How a Climate-friendly Flour Company Built a Flourishing Market

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Author: Patrick Mazza | Published: February 20, 2017 

Shepherd’s Grain sells not only high-quality flour made from wheat grown with no-till practices, it also sells the story of no-till, a farming method that eliminates the significant climate-warming carbon releases caused by plowing.

Based in Portland, Oregon, the company sources wheat directly from family farmers around the interior Pacific Northwest and other regions who practice no-till. Washington farmers Fred Fleming and Karl Kupers founded Shepherd’s Grain in 2002 as a way to keep more wealth on the farm by cutting out the middleman. Since then, it’s grown into a $6 million annual business, and most of its growers have an ownership stake.

The company sells its flours directly to hundreds of bakeries, restaurants, and markets in the region, from the big metro areas of Portland and Seattle to smaller cities like Boise, Idaho. National brands such as Krusteaz and Smuckers use the company’s flour, too.

“We are looking for customers who understand the true value of the product, that they can then sell to their customers,” explains Fleming. A key value proposition is that Shepherd’s Grain is helping to save family farms. “Dollars are going back to care for the land,” Fleming says. “If we don’t bring wealth back to the land, we can’t take care of it.”

Making direct connections with customers helps the company produce better flour because the bakers and restaurateurs provide vital feedback on product quality and variety. “On a quality basis, we surpass anything on the market,” says the company’s general manager, Mike Moran, who used to be the chief baker for Grand Central Baking Company in Seattle and Portland. “Part of what gives us the quality is those relationships. The farmer grows with a different level of care because, ‘I know who the crop is going to.’”

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How Climate Change’s Effect on Agriculture Can Lead to War

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Author: Ryan Bort | Published: February 17, 2017 

On February 12, the temperature in Magnum, Oklahoma, reached 100 degrees. It was a state record for the month of February, besting a mark that was set in 1918. The average February high in Magnum is 56.

Many see the unseasonably warm temperature as yet another undeniable sign of climate change, but won’t likely be heeded by Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who famously brandished a snowball on the Senate floor in 2015 in an effort to prove that climate change was not real. Inhofe’s views have been echoed by the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, who famously tweeted in 2012 that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to “make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruit, is a known climate change denier who has written that the debate surrounding the “extent of global warming” is “far from settled.”

Most of the rest of the world isn’t so cavalier in dismissing what many see as the 21st century’s greatest threat to humanity. At this week’s World Government Summit in Dubai, the subject of climate change had a prominent place in discussions led by the world’s preeminent scientists, professors, business leaders and heads of state. In particular focus was the effect climate change could have on the world’s food supply, which most agree will be catastrophic if both the public and private sectors don’t do enough to combat rising temperatures.

“The implications are enormous,” said Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon of the Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation. “It affects every aspect of the global food supply around the planet.”

Much of the concern is over temperatures exceeding the scope of what modern agriculture was developed to withstand. “It’s going to be radically different from what we’ve seen before,” Homer-Dixon explained. “The variation in temperature has been within .75 degrees over a period of almost 1,500 years, and this century we’re moving far outside of this envelope in which human beings laid down their industrial infrastructure, their agricultural systems, their irrigation systems, their road networks and their ports.”

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China Moves to Implement More Sustainable Ag Practices, Which Is Good for Everybody

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Author: Andrew Amelinckx | Published: February 9, 2017 

On Sunday, the Central Government released its Number One Central Document, the first policy statement of the year, and as in the previous 13 years, it focused on agriculture and rural development. While previous Number One Documents have included mentions of sustainability measures, this year’s had a particularly strong focus on developing “green” policies.

“Green production and sustainable farming practices, under the overall framework of supply-side reform, was one of the highlights of this year’s document. ‘Green’ actually becomes one of the most frequently used words in the document,” Vincent Martin, the representative for China from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations tells Modern Farmer. “The gist of supply-side reform in China’s agricultural sector is to increase the output of high-quality products based on green and innovative production.”

China is now the fourth largest consumer of organically-produced food in the world, so expanding domestic organic production makes sense. The Central Government plans to push organic products in part by promoting favorable taxes for start-ups in rural areas, and by creating innovation centers to help support the production of high quality farm produce, according to Reuters.

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Can Small-scale Mountain Agriculture Survive Global Warming?

