Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture
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Hospitals commit to cutting climate pollution from their food supply chain - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Sep 19) |
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Sep 19 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections From increasingly severe weather disasters to more extreme heat, climate change poses many risks to people’s health. So hospitals – which are dedicated to improving and protecting people’s health – are working to limit their own contribution to the problem. Stoddard: “Health care, more than any other sector, is really on the front lines of climate change. When climate-related emergencies happen, health care is dealing with that.” John Stoddard is with the nonprofit Health Care Without Harm. His group is helping hospitals sign up for ... Read more ... |
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The quest for climate-resilient cows - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Sep 6) |
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Sep 6 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections People have long bred cows for their size, disposition, and the taste of their meat. And now researchers are working to breed varieties that can thrive in a warming world. John Church of Thompson Rivers University in Canada says prolonged extreme heat stress can kill a cow. Church: “But long before you reach death, it has tremendous impacts on … how much weight they gain, their ability to rebreed.” Some breeds tolerate heat better than others. For example, Senepol cows from the island of Saint Croix have short, thin hair, and sweat more, ... Read more ... |
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What to do if your veggie garden floods - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Sep 4) |
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Sep 4 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections For gardeners, nothing is more satisfying than slicing into a homegrown tomato or cucumber. But a harvest can be ruined if stormwater runoff or overflow from nearby waterways floods a garden. Floodwaters can carry bacteria, sewage, or other pollution. Grubinger: “According to the Food and Drug Administration, any edible portion of a plant that touches floodwaters is considered contaminated and should not be consumed.” Vern Grubinger of the University of Vermont Extension says some contaminants will break down over time. But ... Read more ... |
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Puerto Rican farmers will replant despite Ernesto’s impacts - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Aug 27) |
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Aug 27 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections The well-known Puerto Rican song “Temporal,” or “Storm,” includes the line, “the green hurts in the eyes, the harvest that is lost.” The song captures how many of us felt upon seeing images of our farmers’ crops on the ground, the result of winds and rains from Tropical Storm Ernesto as it passed through the eastern part of Puerto Rico on August 14. “Having to see years of work on the ground is something that stirs all your senses. Moreover, a lot of money is invested. I lose my appetite. It’s like mourning,” said Marisita López ... Read more ... |
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Researchers test whether peanuts and cotton could grow in a warmer Midwest - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jul 22) |
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Jul 22 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Across parts of the Midwest, corn and soybean fields stretch as far as the eye can see. Crop harvests have increased over decades as technology and farming practices have boosted yields. But that productivity growth is likely to slow as the climate warms. Todey: “We know that - looking at what the climate models say - corn and soybeans are going to be tougher to grow in the future.” Dennis Todey directs the USDA Midwest Climate Hub. He says heavy rain and periods of drought are both growing more common and can damage crops. And ... Read more ... |
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The promise and potential pitfalls of locking carbon in soil - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jul 17) |
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Jul 17 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections To reduce global warming carbon pollution in the atmosphere, there’s growing interest in paying farmers to increase the carbon that’s absorbed by plants and stored in the soil. For example, farmers might grow perennial grasses with long roots that can lock carbon in the ground. Tautges: “But if we’re paying out all this money and we’re not getting real-world increases in soil carbon storage because we’re not measuring it and monitoring it properly, then that’s a whole lot of wasted money, and we’re not achieving our goal.” Read more ... |
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How cover crops are helping a Kansas farmer adapt to climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jul 3) |
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Jul 3 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections On Sunny Day Farms near Palmer, Kansas, Lucinda Stuenkel raises cattle and grows wheat, soybeans, and other commodity crops. But during times when no cash crop is growing, her fields do not lie fallow. Stuenkel: “We try to have something green and growing in there all year round.” For example, after harvesting winter wheat, Stuenkel seeds spring oats and peas, which grow as a cover crop. She lets her cows graze on that nutritious forage. So she says cover crops benefit her cows, and they’re good for her soil because their roots help ... Read more ... |
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Family farmers make climate-friendly vodka and whiskey - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (May 30) |
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May 30 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Will Glazik, a fifth-generation farmer in Paxton, Illinois, hopes you’ll take a shot at reducing global warming - a shot of whiskey, that is. Glazik and his siblings run Silver Tree Beer and Spirits. They make vodka and whiskey from grain grown on their family farm. Glazik: “We’re literally having our hands in every step.” And they’re committed to making it sustainable. They avoid tilling, which churns up the soil and releases carbon to the atmosphere. Glazik: “We’re using livestock manures and cover crops for fertility on ... Read more ... |
