November 30, 2024

Spotlight Stories

Spotlight 1 – Iowa Capital Dispatch tells the story of a huge organic farm in Iowa that thrives without chemicals. Read about it, here.

Spotlight 2 – North Penn Now Community News looks into how Pennsylvania farmers are using regenerative practices to grow healthier, more profitable crops. Check out the story, here.

Spotlight 3 – Farming Life speaks with a family in Northern Ireland that has successfully introduced mob grazing on their sheep farm. Check it out, here.

Industry Updates

A trial at Newcastle University’s Nafferton Farm, near Newcastle, has showed an “encouraging” yield response to the application of basalt rock dust, according to Jez Wardman of UNDO. Set up in 2022, the carbon dioxide removal company partners with quarrying companies to spread rock dust on agricultural land in the UK and abroad. The Newcastle trial involved the application of basalt rock spring oats in 2022, with spring oat yields roughly 15% higher overall on the plots where product was applied. [link]

Transitioning from conventional to organic farming practices can be challenging, but the new Organic Transition Initiative-Regenerative Agriculture Pathway Program is designed to provide the resources needed to make the transition successful. The program was created by the South Dakota Specialty Producers Association with a Conservation Collaborative Cooperative Agreement with Natural Resources Conservation Service. It hopes to serve as a resource hub for producers with both educational materials and hands-on experiences. Technical assistance is also available in the form of walking producers through the process of moving from conventional to organic certification, adopting the NRCS Organic Management Standard 823, and potentially regenerative organic certification, as well. [link]

In Peru’s northern region of San Martín, farmers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders involved in advancing agroforestry have collaborated closely with researchers to develop an innovative agroforestry-focused decision-making platform. Known as the SMART platform, this initiative—named after the region—has been in development since 2021. It harnesses participants’ collective knowledge to deliver practical and accessible information, promoting agroforestry practices. The SMART community of practice comprises more than 20 organizations, cooperatives, government agencies, academics and others committed to advancing agroforestry in the region. [link]

The California State Board of Food and Agriculture will be discussing regenerative agriculture at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Over the past year, the Board and CDFA initiated a public process to define regenerative agriculture for state policies and programs. The December 3 meeting provides the Board the opportunity to consider a staff definition. The meeting will be held via Zoom Webinar from 10:00am to 1:00pm. [link]

A new study in the journal, Frontiers in Environmental Science, says that global land is sufficient to provide a sustainable supply of food and ecosystem services throughout this century, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with a 1.5C warming goal. Led by researchers at the MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy (CS3), the study applies the MIT Integrated Global System Modeling (IGSM) framework to evaluate costs and benefits of different land-based climate mitigation options in Sky2050, a 1.5 C climate-stabilization scenario developed by Shell. If transformative changes in policy, land management practices, and consumption patterns are implemented, 2.5–3.5 global hectares (gha) of land would be used for NBS practices to sequester 3–6 gigatons (Gt) of CO2 per year, and 0.4–0.6 gha of land would be allocated for energy production — 0.2–0.3 gha for bioenergy and 0.2–0.35 gha for wind and solar power generation. [link]

Supported by a three-year, $799,883 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, an international team led by researchers at Penn State will address the so-called “dark side” of biochar, assessing the threat of organic contaminant residues in biorefinery char products. Biochar comprises organic waste material and is made by pyrolysis, a process that involves heating the organic material in a limited oxygen environment. While biochar has significant potential for use as a soil amendment and for carbon sequestration, its manufacturing process can produce harmful compounds if it is not designed and executed properly. The goal of the research is to identify and test design and optimization strategies for biorefineries to produce biochar without the presence of dangerous organic compounds such as such as benzene, hexane and toluene. [link]

An Illinois-based processing facility has completed its first run of climate-smart soybeans. These food-grade soybeans are now poised to enter the soy milk market, a step in delivering climate-smart agricultural products directly to consumers. The Transforming the Farmer to Consumer Supply Chain project (Transform F2C) leads the effort, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant. The processor, Scoular, is the first of five processing facilities anticipated to work within the project. The Transform F2C project incentivizes producers to implement climate-smart practices, such as cover cropping, conservation crop rotation and reduced tillage practices. The project expects to engage farmers implementing these practices across the Midwest and Great Plains regions, with a goal to exceed the 36,000-acre target set forth at the beginning of the effort. [link]

A Cornish farmer is trialing different approaches to improve soil health while reducing erosion and flooding – and using robotics technology to help him measure his success. Working in a group of farmers across Cornwall, with Innovative Farmers and Farm Net Zero, Malcolm Barrett trialed methods of sowing maize that minimize ploughing. Now the University of Plymouth has partnered with the trial as part of its ongoing research in the potential for agri-tech innovations to support land and water management. The university is pioneering the development of sensors that estimate soil organic matter and moisture levels, using natural radioactivity signals that come from all soil minerals. This can provide data to help farmers see how effective their practices have been across a field and help them to plan how to better manage soils and water and improve productivity. [link]

Cover crops are going into the ground and protocols are being written for a Texas A&M AgriLife Research-led project designed to help producers across the Cotton Belt improve efficiencies and the sustainability of their operations. AgriLife Research weed science and cropping systems agronomist Muthukumar “Muthu” Bagavathiannan, Ph.D., is leading a $10 million grant project to transform cotton production into a more sustainable system in the southern U.S. The goal of the new multistate project is to use improved management practices, such as reduced tillage and precision input management, to enhance soil health and sustainability across the Cotton Belt. [link]

Contrary to widespread concerns that global crop yields have stagnated in recent decades, a comprehensive study of worldwide food production finds yields have continued to grow at roughly the same rate since the 1960s. John Baffes of the World Bank and Xiaoli Etienne of the University of Idaho, U.S., reported these findings on November 27, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. The researchers found that there has been no discernable slowdown in the global growth of crop yields during the last six decades -- any observed slowdown in specific crops, regions or countries has been offset by gains in others. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In early November, Campbell Soup Company and Kind Snacks advanced projects that would advance regenerative agriculture practices for key ingredients with financial support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. See more, here.