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Author: Bob Berwyn | Published: February 15, 2017 

The story of global warming is most often told as an unfolding disaster, but humanity’s response offers a unique chance at planetary redemption. We are morally obligated to act on existing scientific evidence, to act as though our lives depend on it — because they do.

Visionary Austrian mountain man Sigfried Ellmauer has been busy building a better world for the past 15 years or so. Wiry and intense, he welcomes us to Berghof Thurnergut, his mountain farm and lodge near Spital am Pyhrn, in the limestone Alps near the geographical center of Austria. Just as the Alps sustained stone age migrants like the famed Ötzi iceman, Ellmauer says, the region could become a future oasis from global warming.

But that has to work economically, and that means honestly valuing the goods and services produced on the seasonal alpine pastures — called Alms — Ellmauer says, outlining a pragmatic vision for renewal that’s based on common-sense wisdom and grassroots involvement. In the past 12 years, he’s led more than 10 projects to revitalize abandoned high-elevation Alms. First he identifies potential caretakers, like the Pöchacker couple at the Herrenalm, and organizes volunteer work parties to refurbish buildings and prep pastures by removing brush and setting up fence lines.

“It’s important to keep these Alms alive because they can provide local food,” he says. “But it’s not going to be easy. There are many forces pushing against the survival of small farms.”

As he shows us how he uses local materials and time-proven traditional construction techniques to build a tree house for a planned outdoor camp, he says, “People will ultimately not value the protection of nature unless they spend some time living in a way that makes them realize they are connected to nature, and part of nature.”

But he also understands the political and economic realities of agricultural policy in Austria. For more than a decade, Ellmauer was the official Alm administrator in the agriculture department of Upper Austria, responsible for ensuring the sustainability of hundreds of Alms scattered across the mountains between Linz and Salzburg, as required under Austrian law.

But that doesn’t mean that the government always puts its mouth where its money is.

“The politicians are always willing to come and make a speech when the cows come home to the valley, bells ringing and covered in flowers. But when it comes to voting for agriculture policies, the same ones often support industrial-scale food production and benefits for producers that export,” he says. “That’s not going to help sustain local food production.”

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No Apoyar a los Agricultores Frente al Cambio Climático Pone en Riesgo la Producción Futura de Alimentos

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Autor: Comunicarse Web | Publicado: 14 de febrero, 2017

El director general de la FAO, José Graziano da Silva, advirtió que si no se actúa ahora para hacer los sistemas alimentarios más resistentes al cambio climático, se corre el riesgo de comprometer seriamente la producción de comida y se pone en peligro la meta de erradicar el hambre y la pobreza extrema para 2030.

Según informa ONU, al participar en una mesa redonda sobre el cambio climático durante la 5ª Cumbre Mundial de Gobierno que se celebra en Dubai, Da Silva enfatizó especialmente la necesidad de apoyar a los agricultores pequeños del mundo en desarrollo, para que se adapten a los efectos del fenómeno.

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Climate Change Is Transforming the World’s Food Supply

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Author: Sara G. Miller | Published: February 16, 2017 

Climate change is poised to affect the world’s food supply in three key ways, experts say.

“There will be impacts on the quantity, quality and location of the food we produce,” said Dr. Sam Myers, a medical doctor and senior research scientist studying environmental health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“We’ve never needed to increase food production more rapidly than we do today to keep up with global demand,” Myers told Live Science.

But, “at the very same time, we’re fundamentally transforming the biological underpinnings” of how we produce food, he said. [The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted]

Researchers studying climate change are looking at how the biological and physical changes happening on Earth due to climate change will transform food production, Myers said at a talk today (Feb. 16), here at the Climate & Health Meeting, a gathering of experts from public health organizations, universities and advocacy groups that focused on the health impacts of climate change.

Food quantity

Ultimately, climate change will reduce the amount of food grown around the world, Myers told Live Science.

Initially, some experts thought that rising carbon dioxide levels might act as a fertilizer and increase food yield, Myers said. However, more recent research suggests that the net effects of climate change will mean a decrease in food yield, he said.

For example, studies have shown that the combination of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, rising temperatures and changes to precipitation may result in significantly lower yields for staple crops such as corn and wheat, particularly in tropical areas, where food production is normally high, Myers said.

