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MEET GERMAINE JENKINS

CHEF, GROCER, FARMER, MOTHER, ACTIVIST, EDUCATOR AND EVERYDAY VISIONARY - DETERMINED TO RESTORE HEALTH AND DIGNITY TO THE PEOPLE OF HER COMMUNITY.

Twenty-six years ago Germaine was dreaming of a career in the culinary arts, but the arrival of her firstborn put her plans of jetting off to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris on hold. She never back-burnered her dreams, graduating with honors from Johnson & Wales University.

Her love of quality food and her desire to eliminate food insecurity in her community led Germaine to establish Fresh Future Farm Inc., an urban farm in North Charleston, SC, to further her mission.

Fresh Future Farm and its associated market have distributed over 18 tons of basic and specialty groceries, hosted more than 200 students, and trained more than 100 adults in natural gardening practices. A vital part of its community, it provides fresh food, good jobs, and mutual aid to marginalized BIPOC and LBGTQ people.

As we follow Germaine's trajectory, we learn how the fight for food justice is the fight to improve health and well-being in the Black community. But in doing so, we discover the challenges she encounters in combatting the systemic injustice of food apartheid.

The Food Justice Movement is a grassroots initiative emerging from communities in response to food insecurity and economic pressures that prevent access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods.

FOOD DESERT

An urban area with limited or zero access to affordable and nutritious food.

FOOD APARTHEID

The human-created system of segregation that leads to food deserts by preventing certain groups from this access.

ROOTED follows the story of Germaine Jenkins, a rising star activist and urban farmer in Charleston, South Carolina - the hub of this country's former slave trade. Germaine's 5-year quest to gain ownership of the .8 acre parcel of land she calls Fresh Future Farm represents more than her struggle to grow healthy food to combat the toxic diet in her food desert community; as a present-day kind of sharecropper, it mirrors the historic struggle of the Black community in a dominant White system.

We track Germaine's battle against massive obstacles - physical, racial, legal, political, and systemic - as she petitions Charleston's local government to either extend her farm's lease or give her ownership of the plot. It's a legal predicament that threatens to undo the entirety of her incredible work to-date and could effectively kill Fresh Future Farm.

The reality is that Germaine, like her ancestors, works a land she does not own. ROOTED's deeper revelation is that when we talk about who controls the food chain and access to fresh produce in America, what we're really talking about is whose health is prioritized, which bodies are revered,and which bodies are devalued.

We follow this activist of singular magnetism as she begins to garner attention on the national stage. Germaine's budding celebrity is, of course, exactly the visibility urban food justice needs. But at what cost? Increasingly - as Germaine's work is celebrated - she discovers she must walk a tightrope of salesmanship and caution in order to push her vision forward.

What is she willing to concede?
What must she sacrifice to win gains for the movement?
Is a black woman leader ever really allowed to speak truth to power?

A Message from Bridget | 6.16.20

When I started ROOTED, my intention was to make a short film that might "go viral" and win Germaine some attention for her visionary work. With my background in food systems films, I knew she was doing something groundbreaking and I wanted the world to know about it. The more we filmed, the more I realized her fight for Fresh Future Farm was steeped in systemic racism dating back to slavery, compounded by the politics of being a Black woman in today's America. I knew our systems were broken but Germaine framed the issues in ways that exposed my blindspots and forever changed the way I see food justice. It is our hope that ROOTED will take others on this same journey and become a powerful weapon in the fight to rid American institutions of racism.

Years into the project, we find ourselves in this pivotal moment, reflecting deeply on privilege and who should be telling which stories. Filmmaking is a deeply collaborative process, and to that end I will redouble my efforts to bring more Black storytellers into the process. So during this time, while I continue to examine my role as the director of the film, Germaine and I have decided to press on together-with open-hearted and humble curiosity-to create a lasting, positive impact on the story of food justice.

Bridget Besaw

A Message from Germaine | 6.16.20

It took a whole pandemic for dominant culture to finally listen to the wisdom that Black women have possessed since Creation. The American dream only works for white people to the detriment of Black and brown bodies.

Pursuing food justice in a racist place is both rejuvenating and demoralizing. The ROOTED film gave me the opportunity to speak my truth freely and without retribution to all who would listen. Bridget Besaw saw me and made me comfortable enough to verbalize the rage that wells up every day we are pushed and prodded, and the joy that comes from creating an oasis. It didn't take long for her to understand how backward and intentionally unfair the food system is to the resilient folx who are underpaid to do the work.

In this season of renewal and understanding, Bridget continues to recruit Black talent to enrich the project and center a BIPOC point of view behind the camera. This new direction is bittersweet because her cinematography and storytelling skills jump off the screen in a powerful way. It's a thing of beauty to watch the Bridget-Par duo take hundreds of hours of footage and craft a story that's cohesive and real af. However, as a Black woman, I am here for what's next. This. Is. History. In food justice and filmmaking!

Germaine Jenkins

While the homegrown, community-based efforts of determined revolutionaries like Germaine are chipping away locally at fresh food scarcity, the truth is that food deserts are a national affliction. The decades-deep grim reality of food accessibility in the forgotten corners of our cities has left entire communities - mostly communities of color, entrenched in poverty or buckled by persistent low wages, buying their groceries at stores that don't even sell oranges. Those leafy greens and blueberries whose anticancer benefits are touted so often these days? They're a fantasy, prohibitively expensive for a family managing on a limited income, and impossible to find when gas station and dollar stores are the only in-reach options. Overwhelmingly, food deserts offer only high-calorie, chemical-rich, salt/sugar laden foods. These are toxic ingredients, and the building blocks of poor health. The consequences are dire and irrefutable. Across the country, food desert communities suffer from heart disease, diabetes, and obesity - all nutrition-related health problems.