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Agricultural enigma: A mysterious decline in his harvests leaves a farmer searching for a solution - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (May 20) |
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May 20 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Whenever people notice the stunted sugar cane plants on Babar Kamble’s farm in India’s Maharashtra state, he tells them: “My farm is dying a slow death.” It started in 2014 when production on Kamble’s farm slid five metric tons lower than the 80 metric tons he normally harvested from his one-acre field. He shrugged off that year’s decline, chalking it up to bad weather, but the following year he was alarmed when he lost 10 more metric tons. “I thought increasing the use of chemical fertilizers would help boost the production,” he recalled. It did ... Read more ... |
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Video: Do you have to go vegan to save the climate? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (May 17) |
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May 17 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections About a third of all climate-warming gases are linked to the food on our plates. Animal products, especially beef and lamb, contribute significantly more to climate change than plant-based foods. Does that mean you have to go vegan to save the climate? Alexandra Steele answers that question and more in our latest video. We help millions of people understand climate change and what to do about it. Help us reach even more people like you. ACCESSIBILITY AT YALE Read more ... |
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Alaska Native community experiments with growing food above the Arctic Circle - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Above the Arctic Circle, in Kotzebue, Alaska, college students and community members are growing greens, potatoes, and beans in campus gardens. Naylor: “I think it’s very important that we can grow our own.” Minnie Naylor is director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Chukchi campus. She says homegrown vegetables can help supplement traditional Native foods. Naylor: “We have bearded seal, caribou. We have a lot of fish, sea fish, trout, birds, ducks, geese.” But many of those foods are becoming more difficult to access. The ... Read more ... |
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A third of U.S. adults are interested in cutting back on meat, report finds - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections About a third of U.S. adults say they’re interested in reducing the amount of meat they eat, even if they’re not planning to become vegetarian or vegan. Turow-Paul: “Which is a really exciting finding because it’s showing that food culture is beginning to bend in a more sustainable direction.” Eve Turow-Paul is founder and executive director of the Food for Climate League. The nonprofit partnered on a recent report about people’s eating habits and attitudes about “plant-forward” diets. Turow-Paul: “Plants are really at the forefront of the ... Read more ... |
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Water is at the heart of farmers’ struggle to survive in Benin - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough food has become a worrying dilemma. “Last year, our horticultural production plummeted due to water scarcity,” said Chantal Agbangla, a farmer residing in Soclogbo, a town located about 30 minutes by car from the capital of Dassa-Zoumé. “We had to travel nine kilometers to find water, mainly for our agricultural and domestic needs.” Family farming, a pillar of the economy in Dassa-Zoumè, is more threatened than ever by ... Read more ... |
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Colorado farmer finds success with drought-resilient millet - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 1) |
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Apr 1 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections About 100 miles from Denver, in the flat plains of northeastern Colorado, Nate Northup’s farm gets very little rain. Northup: “Our annual precipitation is 12 to 15 inches at best.” He farms thousands of acres with no irrigation, so he needs to choose crops that can tolerate the dry, arid conditions. One of those crops is millet. Northup: “Millet, for those that don’t know, is just essentially the little white seed that you see in birdseed.” Plenty of people eat it too. In some parts of the world, millet is a staple ingredient, ... Read more ... |
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We need to talk about food prices - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Mar 11, 2024) |
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Mar 11, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections If we want more U.S. residents to raise their voices about climate change, focusing on fossil fuels won’t get us there. We need to talk about something much more tangible, immediate, and universal to all: food. Right now, Americans are highly concerned about their skyrocketing grocery bills. We witnessed a staggering 5.8% surge in food prices last year, with another 2.9% increase projected for 2024, despite a strong economy and a slowdown of inflation rates. Armed conflicts, wars, and the lingering effects of inflation are all contributors to this ... Read more ... |
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What you need to know before you buy garden perennials this spring - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Feb 27, 2024) |
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Feb 27, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections As spring approaches, many gardeners are looking for new perennials to add to their collections. As the climate warms, some may want to try growing plants that historically only survived farther south. The USDA recently updated its Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the first time in over a decade. The map assigns every location in the U.S. to one of 13 zones, each with an A and B half-zone. Knowing the zone they’re in helps gardeners determine which plants will survive winter in their region. Daly: “So you can think of the plant hardiness zone ... Read more ... |
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How much carbon can farmers store in their soil? Nobody’s sure. - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Feb 22, 2024) |
