The Essex Soil and Crop Improvement Association (ESCIA) and Essex Region Conservation Authority (ERCA) recently bestowed the 2022 Conservation Farm of the Year Award to Quinlan Farms, a mixed crop, poultry and sheep business in central Essex. Granted annually to a farm within Essex County that displays conservation-minded management practices, Quinlan Farms received the award […] Read more
Tag Archives Environment — page 9
Quinlan Farms wins Essex conservation award
Award given for investments in soil and water health, production diversity
How to expand production and slash emissions
A recent report concludes that carbon sequestration is the key to producing more crops while reducing greenhouse gases
Glacier FarmMedia – Canadian farmers can play an even greater role in the global food powerhouse while reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, a team of economists and analysts argues in a new report. From today’s 93 million megatonnes of annual emissions, Canadian agricultural emissions will grow to 137 million by 2050 if current farm production […] Read more
Food systems must transform: COP27
Climate change meeting emphasized the need to look at specific production systems
Glacier FarmMedia – Feeding eight billion people requires transformation of food systems, delegates to COP27 heard. Four initiatives to do that were announced at the most recent climate change conference held in Egypt. The conference noted the past year has been challenging. Thirty-seven million people face starvation in Africa after four consecutive droughts. Floods in […] Read more
How mixing farms with forests can help nations reach net zero
Planting trees on working farms can curb emissions, boost income but money and time are barriers
Thomson Reuters Foundation – Stephen Briggs popped open his pocket knife, carved a wedge from a small pink and green apple and took a bite. “Those are ready,” he said, looking at a nearby apple tree, one of 4,500 planted in neat rows through wheat fields on his farm near Peterborough, in eastern England. The […] Read more
Opinion: Cows, oil and elephants
Livestock’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions needs to be put into context
More than 30,000 people met recently in Egypt for the 27th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP27) to deal with what many consider to be the single biggest challenge facing mankind: climate change. We created this crisis over many decades and there is no quick answer or silver bullet solution. COP27 is one of […] Read more
Economist sounds alarm over carbon reporting
Prof draws attention to how policy is affected by ignoring the carbon sequestration value of grain production
Glacier FarmMedia – Agricultural economist Richard Gray says the worldwide carbon accounting system used to plan grain policy is flawed because it fails to properly include how grain stores and releases carbon. The University of Saskatchewan professor told the standing committee on agriculture that every tonne of produced grain removes 1.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide […] Read more
Ontario government’s Bill 23 accelerates concern about loss of farmland
More Homes Built Faster Act will allow new house builds on protected lands
After four years of rolling back protective Greenbelt legislation, the Ontario government’s More Homes Built Faster Act is opening acres for urban development. The Greenbelt was established in 2005 to protect environmentally sensitive lands and farmland from urban development but the recently announced act, known as Bill 23, will remove 7,400 acres from protection. Wayne […] Read more
Opinion: Hearing the Silent Spring 60 years on
A reflection on what we’ve learned about pesticides since publication of the bestseller
In 1962 environmental scientist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a bestselling book that asserted that overuse of pesticides was harming the environment and threatening human health. Carson did not call for banning DDT, the most widely used pesticide at that time, but she argued for using it and similar products much more selectively and paying […] Read more
Farm scale viability of fossil fuel alternatives questioned
Testimony continues on whether farmers should be exempt from carbon pricing on more fuels
Glacier FarmMedia – The chief executive officer of the Agri-Food Innovation Council (AIC) has said the technology to replace fossil fuels with alternative sources isn’t yet scalable. Serge Buy told the standing committee on agriculture recently that examples of farmers using biomass to dry grain are just that, and only larger farms with bigger, healthier […] Read more
Dairy industry makes strides in sustainability and GHG mitigation
Advances and adoption of new technologies show positive impact, according to new report
North American dairy production is reducing its impact on the climate while maximizing production through genetics, technology and data-driven decisions. That’s the conclusion of a recent report, ‘The Environmental Benefits of Modern Dairy, Hay, and Forage Production Technologies’, which was unveiled at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, during an industry expert panel discussion […] Read more
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