Because fresh food scarcity affects the poor and people of color at such disproportionate rates, the poor health outcomes that result are felt with crippling force in our food desert neighborhoods. A look at the hard data reveals that lack of access to fresh produce in our most vulnerable communities is not just an unfortunate urban reality - it's a killer.

-Currently, there are 18,485 "food deserts" in the U.S.-Twice as many African-American children live in food-insecure households than White children-A 10-year CDC study reported in 2010 that African-Americans were 30% more likely to die from heart disease than Caucasians, twice as likely to die of stroke, and 60% more likely to suffer from high blood pressure

-African-Americans are 80% more likely than Whites to be diagnosed with diabetes

A STORY OF STRUGGLES AND SOLUTIONS ACROSS THE US

ROOTED is on the ground in Charleston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, and Oakland to document the national surge in food justice activism and urban farming.

On her journey, Germaine strikes up fast friendships with activist Germaine mentors LEAH PENNIMAN, author of "Farming while Black," who educates Germaine - and our audience - on the history of dispossession and discrimination that Black farmers have historically faced. HAWK NEWSOME, co-founder and chairman of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, as he cultivates his new Rejuvenate a Nation Project:a national movement to bring fresh food and wellness to underserved Black communities in the Bronx and beyond. Both friendships add the insight and ballast needed during the final stretch of Germaine's journey to acquire her own land, dignity, and liberation.

ROOTED also ventures north to Detroit to profile WILL ALLEN, the founder of Growing Power and Germaine's personal hero. He is the son of South Carolina sharecroppers, a former professional basketball player, and a MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient. Founded in 1995, Growing Power was the first-ever large scale urban farming non-profit to achieve major success. By 2009, it had a customer base 10,000 people strong.

In Chicago we will meet Will's daughter, ERIKA ALLEN, who sees food security and community development as the surest path to the eradication of racism and oppression. In 2017, she successfully rebranded the Chicago chapter of Growing Power as the "Urban Growers Collective" and refocused its mission on education and job training initiatives for teens and incarcerated adults.

Germaine's struggle to own her land and help the people of her community occurs within a longer history of focused attempts at food justice that this film will use to contextualize and emphasize the stakes of her mission.

ROOTED will dig into the history of the America's systemic food injustice: , beginning with the slave trade and discriminatory land policies, and continuing through Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative and the Black Panthers' free breakfast programs, which inspired the current food justice movement.

"If we want to make change we have to collectively reject inequality"

Rooted is a fiscally sponsored project of independent feature project

Seedlight Pictures is dedicated to rooting people to the planet-one picture at a time. Seedlight specializes in films that challenge conventional food systems and reconnect us to health and wellness through a better relationship to the food we eat and the planet that sustains us all.

"Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the roots."

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Rooted | A Documentary about Food Justice

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CHEF, GROCER, FARMER, MOTHER, ACTIVIST, EDUCATOR AND EVERYDAY VISIONARY - DETERMINED TO RESTORE HEALTH AND DIGNITY TO THE PEOPLE OF HER COMMUNITY. The Food Justice Movement is a grassroots initiative emerging from communities in response to food insecurity and economic pressures that prevent access to healthy, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods.

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How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate?

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How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate?

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Skip to content

Published by the Institute on the Environment, Environment Reports are briefings on the most pressing environmental challenges facing the world today.

Subscribe for alerts about new reports:

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How Does Agriculture Change Our Climate? - Environment Reports

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Skip to content Published by the Institute on the Environment, Environment Reports are briefings on the most pressing environmental challenges facing the world today. Subscribe for alerts about new reports:

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Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

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Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

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by Leah Penniman

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farming while black: soul fire farm’s practical guide to liberation on the land

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african american farmers - united states

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agriculture & food (see also political science

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agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

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ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

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social science / agriculture & food (see also political science / public policy / agriculture & food policy)

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social science / ethnic studies / african american studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
social science / ethnic studies / american / african american & black studies

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social science/agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

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social science/ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

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technology & engineering / agriculture / agronomy / soil science

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technology & engineering / agriculture / general

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technology & engineering / agriculture / sustainable agriculture

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technology & engineering/agriculture - agronomy - soil science

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farm labor; food apartheid; sustainable agriculture; black and latinx farmers immersion; blfi; farm planning; recipes; farming; economic exploitation; social justice; farmers of color; food sovereignty; climate change; reparation mad; reparations; land reclaimation; land; regenerative agriculture; agriculture; natalie baszile; we are each others harvest

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farm labor; food apartheid; sustainable agriculture; black and latinx farmers immersion; blfi; farm planning; recipes; farming; social justice; farmers of color; food sovereignty; climate change; reparation mad; reparations; land reclaimation; land; regenerative agriculture; agriculture; natalie baszile; we are each others harvest; economic exploitation

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social science / agriculture & food (see also political science / public policy / agriculture & food policy)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
social science / ethnic studies / african american studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
social science / ethnic studies / american / african american & black studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
social science/agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
social science/ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / agronomy / soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / general

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / sustainable agriculture

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technology & engineering/agriculture - agronomy - soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

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Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land [Penniman, Leah, Washington, Karen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

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Organic Regenerative Farming is the Future of Agriculture | The Future of Food

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The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) leverages the power of DC-based advocacy, public education, and grassroots voices nationwide to advance policies for a more sustainable farm and food system. We engage in advocacy work with legislators and administrative agencies in Washington, DC, while also building the capacity of our members to do effective grassroots organizing work. This synergy between a well-established DC office and a network of grassroots farmers and advocates participating through strong organizations is the key to NSAC's success.

