Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Methane Gas Levels Soar; Is Ag to Blame?
Go to http://time.com/4597909/climate-change-methane-emissions/ this link to read the story in TIME Magazine.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Ag Society Forum: Farmers Must Learn to Deal With Changing Climate
From Empire Farm & Dairy magazine:
By DEBRA J. GROOM
SALINA — Oh, the weather it is a changin.’
And oh, how the farmers have to change their operations to deal with it.
Climate change and how it affects agriculture in New York state was the focus of the 184th forum of the New York State Agricultural Society held Jan. 7 at the Holiday Inn in suburban Syracuse.
The day-long forum included talks by a meteorologist and director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, a panel discussion by New York farmers on how they deal with changes in the weather and a talk by the administrator of the federal Farm Service Agency.
All agreed weather patterns in New York have changed.
Art DeGaetano, a meteorologist, a professor in the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell and director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center, said data shows “through time, something has changed.”
From about 1980 through today, temperatures on average have been much warmer than normal in the winter.
He said data shows there have been fewer times when the temperatures dropped below zero, summer temperatures are warmer than normal, there are more frost-free seasons and, while annual average amounts of precipitation have stayed about the same (41 inches), there have been more extremes of when areas see two inches or more of rain in a day.
“We’re still seeing 41 inches of rain, but it’s coming in 10 days instead of in a longer period of time.
It’s clearly a different impact,” DeGaetano said.
So what can farmers do to deal with changes in the weather?
Peter Martens, a grain and crop farmer in Dresden, Yates County, and Wendy Burkhart-Spiegel, an organic vegetable farmer in Madison in Madison County, both do much more irrigation and drainage work on their farms than in the past. Irrigation deals with times when there isn’t enough rain, and drainage helps the farms get rid of water from those extreme deluges.
Martens also increased his strip cropping from zero in 2000 to 70 percent of his crops now being grown this way. This helps alleviate the erosion of soil by creating natural dams for water when it rains.
Martens also has had to rethink the type of crops he is growing now that the weather is different. Instead of planting windbreaks that simply act as windbreaks, he is considering planting fruit or nut trees that can act as windbreaks and can be sold “to turn a profit.”
He also is working with nearby dairy farmers by taking some of the crops he grew as weather buffers (straw and beans) and sells them to the dairies for feed.
“When the weather takes away an opportunity, reach out to a neighbor for another opportunity,” he said.
Burkhart-Spiegel said the very first year she and her husband operated Common Thread Community Farm and CSA in 2013, it rained so much in June they thought they’d never get their crops in.
“Six weeks of rain when we’re trying to get our crops in and cultivated,” she said.
So they also put in drainage. Irrigation is used when the rain gods take a vacation.
They use raised beds for some of the vegetables and put in hoop houses and temporary caterpillar houses for raising items like tomatoes.
“I remember when we could plant all our tomatoes outside and get all the tomatoes we needed,” she said. “Now we don’t plant any tomatoes outside.”
The weather changes also have led to more pests, so Burkhart-Spiegel has turned to organic pesticides, uses row covers and even black plastic and landscape fabric when growing some vegetables.
Val Dolcini, the Farm Service Agency administrator, manages offices in “every rural county in the United States in serving America’s farmers and ranchers, providing them with credit, farm and conservation programs and disaster assistance.”
He admits the ever-changing climate makes his job challenging, as more and more farmers and ranchers throughout the United States need federal assistance when weather disasters hit.
“Whether it’s a goliath blizzard like what hit recently in New Mexico, to El Nino to wildfires, we will respond,” he said of FSA.
He said sometimes that means going back to Congress for more money if there have been so many disasters that the agency’s disaster money is depleted.
“In our industry, opportunity is often created out of efforts to overcome new challenges and farmers and ranchers have a proven track record of harnessing ingenuity, know-how and determination to not just survive, but thrive in an ever-changing environment,” Dolcini told the more than 500 people attending the forum.