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Feb 22, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Dirt, it turns out, isn’t just worm poop. It’s also a humongous receptacle of carbon, some 2.5 trillion tons of it - three times more than all the carbon in the atmosphere. That’s why if you ask a climate wonk about the U.S. farm bill - the broad, trillion-dollar spending package Congress is supposed to pass this year (after failing to do so last year) - they’ll probably tell you something about the stuff beneath your feet. The bill to fund agricultural and food programs could put a dent in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, some environmental ... Read more ... |
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What are the odds that extreme weather will lead to a global food shock? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jan 25, 2024) |
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Jan 25, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters. Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Envision, for a moment, a multiyear period of extreme weather, including heat waves, freezes, droughts, floods, and windstorms, topped off by extreme weather during an El Niño event, leading to major crop failures in the U.S. A disruption of the global agricultural and food supply chain results, leading to panic buying and price shocks. Water shortages cause significant social disruption as populations vie for limited vital resources. The number of countries able ... Read more ... |
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Video: Is extreme weather a threat to coffee? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jan 12, 2024) |
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Jan 12, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters. Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Here’s a 60-second sip of a video about how weather extremes are affecting one of our favorite drinks. Thirsty for more? Check out this video: “Five popular foods and drinks that climate change could take from us.” ACCESSIBILITY AT YALE Read more ... |
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Five popular foods and drinks that climate change could take from us - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Dec 08, 2023) |
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Dec 08, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Could you live without coffee? Drinking it is a ritual for many of us, including meteorologist Alexandra Steele. In this new video, she talks with experts who share how climate change is harming coffee and other crops around the world - and what we can do to protect our favorite foods and drinks. ACCESSIBILITY AT YALE Read more ... |
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Are sweet potatoes a climate-resilient crop of the future? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Nov 23, 2023) |
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Nov 23, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections As the climate warms, hotter temperatures will make it harder to grow certain crops. But this Thanksgiving, you can give thanks for one holiday tradition that’s evolved to withstand the heat. Harvey: “Sweet potatoes are a tropical crop, so they’re well acclimated to that heat. They prefer heat.” Lorin Harvey is a sweet potato specialist at Mississippi State University Extension. His state grows almost 500 million pounds of sweet potatoes a year, topped only by North Carolina and California. He says because of their heat tolerance, ... Read more ... |
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Warming winters threaten a unique dessert cider - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Nov 22, 2023) |
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Nov 22, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections After a holiday feast of turkey and cranberries, some people enjoy a small glass of ice cider. Léger: “It is a sweet dessert wine style of alcoholic cider … and it’s the perfect ending for all the Thanksgiving things.” Eleanor Léger is co-founder of Vermont-based Eden Ciders. She says the beverage is made possible by cold northern winters. In late fall, her team presses apples into juice, and they leave it outside in large barrels. As temperatures drop, the water in the juice freezes. Léger: “And all the heavier molecules - sugars, ... Read more ... |
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Wild spring weather swings hurt New York’s fall apple harvest - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Nov 02, 2023) |
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Nov 02, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Apple season is winding down in New York’s Finger Lakes Region. And would-be pickers may have found less fruit than usual this year. A warm spell in the early spring lured fruit trees out of their winter dormancy. Then, on May 18, temperatures plunged into the mid-20s, killing blossoms and baby fruit. Stoscheck: “We lost 100% of our crop, for all intents and purposes.” That’s Autumn Stoscheck. She and her husband own Eve’s Cidery and grow more than 50 varieties of apples. She says this year’s late frost was extreme. But as the ... Read more ... |
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Climate change may lead to a timing mismatch between wild bees and fruit trees - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Oct 17, 2023) |
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Oct 17, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Growing up in Kent, nicknamed the “Garden of England,” Chris Wyver was surrounded by apple and pear orchards, and he always noticed the native bees that zigzagged through the orchards every year, cross-pollinating the fruit trees when they blossomed. Now, Wyver is a Ph.D. student at the University of Reading, studying how climate change is affecting bees and their crucial role in transferring pollen between trees to help them produce robust fruit. He and his colleagues have observed that warming temperatures have prompted many wild bees to start ... Read more ... |
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With whales in trouble, conservationists, fishers, and others team up to protect them - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Oct 11, 2023) |
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Oct 11, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Dick Ogg usually operates his commercial crab fishing boat F/V Karen Jeanne based out of Bodega Bay, about 40 miles northwest of San Francisco, but recently he’s also been spending some of his time in a plane looking for whales. Ogg’s work is part of a state program that seeks to help both fishery workers and whales adapt to the changing climate and warming oceans. Climate change is amplifying conflicts between humans and wildlife, according to a recent Nature Climate Change study. One of these conflicts has put endangered marine animals, including ... Read more ... |