NSAC works to reform and construct policies and programs that:

ensure opportunity and fairness for small and medium-sized family farms;

promote agricultural practices that conserve our soil, water, wildlife habitat, and energy resources;

increase the ability of beginning farmers to enter into farming;

encourage new and existing farmers to transition to sustainable and organic production practices;

expand cutting-edge on-farm research and extension for sustainable ag;

enable producer access to local and regional food systems;

increase consumer accessibility to sustainably produced foods.

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Our Work - National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

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The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) leverages the power of DC-based advocacy, public education, and grassroots voices nationwide to advance policies for a more sustainable farm and food system. We engage in advocacy work with legislators and administrative agencies in Washington, DC, while also building the capacity of our members to do effective grassroots organizing [...]

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(four episodes)

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What did you last eat? And why? Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. After all, it's not entirely up to you.

The food that ends up on our plate is the result of global trade dynamics, cultural norms, seasonality, marketing, thousands of years of plant breeding, and personal tastes. And it's all constantly changing. In this episode, we discover how nutrition evolves over time, and how crop science keeps up.

In this episode, we talk to a wide range of guests about the innovation that drives vertical farming, the sustainability challenges it addresses, and the advances in plant breeding that could take large-scale indoor agriculture into the mainstream.

Sustainability is in the news, it's in our politics, it's in our hamburgers. And, of course, it's on our farms. But how does the sustainability conversation sound around the world? Sustainability to be everywhere. In episode three, we talk to those making sure it works for everyone.

Our first three episodes explored the changing climate, the digital revolution, and our fluid understanding of what "sustainability" really means-and requires. The common thread? Change may just be the most consistent thing in human history.

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What did you last eat? And why? Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. After all, it's not entirely up to you. The food that ends up on our plate is the result of global trade dynamics, cultural norms, seasonality, marketing, thousands of years of plant breeding, and personal tastes.

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The climate bill even Big Agriculture loves.

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The climate bill even Big Agriculture loves.

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Grist

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This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Senator Joni Ernst normally doesn't see climate change as a major societal threat in need of a policy response. A magnet for agribusiness and oil-industry campaign contributions, she pleaded ignorance about climate science at a debate in 2014. She added, "I can't say one way or another what is the direct impact, whether it's manmade or not. I've heard arguments from both sides." Yet Ernst has managed to find a piece of climate legislation she likes - one that involves one of her state's major industries: agriculture.

It's called the Growing Climate Solutions Act, and Ernst counts among 49 senators on both sides of the partisan divide sponsoring it. Outside supporters include the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Pork Producers Council, and the United States Cattlemen's Association. The American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance conglomerate and agribusiness lobbying powerhouse that has long opposed federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, is pushing it, as is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a champion of unfettered oil and natural-gas drilling.

Some Big Green groups back it, too. "Passage of the Growing Climate Solutions Act would be a big win for agriculture, conservation, and the climate," argued a recent statement from the Nature Conservancy, echoing similar enthusiasm from the Environmental Defense Fund. In late April, the bill sailed through the Senate Agriculture Committee, and likely has the votes to pass the full Senate, although it has yet to be scheduled for a vote.

What policy intervention could magically align these disparate forces behind climate action? And does its broad appeal represent a nascent urge among GOP stalwarts like Ernst and polluting industries like Big Ag to take the challenge seriously?

No doubt, cutting greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and fast, will be vital to fending off the worst ravages of climate change. Farms contribute just 10 percent of total U.S. emissions, but the situation is worse than it looks at first glance. Overall U.S. emissions have been edging downward since peaking in 2007, albeit not nearly rapidly enough. We're now spewing heat-trapping gases at an annual rate just 1.9 percent higher we did in 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, reports. Greener electricity generation - more wind and solar, less coal - drives the downward trend. But over the same period, ag-related emissions have steadily drifted upward, rising 11.7 percent since 1990.

The Growing Climate Solutions Act turns out to be a pretty small-bore response to this growing problem. It mandates no emissions cuts or any new regulations. Instead it directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, to "develop a program to reduce barriers to entry for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners" to participate in voluntary private carbon markets.

Carbon markets work like this: Say a farmer opts for techniques that suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil (see my 2013 piece on Ohio cover-crop/no-till evangelist David Brandt, who has developed a system for doing just that). In a functioning carbon market, the farmer could sell what's called a "carbon credit" for the stored carbon to a polluting company - say, an oil driller. The farmer gets a payment; the drilling company gets to boast a cut in its "net" emissions, earned with the payment, without having to change its own practices. Such credits can be flaunted to appease the growing set of shareholders demanding that polluting companies cut their emissions; or simply to generate good PR as the ravages of climate change pile up. The goal of such agricultural "offsets," as they're known, is to incentivize climate-friendly farm practices, like Brandt's.

Private carbon markets for agriculture already exist, but they have not exactly taken farm country by storm. The most prominent one, run by a company called Indigo Agriculture (profiled by my colleague Maddie Oatman here), has so far managed to enroll farms representing 2.7 million acres into its program, Reuters recently reported. That's a tiny fraction of U.S. farmland; the four most prolific U.S. crops - corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton - cover about 239 million acres. Genetically modified seed and pesticide giant Bayer Crop Sciences (formerly Monsanto) runs a rival carbon program; and a cluster of Big Food and Big Ag companies, including McDonald's, Cargill and General Mills, plans to roll out yet a third, the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, in 2022.