“That’s why today’s focus on Climate Smart Farming is so timely. As you know, there are many things we can control in life, but there are at least two things that are unpredictable: the markets and the weather. Sudden changes in either can have a major impact on our food supply,” he said.
“And while these forces may be at least somewhat out of our control, it’s how we adapt to them that will determine our success, Dolcini said.
“It goes without saying that the threat of climate change is far too important of an issue to be swept up in the partisan political climate that exists in Washington, DC,” he said.
Dolcini said people in agriculture not only have to figure out ways to avoid climate disasters in the future, but also how to learn from what is happening today to help change farm and ranch operations to increase profitability.
If you like what you read from the magazine, you can subscribe to it by sending $50 for one year or $75 for two years to Empire Farm & Dairy, 260 Washington St., Watertown, NY 13601
By DEBRA J. GROOM
SALINA — Oh, the weather it is a changin.’
And oh, how the farmers have to change their operations to deal with it.
Climate change and how it affects agriculture in New York state was the focus of the 184th forum of the New York State Agricultural Society held Jan. 7 at the Holiday Inn in suburban Syracuse.
The day-long forum included talks by a meteorologist and director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, a panel discussion by New York farmers on how they deal with changes in the weather and a talk by the administrator of the federal Farm Service Agency.
All agreed weather patterns in New York have changed.
Art DeGaetano, a meteorologist, a professor in the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell and director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center, said data shows “through time, something has changed.”
From about 1980 through today, temperatures on average have been much warmer than normal in the winter.
He said data shows there have been fewer times when the temperatures dropped below zero, summer temperatures are warmer than normal, there are more frost-free seasons and, while annual average amounts of precipitation have stayed about the same (41 inches), there have been more extremes of when areas see two inches or more of rain in a day.
“We’re still seeing 41 inches of rain, but it’s coming in 10 days instead of in a longer period of time.
It’s clearly a different impact,” DeGaetano said.
So what can farmers do to deal with changes in the weather?
Peter Martens, a grain and crop farmer in Dresden, Yates County, and Wendy Burkhart-Spiegel, an organic vegetable farmer in Madison in Madison County, both do much more irrigation and drainage work on their farms than in the past. Irrigation deals with times when there isn’t enough rain, and drainage helps the farms get rid of water from those extreme deluges.
Martens also increased his strip cropping from zero in 2000 to 70 percent of his crops now being grown this way. This helps alleviate the erosion of soil by creating natural dams for water when it rains.
Martens also has had to rethink the type of crops he is growing now that the weather is different. Instead of planting windbreaks that simply act as windbreaks, he is considering planting fruit or nut trees that can act as windbreaks and can be sold “to turn a profit.”
He also is working with nearby dairy farmers by taking some of the crops he grew as weather buffers (straw and beans) and sells them to the dairies for feed.
“When the weather takes away an opportunity, reach out to a neighbor for another opportunity,” he said.
Burkhart-Spiegel said the very first year she and her husband operated Common Thread Community Farm and CSA in 2013, it rained so much in June they thought they’d never get their crops in.
“Six weeks of rain when we’re trying to get our crops in and cultivated,” she said.
So they also put in drainage. Irrigation is used when the rain gods take a vacation.
They use raised beds for some of the vegetables and put in hoop houses and temporary caterpillar houses for raising items like tomatoes.
“I remember when we could plant all our tomatoes outside and get all the tomatoes we needed,” she said. “Now we don’t plant any tomatoes outside.”
The weather changes also have led to more pests, so Burkhart-Spiegel has turned to organic pesticides, uses row covers and even black plastic and landscape fabric when growing some vegetables.
Val Dolcini, the Farm Service Agency administrator, manages offices in “every rural county in the United States in serving America’s farmers and ranchers, providing them with credit, farm and conservation programs and disaster assistance.”
