November 18, 2023

Spotlight Story

A new report from Bain & Company asks if food and agriculture companies will be able to “raise their game” on societal health consequences and environmental issues. Check it out, here.

Industry Updates

Northern Ireland is facing its most serious environmental crisis in years after fake planning evidence was used in applications for new farm animal sheds, campaigners have said. Councils and the Audit Office have launched a series of probes after it was discovered that more than 100 applications for pig, poultry and cattle sheds and biogas plants submitted false soil sample results in a bid to bypass environmental legislation. The applications were submitted between 2015 and 2022, investigative website The Detail reported. It is understood that around three-quarters were approved. [link]

Vertical tillage provides moderate benefits but may not deliver all that farmers expect of it, a new study finds. Vertical tillage is a sort of compromise with no-till, attempting to keep the soil health benefits while cutting through and incorporating a little of the crop residue. Researchers at Penn State studied vertical tillage in 2021 and 2022 on farms in southeastern Pennsylvania where fields were being rotated from corn to full-season soybeans and found that it reduced residue covering the soil by an average of 16%, while also reducing winter annual weeds by an average of 14%. A number of farmers use vertical tillage to combat slugs but researchers found that the practice only cut pest damage by 9%. [link]

Concern is rising about the amount of ultra-processed foods in American diets, and the effect eating so many of those foods has on our health. Ultra-processed foods now make up about 58% of the calories consumed by adults and children aged 1 year or older. Recent studies have linked diets high in ultra-processed foods like breakfast cereals, soups, and yogurts to increased risks of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and depression. For the first time, the U.S. government is asking its scientific advisory committee to consider how diets consisting of varying amounts of ultra-processed foods influence body composition and obesity risk. Food companies dispute the idea that their products are unhealthy and say that packaged food gives people a convenient, affordable way to get nutrients. [link]

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has announced nearly $16 million is being awarded through Round 7 of the Climate Resilient Farming Grant Program to help 116 farms across the state address the impacts of climate change. The Climate Resilient Farming Program is a part of the State’s Agricultural Environmental Management framework that is locally led by county Soil and Water Conservation Districts and participating farmers. The selected projects will reduce greenhouse gases by an estimated 64,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, increase environmental sustainability, and boost resiliency to extreme weather events related to climate change. Funding for the program was doubled in the New York State FY 2023 Enacted Budget as part of the State’s aggressive climate agenda. The state has now awarded a total of $36 million to 386 farms as part of its climate grant program. [link]

Canada's Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has announced the launch of a new Agricultural Methane Reduction Challenge, whereby up to $12 million will be awarded to innovators advancing low-cost and scalable practices, processes, and technologies designed to reduce methane emissions produced by cattle. An independent and voluntary external review panel composed of subject matter experts (e.g., producers, ranchers, representatives of private sector, stakeholder groups, academia) will assist in the assessment of applications. The Challenge will use a phased approach to move innovators through the process of developing and deploying their solutions, with up to 20 applicants receiving $250,000 each in stage 1 and two finalists awarded a grand prize of $1 million each in the last stage. [link]

Bakersfield College Delano Campus hosted a ribbon-cutting this week to unveil its new, state-of-the-art Regenerative Agriculture Education Center focused on agrivoltaics, a combination of agriculture and solar energy. This approach - which involves placing solar panels above crops, providing dual use of the same land - is intended to generate renewable energy from the sun while allowing crops to grow beneath. In partnership with the California Renewable Energy laboratory, the new agricultural center aims to bring a new source of job creation and study to Kern County. [link]

MIT chemists hope to reduce the environmental footprint of chemical fertilizers by creating a new bacteria product that helps convert nitrogen gas to ammonia, providing nutrients for plants in the process. Existing bacteria already perform this function, but they are sensitive to heat and humidity, making it difficult to scale up their manufacture and delivery to farms. To overcome that obstacle, MIT chemical engineers have devised a metal-organic coating that protects bacterial cells from damage without impeding their growth or function. In a new study, they found that these coated bacteria improved the germination rate of a variety of seeds, including vegetables such as corn and bok choy. [link]

The Nature Conservancy and its partners are inviting eligible producers in the U.S. to apply for the "Expanding Agroforestry Incentive Payment Program" beginning on November 15, 2023. Over the course of five years, $36 million will be paid out to producers in direct incentive payments to transform 30,000 acres spanning 30 states into agroforestry systems. The Expanding Agroforestry Project is one of 141 projects funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative. This particular project is focused on the use of three agroforestry practices: alley cropping, silvopasture and windbreaks. [link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced an investment of $27.9 million across 45 organizations that teach and train beginning farmers and ranchers, including programs for U.S. veterans who are entering into agricultural careers and starting new farming businesses. This investment is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), which supports a wide range of professional development activities and topics, such as managing capital, acquiring and managing land, and learning effective business and farming practices. [link]

An electronic nose to sniff out soil health that will deliver results to a farmer’s phone in five minutes is being developed by PES Technologies. The company says it is able to create an aroma fingerprint from gas released by microbes in the soil. Current biological lab tests are expensive and can take ten weeks to provide results. PES says that its new product - to be commercially launched in 2024 - will be cost-efficient and will deliver results on microbe content in the soil on-site. [link]

Brazil has unveiled a plan for the recovery and sustainable use of the country's forests, including developing forest production chains and public policies to promote a forest economy. The Forest + Sustainable Plan will take effect on Dec. 1 and will include the planting of commercial forests for non-timber products and rehabilitating degraded areas by creating agroforestry systems, which make the most of the soil by planting both trees and agricultural products. The plan also provides for actions to support environmental regularization in agricultural production units, through measures that allow agricultural-livestock and forestry integration, in addition to supporting the development of seed banks and nurseries. [link]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its Plant Hardiness Zone Map, the national standard that describes which plants can grow in different regions of the country. The map received its first update in more than a decade and shows that roughly half the country has shifted into a new zone whereby growers can plant new types of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and plants in their region. Broadly, the 2023 map is about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 2012 map across the contiguous U.S. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In late October, scientists in Australia said that the country’s soil carbon targets were flawed and that farmers could end up facing a big financial bill, as a result. Check out the story, here.