Indigo, Bayer, McDonald's, Cargill, and General Mills have all endorsed the Growing Climate Solutions Act, in hopes that getting the USDA stamp on private ag-based carbon markets will draw in more buyers, and ultimately more farmers willing to adopt practices that qualify for credits. The bill calls on the USDA to provide guidelines for which practices reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon; and for entities like Indigo and the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium to "self-certify" with the department by claiming expertise in measuring ag-related climate benefits and providing technical assistance to farmers for attaining them.

And that's pretty much it. In short, if the act passes, the USDA will provide its imprimatur - in the form of a "USDA-certified" designation - on private markets that are already functioning, though currently at low level.

Not everyone is as convinced that voluntary markets managed by private players like Bayer and Indigo can push U.S. farms in more climate-friendly directions, even with USDA guidance. Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a Minneapolis-based think-tank, notes that rigorous market-based climate action requires carrots and sticks: not just payouts for operations that sequester carbon or cut pollution, but also ever-stricter limits on overall greenhouse gas emissions - which the Growing Climate Solutions Act lacks.

In a classic cap-and-trade scheme, the government mandates an economy-wide cap (limit) on emissions. The cap then drops over time. Companies that can't comply - say, ones drilling for crude oil, running coal-fired power plants, or methane-spewing cattle feedlots - would be compelled to buy carbon credits to offset a portion of their emissions. As the carbon cap continued to drop, offsets would get more and more expensive, forcing polluting companies to adopt less greenhouse gas-intensive business models or go bankrupt. That's the theory, anyway. Lilliston notes that California has had a pioneering cap-and-trade system in place since 2013, and the state's powerful oil and gas industries have still managed to continue spewing greenhouse gases largely unimpeded. Meanwhile, a blockbuster recent ProPublica report showed that the system may be significantly overestimating carbon-sequestration rates for some forest-based projects that have drawn $1.8 billion worth of credits. But with no cap at all in place, there's no real lever to force polluters to buy credits, Lilliston points out.

"Even if you're true believer in market-based solutions, to create an offset market without a carbon cap - that makes no sense," he says. "There's no chance that the carbon-credit price will ever really rise, because polluting companies don't have to buy these offsets." Currently, the price of an offset stands at around $15 per ton of carbon equivalent. At that level, some big companies may opt to buy offsets to burnish their reputations, Lilliston says. (Reuters cites IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Barclays as current buyers of ag offsets.) If the price of the offset gets to $40 or $50, he says, "they can just say, 'screw it,' and stop buying offsets, or buy them from another part of the world where they're cheaper." Then the U.S. carbon price would drop, and we'd be back to where we are now: A little-used carbon market doing not much at all to impede ever-growing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on farms.

Lilliston notes that this precise scenario played out in the 2000s, when a project called the Chicago Climate Exchange sold carbon credits, including ones generated on farms, into a market with no emissions cap. It ended up collapsing in 2010 due to a lack of buyers. In short, without strict limits on emissions, a carbon market represents an opportunity for polluting industries to launder their reputations, but doesn't push them to change their ways.

Silvia Secchi, a natural resource economist at the University of Iowa, says voluntary carbon markets have other problems as well. These schemes "do not fundamentally challenge, for example, livestock - it's becoming more and more apparent that really, policymakers don't want to touch that," she says. The U.S. meat industry is a massive contributor to U.S. agriculture's greenhouse gas footprint, EPA data show. Methane, a gas with 25 times the heat-trapping power of carbon, spews from livestock farms in two ways: from the digestive system of cattle (mainly in the form of burps) and from vast manure stores outside of factory-scale beef, dairy, hog, and chicken farms. Between 1990 and 2017, as U.S. livestock farming has concentrated into ever fewer and larger operations since 1990, manure's methane footprint surged 66 percent, according to the EPA. The meat industry's manure problem is unlikely to be resolved without regulation that forces farms to stop polluting, Secchi says.

The prospect of climate legislation brimming with carrots and lacking sticks may be exactly why the meat industry welcomes the bill. "We believe that farmers, ranchers, and producers are the mainstay of the agriculture industry and play an essential role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions," wrote John R. Tyson, Chief Sustainability Officer at Tyson Foods, the globe's second largest meat company, in an email. "The Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2021 is a great move in the right direction, and we commend the bipartisan work to address climate change."

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The climate bill even Big Agriculture loves

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This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Senator Joni Ernst normally doesn't see climate change as a major societal threat in need of a policy response. A magnet for agribusiness and oil-industry campaign contributions, she pleaded ignorance about climate science at a debate in 2014.