He admits the ever-changing climate makes his job challenging, as more and more farmers and ranchers throughout the United States need federal assistance when weather disasters hit.
“Whether it’s a goliath blizzard like what hit recently in New Mexico, to El Nino to wildfires, we will respond,” he said of FSA.
He said sometimes that means going back to Congress for more money if there have been so many disasters that the agency’s disaster money is depleted.
“In our industry, opportunity is often created out of efforts to overcome new challenges and farmers and ranchers have a proven track record of harnessing ingenuity, know-how and determination to not just survive, but thrive in an ever-changing environment,” Dolcini told the more than 500 people attending the forum.
“That’s why today’s focus on Climate Smart Farming is so timely. As you know, there are many things we can control in life, but there are at least two things that are unpredictable: the markets and the weather. Sudden changes in either can have a major impact on our food supply,” he said.
“And while these forces may be at least somewhat out of our control, it’s how we adapt to them that will determine our success, Dolcini said.
“It goes without saying that the threat of climate change is far too important of an issue to be swept up in the partisan political climate that exists in Washington, DC,” he said.
Dolcini said people in agriculture not only have to figure out ways to avoid climate disasters in the future, but also how to learn from what is happening today to help change farm and ranch operations to increase profitability.
If you like what you read from the magazine, you can subscribe to it by sending $50 for one year or $75 for two years to Empire Farm & Dairy, 260 Washington St., Watertown, NY 13601
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Why Was Agriculture Left Out of the Paris Climate Deal?
Another take on the Climate Action Plan agreement from Paris and agriculture.
Go to http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/16/3731098/food-agriculture-climate-agreement-paris/ to see the story.
Go to http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/12/16/3731098/food-agriculture-climate-agreement-paris/ to see the story.
Paris Climate Agreement Unlocks Opportunities for Food and Farming
Here is a take on the Climate Action Plan from Paris from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Read it at https://ccafs.cgiar.org/research-highlight/paris-climate-agreement-unlocks-opportunities-food-and-farming#.VnG5F7-GfTQ
Read it at https://ccafs.cgiar.org/research-highlight/paris-climate-agreement-unlocks-opportunities-food-and-farming#.VnG5F7-GfTQ
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Big Food Feels Threat of Climate change
Good story from National Public Radio about how climate change affects the food being grown and produced by farmers:
Go to http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/01/456369536/as-big-food-feels-threat-of-climate-change-companies-speak-up to read or listen to the story.
Go to http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/01/456369536/as-big-food-feels-threat-of-climate-change-companies-speak-up to read or listen to the story.
Friday, May 16, 2014
Ag Secretary's Weekly Column
Farmers,
ranchers and foresters have long understood the need to care for our
land and water — not only because preserving those resources for our
children and their children is the right thing to do, but because they
know that our farms and forests are more productive and efficient when
they’re properly cared for.
Science
and technology has expanded our capability and improved our
understanding over the years, but this core mission remains the same.
Today’s farmers and ranchers have risen to the twin responsibilities of
producing safe, affordable food while employing cutting edge
conservation practices on their operations to conserve water, minimize
runoff, prevent soil erosion, and preserve wildlife habitat. They know
that this will only become more critical as we take on the challenges of
feeding a growing global population and dealing with the impacts of a
changing climate.
This past week, the White House released the Third National Climate Assessment
(NCA) report, which provides an unprecedented look at what many of us
in agriculture already know: climate change is not just a problem for
the future.
We’ve
seen firsthand the impact of increasingly severe drought, floods,
extreme temperatures, and other dramatic weather patterns. Drought alone
was estimated to cost the U.S. $50 billion from 2011 to 2013.
Farmers
and ranchers know that severe and extreme weather means crop damage,
delayed spring planting, delayed harvest, and reduced yields, and they
know that those things have happened with increasing frequency over the
past decade.