Areas that experience increasing temperatures due to climate change will also likely see an increase in crop pests, Myers said. Currently, pests are responsible for 25 to 40 percent of all crop loss, he said, and as climate change continues, these pests will be able to expand their reach. [7 Insects You’ll Be Eating in the Future]

Insects may move into areas where they weren’t found previously and where plants haven’t evolved defenses to ward them off, Myers said. It’s also possible that certain predators of crop pests, such as birds, may shift the timing of their migrations because of climate change in ways that could prevent them from keeping pest populations in check, he added.

Location

The location of much of the world’s agriculture will also change in ways that affect the global food supply, Myers said.

Agriculture in tropical regions will likely be the hardest hit by climate change, he said. And higher global temperatures will make it more difficult for farmers to work in the heat of the day, leading to less food production, he added. Indeed, existing research already shows that heat limits work at certain times of day depending on the season in certain tropical and subtropical areas, he said.

Other food sources, such as fish, will decrease in quantity, Myers said in his talk. And, as the ocean warms, fish move toward Earth’s poles, he said.

The problem with food production decreasing near the equator, he noted, is that almost all of the human population growth that’s predicted for the next 50 years will occur in the tropics, Myers said.

And although regions closer to the poles will experience warmer weather and longer growing seasons as a result of climate change, these changes won’t be large enough to make up for the loss of food production in the tropics, Myers said.

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No es lo Mismo Pasto que Cultivo: la Diferencia de Absorción en Imágenes

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Autor: Rosario Plus | Publicado: 25 de enero, 2017

Las últimas inundaciones que afectaron al sur de Santa Fe y al norte de Buenos Aires reavivaron el debate respecto de los factores que cada vez con más frecuencia provocan estos fenómenos hídricos. El gobierno culpó al cambio climático y acusó al anterior Poder Ejecutivo de hacer pocas obras de infraestructura. Académicos y científicos fueron un poco más allá: pusieron la lupa en las consecuencias adversas de un modelo productivo que desplazó las pasturas para sembrar soja, el cultivo anual más rentable para exportar.

Rosarioplus.com publicó un informe a principios de mes con datos recogidos por el Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA) de Marcos Juárez (Córdoba). Un relevamiento de Nicolás Bertram y Sebastián Chiacchiera logró cuantificar el daño de la consolidación de la soja como el principal cultivo agrícola del país: un campo sembrado con esta semilla absorbe diez veces menos agua que un bosque nativo y tres veces menos que una pastura con ganado.

“La pampa húmeda es hoy una gran maceta saturada de agua”, explicaba Bertran al referirse al actual estado de las napas tras décadas de sojización. Tan preocupante es el panorama que, a su juicio, ya no alcanza con “rotar los cultivos”, una solución que plantean algunos productores y empresarios del sector. “Necesitamos más pasturas y más forestación”, afirmaba el científico en una entrevista con este portal.

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Grassland Management Holds Key to Carbon Capture, Gas Reductions

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Author: Karen Briere | Published: February 16, 2017

Planting perennial forages and improving soil organic matter are good management practices for cattle producers but they also offer the added benefit of sequestering carbon, says a federal researcher.

Alan Iwaasa, grazing management scientist at the Agriculture Canada Research and Development Centre in Swift Current, Sask., said producers are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint in light of increasing em-phasis on climate change, carbon tax and greenhouse gas emission reduction.

“We have a wonderful opportunity here with our soils,” he told the Saskatchewan Beef Industry Conference.

Soils that are in poorer condition can still build organic matter. There are about 14 million acres in the brown soil zone across Western Canada; about 10 million acres are in Saskatchewan.

The province also has 5.5 million acres in the semi-arid brown soil zone, or very dry land.

“Even traditional crop lands that are in environmentally marginal areas do have potential that we could convert those to perennial forages,” Iwaasa said.

Natural grasslands have been depleted since modern agriculture began. Only about 28 million of the original 151 million acres remain, he said.

The potential to sequester carbon in grasslands could be a huge advantage for Saskatchewan producers looking to offset emissions.

“Uncultivated grasslands of Western Canada contain two to three billion tonnes of carbon to the depth of one metre,” he said.

The associated ecosystem benefits of increased water holding capacity, improved soil structure and quality, nutrient cycling and reduced soil erosion are all advantages to cattle producers.

“In many cases you’re doing that already because you want to in-crease your production, you want to have healthier pastures, you want to improve your biodiversity,” he said.