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Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country

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Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country

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by Courtney White

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environmental conservation & protection - general

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environmental science (see also chemistry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

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grass soil; grass soil hope; contrary farmer; wetland; wetlands; climate change; pasture cropping; restoration; rooftop farms; rooftop farm; biodiesel; beer; sweaty dancing; global hunger; water scarcity; economic instability; top soil; pasture-raised; greenhouse gas; no-till farming; compost; climate-friendly; natural habitat; habitat restoring; carbon dioxide; habitat restoration

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nature / environmental conservation & protection

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nature/environmental conservation & protection - general

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science / environmental science (see also chemistry / environmental)

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science / global warming & climate change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
science/environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / agronomy / soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / animal husbandry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / sustainable agriculture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering/agriculture - agronomy - soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering/agriculture - animal husbandry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
nature / environmental conservation & protection

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
nature/environmental conservation & protection - general

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
science / environmental science (see also chemistry / environmental)

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science / global warming & climate change

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
science/environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / agronomy / soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / animal husbandry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering / agriculture / sustainable agriculture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering/agriculture - agronomy - soil science

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
technology & engineering/agriculture - animal husbandry

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Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country

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Buy Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

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Future of Food: Farming in the age of climate change

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Future of Food: Farming in the age of climate change

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Quartz | 2017

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Future of Food: Farming in the age of climate change

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Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

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Hear how agriculture can feed a growing population and cut its impact on global warming in our climate podcast agriculture episode

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Hear how agriculture can feed a growing population and cut its impact on global warming in our climate podcast agriculture episode

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Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

In this episode you'll find out:

How often a forest the size of Luxembourg is destroyed to make way for agriculture

How more efficient agriculture could cut the roughly 30% of food that is currently lost or wasted

How big data is helping farmers track and better target their production. You'll hear about GPS soil sampling that allows farmers to create soil fertility maps with information about a field's nutrients, its pH level and other data. That enables farmers to make better decisions about which seeds to plant, where to plant them, and what kinds of fertiliser to use

How many data points per year does an automated milking system store on a single cow? The answer is 200 000-but we'll also tell you what they're for

How many people in the world are undernourished? It's 821 million, and we'll lay out some solutions to help feed them

We'll also have reassuring news for gastronomes. France throws away an estimated 10 million tons, or 10 billion kilos, of food each year-but the government has passed laws to ensure that restaurants and supermarkets give that food to needy people, rather than tossing it. We like that, because why, oh, why would anyone throw away French food?

If you've got something to say about climate in general or this podcast in particular, let me know @EIBMatt on Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe to Climate Solutions.

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Podcast: With smart agriculture, your stomach can fight climate change

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Subscribe to the entire series of Climate Solutions from the European Investment Bank, the EU climate bank. Learn what you should do to fight climate change in the oceans, on the road, in your home and even on your digital devices.

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The Biggest Little Farm Movie. Coming to theaters Spring 2019

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A testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives and the land. Search for screenings and book tickets on the official website brought to you by NEON

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To Slow Global Warming, U.N. Warns Agriculture Must Change

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To Slow Global Warming, U.N. Warns Agriculture Must Change

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NPR | 2019

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Humans must drastically alter food production to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming, according to a new report from the United Nations panel on climate change.

The panel of scientists looked at the climate change effects of agriculture, deforestation and other land use, such as harvesting peat and managing grasslands and wetlands. Together, those activities generate about a third of human greenhouse gas emissions, including more than 40% of methane.

That's important because methane is particularly good at trapping heat in the atmosphere. And the problem is getting more severe.

"Emissions from agricultural production are projected to increase," the authors warn. "Delaying action" on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they continue, "could result in some irreversible impacts on some ecosystems."

This is the latest in a series of reports from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The new reportadds weight and detail to a warning put out by the same panel of scientists last fall, in which they sounded the alarm about the inadequacy of the pledges countries have made so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

At that time, the panel broadly suggested that farmland would need to shrink and forests would need to grow to keep Earth from getting more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was in the preindustrial era. Global temperatures have already risen about 1 degree Celsius in the past 150 years.

To meet that temperature target, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to fall by 40% to 50% in the next decade. Scientists say the only way to achieve that reduction is to significantly increase the amount of land that's covered in trees and other vegetation and significantly reduce the amount of methane and other greenhouse gases that come from raising livestock such as cows, sheep and goats.

The new report offers some broad suggestions for how countries might achieve that. For example, for countries that have lost tree cover in the past century, reforestation can help suck greenhouse gases out of the air, while also preventing soil from drying up. Reducing food waste can also help: The report estimates food waste accounts for as much as 10 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. (Check out these tips on reducing food waste in your own home.)

Controlling emissions from agriculture is also a food-security issue. Greenhouse gases from food production create a vicious cycle: As Earth gets hotter, farming gets more difficult in many places, which forces farmers to clear more land to grow food.

"Climate change, including increases in frequency and intensity of extremes, has adversely impacted food security and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as contributed to desertification and land degradation in many regions," the report's authors write.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, as they are doing today, it will exacerbate those challenges and eventually make it all but impossible to control global warming without creating serious food shortages.

The U.N. panel is the latest group of experts to grapple with a global conundrum: how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, deforestation and other land use without creating food shortages or displacing people whose livelihoods rely on practices that are unsustainable globally.

Scientists and economists have been studying the effects of our diets on the environment for years. There's a growing consensus that a transition to a more plant-centered diet would help.

Currently, about 50% of the globe's vegetated land is dedicated to agriculture - and about 30% of cropland is used to grow grain for animal feed. Given how much land it takes to grow food to feed livestock, meat production is a leading cause of deforestation.

A report released last month by the World Resources Institute finds that if current dietary patterns continue, an additional 593 million hectares - which is almost twice the size of India - would be needed to feed the projected 9.8 billion people (the anticipated population) by 2050.

Right now, agriculture generates an estimated 25% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the WRI; that's when you combine food production and the land-use changes associated with farming, such as clearing vegetation and plowing.

If current trends continue, but agricultural productivity does not increase beyond 2010 levels, the WRI report concludes that most of the globe's remaining forests would need to be cleared to feed the world. And the globe would exceed the greenhouse gas emission targets set by the Paris climate agreement.