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Idaho group helps protect farmworkers from heat and smoke - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Sep 22, 2023) |
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Sep 22, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Being outside in the hot sun can be uncomfortable and dangerous. But some farmworkers remain in the fields, even when temperatures soar. “If you’re not working, you’re not making money, and so then you’re not putting food on your table,” says Irene Ruiz, a former farmworker and co-founder of the Idaho Immigrant Resource Alliance, a coalition to support immigrant communities in the state. She says many farmworkers are also exposed when wildfire smoke causes unhealthy levels of air pollution. And as the climate changes, the risks ... Read more ... |
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Dust Bowl redux? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Sep 01, 2023) |
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Sep 01, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections In the 1930s, dust and drought enveloped the U.S. Southern Plains, inducing widespread famine. Livestock and crops were choked by storms that killed nearly 7,000 people and caused severe damage to the local ecology and national economy. Today, climate change is putting the U.S. food supply at risk in ways reminiscent of the Depression-era Dust Bowl. Extreme shifts in weather patterns are altering how crops grow and endangering yields and food security. And as the symptoms mirror the past, so too could the treatment. In the years after the Dust ... Read more ... |
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What it’s like to sue the government over climate change (she won) - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Aug 29, 2023) |
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Aug 29, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections When Rikki Held was younger, climate change seemed like something that happened to the other side of the world - or to polar bears. But the issue turned personal when drought, floods, and wildfires began to harm her family’s ranch and hotel business in southeastern Montana. In 2020, she joined 16 other young people in Montana to file a lawsuit against the state for violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthful environment by contributing to climate change through its continued extraction of fossil fuels. In August 2023, the judge ... Read more ... |
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Opinion: Puerto Rican farmers should have the opportunity to access USDA programs in Spanish - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Aug 10, 2023) |
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Aug 10, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections [Leer en español] For more than a month, I’ve been trying to get a hold of someone at the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency’s Puerto Rico state office. Someone told me they passed my message to the director. I also sent emails to various employees, with no response. I wanted to get in touch with the office after hearing from a farmer that most of the agency’s paperwork is in English and that agents are hard to reach. My experience was a case in point - an example of how hard it is for farmers in Puerto Rico to get help ... Read more ... |
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EV charging stations to roll out at fast food restaurants in California - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jul 26, 2023) |
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Jul 26, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections At a Taco Bell in South San Francisco, diners can now plug in their electric cars while grabbing a burrito. “Our chargers provide a 100% charge within 15 to 20 minutes, so they can come, park their car, charge up their car, get something to eat, and leave,” says Sharmila Ravula of ChargeNet Stations. The company is partnering with fast food restaurants across California to install EV charging stations in their parking lots. The stations will be paired with on-site solar panels and in some cases battery storage. “The solar energy is ... Read more ... |
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Many consumers find food labels confusing, contributing to food waste - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jun 26, 2023) |
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Jun 26, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections When you find uncooked food lurking in your fridge, you might throw it out if the date on the package has passed. But perhaps you shouldn’t. “There’s been a lot of confusion about how to interpret these labels. Like, we call them expiration dates, but they’re actually not necessarily expiration dates,” says Anjali Narang, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University. She says the date does not always indicate food safety. Sometimes it indicates when a product’s quality is best. But knowing what’s meant is often confusing because the ... Read more ... |
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The sun powers a Syracuse community farm - in more ways than one - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jun 09, 2023) |
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Jun 09, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections On a community farm near Syracuse, New York, the sun helps vegetables grow and powers a new pavilion where farmers wash, pack, and store their produce. Salt City Harvest Farm was created 10 years ago as a place where refugees to the area could farm. People from Nepal, Bhutan, Somalia, and elsewhere grow diverse crops on the land, including some that are hard to come by in Central New York, like bitter melon, daikon radishes, and purple yard-long beans. “They’re growing for their own consumption and they’re growing for their community’s ... Read more ... |
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How one strawberry farmer is coping with erratic weather in California - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (May 11, 2023) |