Ways to improve or enhance carbon sequestration include different grazing management practices.

These can help the physical break down and compaction of vegetation, increase decomposition and soil incorporation and therefore restore degraded soils, he said.

“The challenge though is that in a lot of cases grazing systems’ intensity and frequencies may impact carbon storage but the effects are often difficult to measure and often are inconsistent due to the environment.”

Drought, flood and weather all affect carbon storage.

“These treatments need to be utilized consistently and over a long time to actually see the benefits, not just three or four years but sometimes for decades,” he said.

A paper published in 2014 examined the impact of agriculture and loss of bison on grasslands from 1927 to 2007 and the potential to sequester carbon even on land disturbed years ago.

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The Magic of Carbon Farming

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Author: C B Ramkurmar | Published: February 4, 2017 

Farmers have always been life givers, as they work to feed the millions in this planet. The service they provide of growing food for all of us is invaluable. This importance of farming is even greater for economies that are dependent on agriculture as the primary contributor to the economy. Now, this humble age old practice of farming has now taken on a role, that is making climate activists and scientists smile.

Until now, we know farmers who farm fruits, farm vegetables, farm millets, etc. but attention is now going towards farmers who farm carbon! And this is what is drawing the attention of the climate change community.
“There’s a really significant potential for carbon farming worldwide to play a role in reversing the climate crisis,” said Stedman, an agricultural consultant at AppleSeed Permaculture. Stedman explained that plants pull carbon out of the air and bury it in the ground. While this seems like an obvious truth that all of us learnt in school, the problem is when all the carbon is then released to the atmosphere because of the modern farming practices.

All agricultural production has photosynthesis at the centre of it. Plants use sunshine to combine carbon dioxide from the air with water and micro nutrients from the soil to produce plant material that we see growing in farms.

These plants have a root system that is below the ground that we do not see. As the plant grows, it stores some of the carbon it produces below the ground. As farmers till the soil and as live stock grazes, the carbon that is stored in the soil is released into the atmosphere. As much as one third of the Co2 in the atmosphere that is driving climate change has come from land management practices.

On the other hand, carbon can be stored in soils for decades and centuries too, and this process is called soil carbon sequestration. Carbon farming is a process when the rate at which Co2 is removed from the atmosphere and converted to plant matter is accelerated.

This results in reduction of Co2 from the atmosphere. Carbon farming is successful, when the amount of carbon that is removed from the atmosphere by the plants is greater than the amount of carbon that escapes into the atmosphere as a result of farming processes like tilling. So the trick is to now engage in smart farming practices that keeps this formula in mind.

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The Business Case for Holistic Management

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Author: Alexander Lykins | Published: February 17, 2017 

Allan Savory — Zimbabwean ecologist, farmer, soldier, exile, environmentalist, international consultant and president and co-founder of the Savory Institute — has a world-saving message: The answer is in the soil. In the 1960s, Savory originated the concept of holistic management, which has been popularized by several articles and a TED Talk that has been viewed nearly 4 million times.

Holistic Management is a framework, most commonly applied to grassland management, that when properly practiced has the potential to regenerate damaged land. It focuses on mimicking the evolutionary grazing patterns of cattle to regenerate soils and restore grasslands. This technique has proved effective in hundreds of areas across the globe, one of the most popular being via Operation HOPE, winner of the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

In December, Bard MBA student Alexander Lykins sat down with Savory to discuss holistic management, how it can be applied to business and how young entrepreneurs can become involved.

Alexander Lykins: For some of our listeners, holistic management may be a new concept. Could you please give a brief overview?

Allan Savory: It’s an easy way, really, for anyone to manage their business or any management situation more successfully. Management, in any situation, always involves a web of social, environmental and economic complexity. Even managing feeding your family or living in a city involves complexity.

All management actions also need a reason and a context. If you think about that, you’ll realize that the reason is that you want to meet a need or a desire. In the case of policies, the context always has to do with the problem. There’s no other reason why governments develop a policy — it doesn’t matter if the policy is on drugs, terrorism or anything else. Whatever it is, the context is the problem.

When we do that, we take this great web of complexity that we cannot avoid and reduce it to a simple context for our actions. That’s reductionist management. All of us do it — we always have, in all cultures. Unfortunately, reductionist management commonly leads to achieving our actions but also later experiencing unintended consequences. And that’s where we are today.

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