As we've reported:

"The WRI estimates that if people in the U.S. and other heavy meat-eating countries reduced their consumption of beef (and other meat from ruminants) to about 1.5 burgers per person, per week, it would 'nearly eliminate the need for additional agricultural expansion (and associated deforestation), even in a world with 10 billion people.' "

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To Slow Global Warming, U.N. Warns Agriculture Must Change

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Humans must drastically alter food production to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming, according to a new report from the United Nations panel on climate change. The panel of scientists looked at the climate change effects of agriculture, deforestation and other land use, such as harvesting peat and managing grasslands and wetlands.

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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

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by Merlin Sheldrake

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Putting our best book forward

Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

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entangled life: how fungi make our worlds

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biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

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environmental science; books for dad; gifts for dad; dad gifts; environmental books; environment; science book; wildlife; gifts for nature lovers; nature lover gifts; science gifts; autobiographies; mushroom book; mushroom; ecology; mycology; world history; history books; history; memoirs; memoir; wilderness; fungus; biology; nature books; nature; mushrooms; fungi; science books; science; superfoods; vaccines; plants; healing; earth day books; earth day; biology gifts; mushroom gifts; foraging book; best books of 2020; natural history

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biography & autobiography / personal memoirs

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Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

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Buy Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures on Amazon.com ✓ FREE SHIPPING on qualified orders

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The Call of the Land: Meet the Next Generation of Farmers

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The Call of the Land: Meet the Next Generation of Farmers

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The Call of the Land: Meet The Next Generation of Farmers | Short Film Showcase

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EAT Cook Club 2023

The EAT Cook Club brings together top-notch chefs from around the world to showcase the Planetary Health Diet on a plate.

Highlighted Knowledge and Initiatives

Who we are

EAT is a non-profit dedicated to transforming our global food system through sound science, impatient disruption and novel partnerships.

Sign up for stories about our work

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EAT - The science-based global platform for food system transformation

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We are dedicated to transforming our global food system through sound science, impatient disruption and novel partnerships.

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Miniseries on sustainability: Agriculture & the global climate debate 4/4

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Miniseries on sustainability: Agriculture & the global climate debate 4/4

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In this final installment of our four-part miniseries of agriculture and sustainability we focus on one of the most important issues facing agriculture and the sustainability of our food systems: climate change.

We take a look at what's at stake for agriculture at the upcoming Paris Climate Conference and talk to experts about climate smart agriculture, the threats to food production in developing countries, and the investments needed to help countries adapt to climate change.

In this week's episode, we'll be speaking to Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and President of the Mary Robinson Foundation, who is the UN Special Envoy on Climate Change until the end of the Paris climate conference in December. We'll also hear from FAO experts Martin Frick, Director of FAO's Climate, Energy and Tenure Division, and Leslie Lipper, senior environmental economist in FAO's Agricultural Development Economics Division.

If you are experiencing issues listening to the podcast on your PC please refer to this FAQSoundcloud.com for support.

Click here for a transcript of this week's episode.

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Miniseries on sustainability: Agriculture & the global climate debate 4/4

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In this final installment of our four-part miniseries of agriculture and sustainability we focus on one of the most important issues facing agriculture and the sustainability of our food systems: climate change.

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Kiss the Ground inspires participation in the regenerative agriculture movement. Learn more about our movement, and how to combat climate change.

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How climate change is stunting farm production

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How climate change is stunting farm production

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Enviromental Health New | 2021

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Since 1960 about 21 percent of global agriculture production, including livestock, tree farming, and traditional crops such as corn and soybeans, has been negatively impacted by climate change, according to a new study.

In the research published today in Nature Climate Change agriculture production is defined not just as crop yields or the amount of food or livestock grown, but the overarching energy and input it takes to produce food. This includes manual labor, fertilizers, water, and land. Unsurprisingly, agriculture production worldwide has grown over the last 60 years as a result of improved technologies and greater efficiency, primarily in higher income countries.

But the new study provides the latest evidence that climate change-and the subsequent increase in droughts, flooding, and extreme heat-has held back agricultural gains and impeded global food security efforts.

"People don't yet realize that the climate has already changed," Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, a Cornell economist and lead author of the new study, told EHN. "That's not something that we often talk about, just about what the impacts will be 50 years from now."

Climate change wipes out improvements

Using models similar to those created by climatologists to predict future climate trends, Ortiz-Bobea and his team charted climate data between 1960 and 2020, and compared it to a model where human-caused climate change never occurred.

They compared the "total factor productivity" between models: how does actual agricultural productivity over time compare to what it could have been without climate change?

"Climate change has basically wiped out about seven years of improvements in agricultural productivity over the past 60 years," Ortiz-Bobea said in a statement.

In other words, if the world were to wave a magic wand and halt the planetary changes associated with greenhouse gas emissions and a warming climate, global agricultural production would have reached the level it is today back in 2013, said Ortiz-Bobea.

Ortiz-Bobea compared the situation to someone running with a strong wind at their front: As a runner attempts to make their way to the finish line, the wind is constantly pushing them back. They're making progress but it's slow compared to a windless day. In this scenario, climate change is the strong wind and the runner's progress is farm production growth.

He noted that if climate change gets worse, a growing possibility as countries fail to set commitments that meet Paris Agreement targets, it's only a matter of time until agriculture production stalls. "[Climate change has] been happening for years, and as the magnitude keeps rising and rising it's going to get harder to ignore," he said

Ortiz-Bobea wasn't expecting such a significant difference in farm production between models with and without climate change. "I didn't even think that the result would be statistically significant," he said. "I was expecting something much smaller, something almost imperceptible. But no matter how we sliced the data or looked at different variations of the econometric model, it was pretty consistent that it's a substantial negative effect."