The
NCA authors — 240 of the nation’s leading scientists and experts,
including researchers from USDA — confirm our on-the-ground understanding.
The authors found that climate disruptions to agriculture have increased in the past 40 years, and project that those disruptions will increase over the next 25.
Thus
far, agriculture has been able to adapt, and USDA has been there to
buffer and protect producers from weather-related risks through programs
like disaster assistance.
However, as the impacts of climate change become more prevalent,
farmers and ranchers will need new tools and techniques to protect their
bottom line and ensure the future food security of our nation.
USDA has undertaken a multipronged, multiyear approach to protect producers from the negative impacts of climate change.
Our regional Climate Hubs collect data, conduct research, and develop
practical, science-based conservation tools and techniques tailored
specifically to the differing needs of each region of the country.
We
support cutting edge research by our land-grant university partners,
including $6 million to ten schools to study the effects of climate on agriculture and an additional $6 million to develop tools to improve water resource quantity and quality.
This research will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners deal
with the complex consequences of climate change in the short term.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Cornell Offers Website to Help Farmers with Climate Change Issues
From Cornell University:
Farmers and gardeners have a new place to learn about dealing with climate change, and how to be part of the solution.
The website at climatechange.cornell.edu is a one-stop shop for everything climate change says David Wolfe, faculty fellow at Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and chair of the center’s Climate Change Task Force.
“The Northeast is already feeling the effects of climate change,” notes Wolfe. “There are so many people at Cornell working on practical solutions to these challenges – from research in agriculture to economics, engineering to social sciences, and Cooperative Extension’s work with farmers and communities. Our website will help the public engage with the expertise at Cornell to put these solutions into practice.”
At the core of the site is a searchable directory of climate change research and outreach programs at Cornell with summaries, contact information, and links to more information.
In addition, issue-specific pages to help farmers, local government officials, youth educators, and others connect with Cornell’s research-based resources and tools for reliable information.
“Our ultimate goal is to explain the science of climate change so that everyone can understand how it affects their lives, and can start to make changes,” said Allison Chatrchyan, director of Cornell’s new Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture.
One of Chatrchyan’s favorite features of the site is the frequently updated “What’s with the Weather?”
“We relay information from the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell that helps explain recent weather events within the context of climate change,” she says. “It’s the kind of timely research-based information that you can share around the water cooler when the conversation inevitably turns to weird weather.”
Additional features include:
Farmers and gardeners have a new place to learn about dealing with climate change, and how to be part of the solution.
The website at climatechange.cornell.edu is a one-stop shop for everything climate change says David Wolfe, faculty fellow at Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and chair of the center’s Climate Change Task Force.
“The Northeast is already feeling the effects of climate change,” notes Wolfe. “There are so many people at Cornell working on practical solutions to these challenges – from research in agriculture to economics, engineering to social sciences, and Cooperative Extension’s work with farmers and communities. Our website will help the public engage with the expertise at Cornell to put these solutions into practice.”
At the core of the site is a searchable directory of climate change research and outreach programs at Cornell with summaries, contact information, and links to more information.
In addition, issue-specific pages to help farmers, local government officials, youth educators, and others connect with Cornell’s research-based resources and tools for reliable information.
“Our ultimate goal is to explain the science of climate change so that everyone can understand how it affects their lives, and can start to make changes,” said Allison Chatrchyan, director of Cornell’s new Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture.
One of Chatrchyan’s favorite features of the site is the frequently updated “What’s with the Weather?”
“We relay information from the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell that helps explain recent weather events within the context of climate change,” she says. “It’s the kind of timely research-based information that you can share around the water cooler when the conversation inevitably turns to weird weather.”
Additional features include:
- A Climate Forum column, where Cornell experts explain their research for the public or a current issue in the news.
- Climate Change Q&A, where visitors can ask a Cornell expert to answer a burning question.
- Climate change-related videos
- News updates focusing on how the Cornell community is addressing climate change issues
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