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May 11, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Each November, Javier Zamora plants more than 20 acres of strawberries on his organic fruit and vegetable farm in Watsonville, California. “And then four months later, you get to see people enjoy and take a bite out of a red, delicious strawberry,” he says. Watsonville is in a cool, coastal region that Zamora says is known for its long, productive strawberry seasons. He can typically harvest berries from April through October. But as the climate warms, the weather is growing increasingly erratic. Heat waves and drought can reduce ... Read more ... |
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How climate change is affecting Africa - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (May 01, 2023) |
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May 01, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections The continent of Africa is more than large enough to hold three USAs, including Hawaii and Alaska. With its 54 countries, it trails only Asia in area and population. Though people living in Africa have contributed little to the problem, in every scenario with more than 1.5°C warming, their continent is the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Yet these effects remain seriously underreported in English-language Western news. Google Africa climate change or Africa climate action and nearly every link will be to an institution of some sort ... Read more ... |
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Why the food system is the next frontier in climate action - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 20, 2023) |
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Apr 20, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections While recent federal bills have advanced climate solutions through the lenses of infrastructure, electricity production, and transportation, policymakers are now turning their attention to another major source of planet-heating emissions: the food system. In its March 2023 report on U.S. biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation, the White House emphasized a coming focus on climate-centric agriculture. In February, a group of House representatives launched a task force to ensure that the 2023 farm bill contains strong climate provisions. In 2018, ... Read more ... |
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‘It Breaks My Heart’: Costa Rica’s coffee communities challenged by climate change - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 17, 2023) |
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Apr 17, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections For Diana Vargas Hernández, a daughter of coffee farmers in Puntarenas, a sprawling province spanning most of the Central American country’s Pacific coast, the annual coffee bean harvest has always been a part of her life. “Growing up I remember how crazy it was trying to pick all of the fruits before they went bad or the birds ate them all,” she said. But today, Diana’s family is facing a crisis. “Now I hear my parents discussing the decrease in [coffee] yields and issues with fungal pathogens that may force them to give up on the farm and it breaks ... Read more ... |
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Science tackles the West’s megadrought - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Apr 07, 2023) |
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Apr 07, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Taps ran dry in Rio Verde on New Year’s Day. Water had to be trucked in for household use in the affluent suburb outside Scottsdale, Arizona. The approximately 1,000 residents of the large, suburban stucco homes of Rio Verde were forced to take shorter showers and eat from paper plates. Though the politics behind the water shut-off are complex, the crisis highlighted the impacts of climate change and the 23-year drought it has fueled in the West. Forty million people in the southwestern United States rely on the Colorado River. Elsewhere in ... Read more ... |
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How seed diversity can help protect our food as the world warms - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Mar 30, 2023) |
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Mar 30, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections Planting seeds is a radically hopeful act. Sowing a seed is predicated on the idea that there will be a future - one that will support and nurture the seed. Join young documentary filmmaker and climate storyteller Charly Frisk as she travels across Nordic regions to meet with people who are working to preserve the diversity of the world’s seeds. She encounters seed savers recovering ancient varieties from older generations, visits farmer’s markets that are revitalizing old traditions, and tours gene banks that are working at the intersection of science ... Read more ... |
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Climate change takes toll on traditional Ojibwe wild rice harvest - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Feb 15, 2023) |
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Feb 15, 2023 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Yale Climate Connections For hundreds of years, Ojibwe people have harvested wild rice in the lakes and rivers of the Upper Midwest. They migrated there in search of a place - foretold by Anishinaabe prophecy - where food grows on water. “Wild rice is an aquatic grass, and so it grows in the water, and we harvest it with our canoes,” says Jerry Jondreau. Jondreau and his partner Katy Bresette own Dynamite Hill Farms. The Michigan-based business produces wild rice, maple sugar, and other traditional Ojibwe foods. Each fall, Jondreau travels to Minnesota to harvest ... Read more ... |
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North Carolina has suffered disastrous floods. Could farmers help? - Yale Climate Connections - Agriculture  (Jan 06, 2023) |
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Jan 06, 2023 · Yale Climate Connections Fran. Floyd. Mathew. Florence. Dorian. Over the past decade, hurricanes have devastated parts of North Carolina. And many inland communities in the flood plain continue to struggle. “People talk about how they would recover, move somewhere else, try to rebuild, and then get flooded out again in a whole 'nother town,” says Michelle Lovejoy of the Environmental Defense Fund. “And it’s very, very traumatic, and it makes it very difficult for them to really put the pieces of their lives back together.” Lovejoy says that as climate change brings more heavy rain, the risks will grow, so solutions are urgently needed. That could mean ... Read more ... |
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