Farm nursery in Cape Town, South Africa. (Credit: Anaya Katlego/Unsplash)

The greatest climate impacts are seen in countries that are historically warmer such as those in Africa, Latin American, and Asia. As developing regions are often without the same technological advancement or management systems for agriculture, they face the greatest losses as unpredictable weather and warming events threaten crops and livestock. Ortiz-Bobea noted that this issue is as much an equity issue as it is an economic one.

The agriculture sector faces a unique problem in the way of climate change. Historically, the industry has relied on unsustainable practices that further greenhouse gas emissions. One example is in Brazil, where massive Amazon deforestation has taken place in an attempt to grow the country's economy around cattle and soybean farming. The transformation of forests, a crucial carbon sink, into crop lands also contributes to rises in atmospheric carbon levels.

In addition, increased global meat consumption and subsequent cattle production is a common source of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas about 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

So what is the best way to produce more food without contributing to a cycle of climate change?

Ortiz-Bobea said that the solution is in a mix of mitigation and adaptation. "Despite all the new, very exciting technologies that we are coming up with like CRISPR, they will still take decades to have an impact." CRISPR is an increasingly popular technology that allows geneticists to modify DNA sequences and gene functions. Often touted as the solution to harmful birth defects in human genomes, conversations have arisen around the use of gene editing to increase food production for a rapidly growing population.

Ortiz-Bobea also highlighted the potential for soil-based strategies. "There are ways to increase soil health that allow soils to improve their water holding capacity, for example," he said. "And so that improves the crop yields and allows farmers to weather the storm, no pun intended there, while at the same time it helps capture carbon from the atmosphere."

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The greatest climate impacts are seen in countries that are historically warmer such as those in Africa, Latin American, and Asia. As developing regions are often without the same technological advancement or management systems for agriculture, they face the greatest losses as unpredictable weather ...

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We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

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We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

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Jonathan Safran Foer (Author)

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we are the weather: saving the planet begins at breakfast

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agriculture & food (see also political science

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agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

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earth sciences - meteorology & climatology

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earth sciences / meteorology & climatology

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environmental conservation & protection - general

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environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

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nature/environmental conservation & protection - general

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political science / public policy / environmental policy

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political science/public policy - environmental policy

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science / earth sciences / meteorology & climatology

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social science / agriculture & food (see also political science / public policy / agriculture & food policy)

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science/earth sciences - meteorology & climatology

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science/environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

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social science/agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

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technology & engineering/agriculture - animal husbandry

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best books of 2019; vegetarian; vegetarianism; food sustainability; sustainable agriculture; factory farming; social justice; political activism; environmental science; climate change deniers; global warming hoax; environmentalism; saving the environment; green living; environmental crisis; meat; fossil fuels; greenhouse effect; ecology; earth; agriculture; farms; climate change; conservation; protection; end of meat; eating animals author

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vegetarian; vegetarianism; food sustainability; sustainable agriculture; factory farming; social justice; political activism; environmental science; climate change deniers; global warming hoax; climate change; conservation; protection; environmentalism; end of meat; saving the environment; green living; environmental crisis; meat; fossil fuels; greenhouse effect; ecology; earth; agriculture; farms; eating animals author; best books of 2019

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earth sciences / meteorology & climatology

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nature/environmental conservation & protection - general

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political science / public policy / environmental policy

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political science/public policy - environmental policy

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science / earth sciences / meteorology & climatology

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social science / agriculture & food (see also political science / public policy / agriculture & food policy)

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science/earth sciences - meteorology & climatology

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science/environmental science (see also chemistry - environmental)

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social science/agriculture & food (see also political science - public policy - agricultur

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technology & engineering/agriculture - animal husbandry

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We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

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We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast [Foer, Jonathan Safran] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations | 2015

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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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This website allows you to explore how different scenarios of global greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change could change the geography of food insecurity in developing and least-developed countries. By altering the levels of future global greenhouse gas emissions and/or the levels of adaptation, you can see how vulnerability to food insecurity changes over time, and compare and contrast these different future scenarios with each other and the present day.

SEE THE POSSIBILITIES

For the interactive experience, visit the site on your tablet or desktop browser

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Food Insecurity & Climate Change - Met Office

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This website allows you to explore how different scenarios of global greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change could change the geography of food insecurity in developing and least-developed countries.

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Policy Forum

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This week on Policy Forum Pod we take a look at the recent IPCC report and find out what food-related industries, consumers, and governments can do to tackle the challenges presented by climate change.
A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looked at the role that food systems are playing in contributing to global greenhouse emissions, and drew attention to the ways climate change is threatening the future of food production and food security. On this Policy Forum Pod, we hear from Professor Mark Howden and Professor Michael Roderick on the complex relationship between land, food, and the climate and what governments and individuals can do to tackle the issues identified in the report. Listen here: https://aca.st/947815

Presenters Professor Quentin Grafton and Lydia Kim also discuss water policy and the Barwon-Darling river system, and tackle some of your questions and comments.

Mark Howden is Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute. Mark was a major contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports for the UN, for which he shares a Nobel Peace Prize.

Michael Roderick is a Professor in Research School of Earth Sciences at The Australian National University. He is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

Quentin Grafton is Professor of Economics at Crawford School, an ANU Public Policy Fellow, and Director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Policy Forum.

