo. But major obstacles remain, including in-country transport bottlenecks and prohibitively high air freight costs. Shipping costs to Europe are averaging $2.80 to $4 per kilogram, more than double previous rates.</p><p>Companies are not sitting and waiting. AAA Growers is scrambling to sell more produce locally through popular Nairobi retailers like Carrefour, Quick Mart and KFC. The company's 'sell-local' efforts began last year, and it gained urgency when COVID-19 hit. Local sales now total 12 to 15 tons a week. </p><p>TwigaFoods, which sells all of its fresh produce within Kenya, responded to COVID-19 with a new e-commerce push. In late April, it launched a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/goldman-backed-ventures-jumia-and-twiga-partner-on-produce-in-kenya/" target="_blank">partnership</a> with e-commerce company Jumia to deliver bundles of fruits and vegetables directly to people's homes. The effort is aimed at affluent Nairobi customers who want to avoid buying at more expensive supermarkets.</p><p>"We'd been thinking about the idea and we were starting to see more home deliveries (due to COVID-19)," said TwigaFoods CEO Peter Njongo. "For now, it's something we'll do in Kenya. We'll see how it works."</p>From Your Site Articles
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