Search Results for: climate column

By Laura Lengnick, founder of Cultivating Resilience, LLC This story is excerpted from Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate (New Society Publishers, 2015).  Resilient Agriculture explores climate risk, resilience, and the future of food through the adaptation stories of 25 award-winning sustainable farmers and ranchers growing fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, and livestock across America. … Read More

By Kristen Ford, Program Manager for Farmer Veteran Coalition Relatively few range or pasture land projects are producing marketable greenhouse gas (GHG) credits, and producer awareness of environmental markets is extremely low. Through a U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG), Farmer Veteran Coalition, a national nonprofit organization that … Read More

By Tom Driscoll, Director of Conservation Policy and NFU Foundation As discussed previously in the Climate Column, trees sequester carbon that, if left in the atmosphere, would trap heat and contribute to climate change. Growing trees on farmland allows producers to store more carbon while simultaneously achieving other advantages for their farms’ productivity. The National Agroforestry Center (NAC) shares information on … Read More

By Tom Driscoll, Director of Conservation Policy and NFU Foundation Last week, the Climate Column discussed one practice, alley cropping, that builds climate resilience of farmland by incorporating trees. The National Agroforesty Center (NAC) promotes other such practices, including forest farming. Forest farming “is the cultivation of high-value specialty crops under the protection of a forest canopy that has been … Read More

By Tom Driscoll, Director of Conservation Policy and NFU Foundation The Climate Column has covered many practices supported by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). In addition to its own work promoting conservation practices, NRCS also collaborates with the United States Forest Service to provide resources through the National Agroforestry Center (NAC) to help farmers contribute to climate resilience. NAC promotes … Read More

By Thomas Driscoll, NFU Director of Conservation Policy and Education As noted frequently here at the Climate Column (for example, in last week’s post on grassed waterways), preventing soil erosion is an important way farmers can adapt to and mitigate climate change. Impeding erosion improves soil health. This, in turn, allows soil to both store … Read More

By Thomas Driscoll, Director of Conservation Policy and Education The Climate Column has discussed several practices to avoid soil erosion, such as no-till and cover crops, that farmers can use to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Preventing erosion is critical to building healthy soils that store carbon from the atmosphere, mitigating the negative impacts … Read More

By Trixie Wessel, NFU Intern NFU’s Climate Column recently covered the practice of creating field borders. This week, we’re talking about a similar practice: filter strips. Filter strips, also known as buffer strips, are areas of vegetation planted between cropland and surface water to obstruct the passage of  sediment and pollutants into environmentally sensitive areas. Filter strips trap suspended solids … Read More

By Trixie Wessel, NFU Intern In the past, the Climate Column has discussed practices such as strip-till, no-till, and cover crops to prevent erosion and improve soil health. Another important practice with similar benefits is the establishment of field borders, strips of vegetation at the perimeter of a field. Generally composed of stiff-stemmed upright grasses or … Read More

By Tom Somrack, NFU Government Relations Intern As previously noted on the Climate Column, rising temperatures resulting from climate change can have serious repercussions for both crop growers and livestock producers. In addition to the basic issues related to rising temperatures, warmer winters pose their own unique set of potential problems for producers. USDA’s Regional Vulnerability Assessments explain how a decrease in … Read More

By Alexis Dunnum, NFU Intern In previous blog posts, the NFU Climate Column covered both no-till and strip-till practices as climate friendly alternatives to conventional methods. Both of these alternative conservation tilling methods allow the soil to retain more water than conventional methods, giving crops the opportunity to thrive even during dry spells. Yet another of … Read More

By Alexis Dunnum, NFU Intern As stated in the NFU Climate Column on extreme precipitation, “Projected increases in heavy precipitation combined with milder winters is expected to increase total runoff and peak stream flow during the winter and spring, which may increase the magnitude or frequency of flooding.” With heavy rainfall likely to occur more often, … Read More