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  • Meating In The Middle: The Challenge of Lowering Greenhouse Gas Emissions On Farms

    From small farms to the larger, agriculture industry, changes are being made to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas being emitted into the air. With methane emissions considered one of the top worst greenhouse gasses – and agriculture a major contributor to it – the industry is looking toward new practices, like cover crops and new diets for cows. Responses are happening on many levels, but in order to make sustainable change, farmers and researchers must collaboratively work together.

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  • Native bees, please

    The Urban Bee Lab at UC Berkeley has spent over a decade collecting data about native Californian bees who regularly interact with humans so that they can share their findings to help farmers improve production. The lab collects specimens to help researchers down the line; they observe bees in nature; and they actively work with local farmers to exchange useful information. Short-term, the collaborations help farmers improve yield and provide a welcoming space to bees; short-term, the data collected will help protect and conserve native bee populations.

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  • California's Latest Weapon Against Climate Change Is Low-Tech Farm Soil

    California’s Healthy Soils Initiative is providing funding for farmers across the state to grow cover crops that will help move carbon from the air to the soil. Doing so not only cleans the air, but helps the soil and crops retain moisture in a state that has often faced water scarcity. Besides being a response to climate change, the initiative has bridged the deep divide between California’s coastal and valley populations, showing that they need each other to respond to climate issues.

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  • 'It's a groundswell': the farmers fighting to save the Earth's soil

    Governments, UN officials, and climate experts alike are ringing the alarm bells of growing soil degradation around the world. But a new agricultural movement is tackling this challenge head on. Instead of the centuries-old method of ploughing, or turning up the soil, farmers have recently taken to keeping their fields covered with varied plants year round, to keep soil healthier. Advocates also point to lower costs on machinery and labor, more resilient crops, and climate change dividends as added benefits as well.

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  • California Has Farmers Growing Weeds. Why? To Capture Carbon

    Richer soil not only retains more water and minerals, it also trap carbon from the atmosphere absorbed by plants. As California works to meet its carbon neutral goal, the state is enlisting farmers in its climate change strategy. Grants from the state encourage California’s farmers to grow plants traditionally considered as weeds as a way to boost the amount of organic matter in the soil.

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  • Can This Breakfast Cereal Help Save The Planet?

    Human beings' reliance on crops like wheat and rice has a detrimental environmental effect: because these annual crops need replanting every year, farmers are required to destroy any existing vegetation in order to get the seeds to germinate. But scientists with the Land Institute are promoting kernza, a perennial relative of wheat that provides seeds year after year.

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  • Farmers in Uttarakhand Look to the Past to Benefit the Future

    Mountains are particularly vulnerable to climate change, and a mountain city in India is finding sustainable solutions in traditional agriculture. Women overwhelmingly make up the farming workforce in Uttarakhand and are using a number of ways to combat the effects of the temperature increase. These solutions include bringing back an ancient grain, finger millet, to appeal to new tastes and dishes, storing seed banks of traditional varieties, and opening a cafe serving local food using the ancient grains to attract outside visitors.

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  • Agroforestry helps Tajikistan farmers overcome resource pressures

    Many farmers in Tajikistan are transitioning from Soviet-era monoculture to agroforestry, a method that more closely mimics natural ecosystems. While the farms are small, many payoffs--good income, diverse crops, robust wildlife, and carbon sequestration, to name several--are being realized.

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  • Millet anyone? Facing soil crisis, US farmers look beyond corn and soybeans

    After decades of planting almost solely corn and soybeans, across the Midwest and Plains, farmers are trying new methods to restore nutrients and replenish their soils. Methods like no-till farming, growing diverse cover crops during the winter, and using soil-sensitive crop rotations are growing in popularity. While the new practices face some resistance, cultural awareness is growing and being encouraged by new legislation.

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  • ‘We see its value': Ugandan communities benefiting from agroforestry

    Communities across Uganda have been realizing the benefits of agroforestry, an old farming system that mimics natural ecosystems. Apart from creating a diverse, stable local food supply, the practice promotes soil health, bolsters biodiversity, creates wildlife habitat, and sequesters carbon. An NGO is working with communities to spread the practice across the region, with marked effect.

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