Lydia Kimis a presenter for Policy Forum Pod.

Show notes | The following were referred to in this episode:
The Fitzgerald Inquiry Climate Change and Land - IPCC Fijian prime minister's comments on Australia

Policy Forum Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Subscribe on Android or wherever you get your podcasts. We'd love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to podcast@policyforum.net. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or join us on the Facebook group.

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Podcast: Food, farming, and climate change - Policy Forum

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This week on Policy Forum Pod we take a look at the recent IPCC report and find out what food-related industries, consumers, and governments can do to tackle the challenges presented by climate change.

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Food Production are Far Greater Than Previous Estimates Suggest

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Food Production are Far Greater Than Previous Estimates Suggest

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Inside Climate News | 2021

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A new study finds that if all parts of the food system are included, food production is responsible for as much as 40 percent of global emissions.

Emissions from food production, already considered one of the biggest contributors to climate change, have been underestimated for decades, potentially skewing the pledges that countries have made under the Paris climate agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research.

In a study published this week in Environmental Research Letters, researchers found that the food system was responsible for as much as 40 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
A Critical Omission
"When you count it all up, across the food system, it's enormous," said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a researcher with Columbia University's Earth Institute and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "So it offers countries really enormous opportunities."

Recent estimates put agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions at about one-fifth of the global total, but that figure only includes emissions from on-farm activities, mostly raising crops and livestock. When the researchers looked at the entire food system-including the raising of crops and livestock, the conversion of land to agriculture, transportation, retail sales, food consumption and food waste-the total was significantly higher, between 20 and 40 percent, or about 16 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.

The difference is crucial. As countries plan to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets, they submit detailed plans called Nationally Determined Contributions, based on emissions data they provide, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). But the agriculture-related emissions countries report don't consistently encompass emissions from the entire spectrum of the food system, including deforestation, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

That means countries have even greater potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions from their food production systems and that those reductions will prove essential in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, the researchers said.
Toward an Integrated Food Policy
The researchers-a collaboration among several institutions, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Columbia and New York University-found that three quarters of emissions from the food system came from on-farm activities, the food supply chain, including processing and transportation, and waste disposal. The other quarter came from converting natural ecosystems to agricultural land.

Overall, they found, land conversion and deforestation had gone down in both developed and developing countries, though it's still dangerously high and the single biggest source of emissions in the food system.

Interestingly, though total emissions from the food system rose by 8 percent from 1990 to 2018, the time frame the researchers studied, emissions on a per capita basis went down. Per capita emissions in developed countries are nearly twice as high as in developing countries.

While the research team's estimates track with other recent research, which puts food system emissions at about one-third of all man-made emissions, their focus was on providing country-by-country data, in part so that individual countries could improve the accuracy of their agriculture-related climate pledges.

The researchers also wanted to underscore that agricultural emissions data, which often gets reported to the UN in different categories, is instead reported across their food systems. For example, countries currently report agriculture-related emissions from deforestation under "land use" or on-farm energy use under "energy".

"This typically leads to underestimates of food system emissions at the national level," the researchers said, because conversion of forest to farmland can essentially be canceled out by carbon sinks in forest land under current UNFCCC accounting rules. Countries can also report their total national emissions without including any emissions from land-use change.

"By doing this with a food system approach, it's a different accounting mechanism," Rosenzweig said, referring to the new study. "This gives countries the ability to develop an integrated food policy package."

Most countries have included agriculture in their NDCs, but they've failed to come up with specifics on just how they plan to cut emissions from their farming industries, according to a recent report, published by the UN and environmental groups.

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"Opportunities to reduce global emissions of the food systems sector remain largely untapped," according to the report, "due to a lack of comprehensive coverage of the opportunities that exist in the food system, on the one hand, and vagueness and unspecificity of NDC targets, on the other."

Reporter, Washington, D.C.

Georgina Gustin covers agriculture for Inside Climate News, and has reported on the intersections of farming, food systems and the environment for much of her journalism career. Her work has won numerous awards, including the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism and the Glenn Cunningham Agricultural Journalist of the Year, which she shared with Inside Climate News colleagues. She has worked as a reporter for The Day in New London, Conn., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and CQ Roll Call, and her stories have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and National Geographic's The Plate, among others. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Food Production are Far Greater Than Previous Estimates Suggest - Inside Climate News

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Emissions from food production, already considered one of the biggest contributors to climate change, have been underestimated for decades, potentially skewing the pledges that countries have made under the Paris climate agreement to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, according to new research. In a study published this week in Environmental Research Letters, researchers found that [...]

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Can Regenerative Agriculture Reverse Climate Change? | One Small Step | NowThis Earth

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Can Regenerative Agriculture Reverse Climate Change? | One Small Step | NowThis Earth

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NowThisEarth | 2020

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Can Regenerative Agriculture Reverse Climate Change? | One Small Step | NowThis Earth

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The Futuristic Farms That Will Feed the World | Freethink | Future of Food

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The Futuristic Farms That Will Feed the World | Freethink | Future of Food

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Freethink | 2019

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The Futuristic Farms That Will Feed the World | Freethink | Future of Food

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Regenerative Agriculture: Nourishing the Soil, Healing the Planet 

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Regenerative Agriculture: Nourishing the Soil, Healing the Planet 

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Regenerative Agriculture: Nourishing the Soil, Healing the Planet | Bioneers

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How Our Food System Affects Climate Change

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How Our Food System Affects Climate Change

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How Our Food System Affects Climate Change  FoodPrint