Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Why Agriculture Needs to Catch Up on Climate Change Action 
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/12/28/why-agriculture-needs-catch-up-climate-action


Farmers know weather. They know that the rainfall and temperature patterns 
that they depend on for productive yields are increasingly volatile.

Agriculture is one of the first sectors that will be seriously affected by 
climate change. We're already seeing the impacts: the record-breaking drought 
and heat wave in Texas this year, for example, greatly depressed peanut 
yields, tripled prices for processors and led to a consumer price increase of 
30-40 percent on peanut butter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Climate change will likely impact average temperatures, and the frequency of 
heat waves and extreme weather events, including storms, floods and droughts, 
is expected to increase, all with repercussions that will be felt by the 
agriculture sector.

Against this backdrop of changing environmental conditions, major food and 
beverage companies such as H.J. Heinz and ConAgra Foods are examining the 
sustainability of their agricultural supply chains. Extreme weather 
conditions can interrupt supplies of raw material inputs, thereby endangering 
access to the ingredients, fibers and even biofuels upon which major global 
supply chains depend.

In a move to adapt to climate change and to mitigate associated risk, leading 
companies are beginning to address these concerns by making publicly stated 
goals to reduce the agricultural emissions in their supply chain. H.J. Heinz 
has a target to reduce the carbon footprint of California tomato crops by 15 
percent by 2014, while ConAgra Foods aims to reduce their emissions per pound 
of product by 20 percent by 2015.

Responsible for approximately 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 
agriculture has a considerable impact on climate change. Roughly 8 percent of 
greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. are produced by agricultural activities; 
this is comparable to the total national emissions of France, or one third of 
U.S. passenger vehicles. For many crops, up to 80 percent or more of these 
emissions occur before products leave the farm gate.

It is for these reasons that the Carbon Disclosure Project conducted a 2011 
pilot with the intention of engaging U.S. suppliers of tomatoes and potatoes, 
in order to gauge their capacity to report on greenhouse gas emissions and to 
identify areas of successful emissions management. The results, which are now 
available in a new report (PDF) written for CDP by Common Fields, illustrate 
that some growers have practiced sustainable farming practices for more than 
a decade, while others demonstrated a willingness with the proviso of the 
right incentives. At the other end of the spectrum lies doubt. There are 
growers who question both the causes and urgency of climate change.

More than 3,700 companies this year disclosed information on their climate 
change strategies, emissions and emissions reductions activities through CDP. 
In stark contrast, the majority of suppliers that took part in the new 
agriculture supply chain pilot are unable to quantify their emissions 
footprint, their emissions reductions as a result of sustainable agriculture 
or emissions reductions initiatives.

This positions the U.S. agriculture sector as lagging in terms of commitment, 
understanding and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and reductions 
strategies. Interviews with growers revealed that much more needs to be done 
in order to fulfill the risk mitigation and emissions reduction ambitions of 
their corporate customers. Additionally, not all responsibility lies at farm 
level; successful corporate strategies include setting clear supplier 
requirements, providing user-friendly software and training, and offering 
incentives to share the burden and strengthen the business case for emissions 
reductions.

Most processors and retailers acknowledge that the sustainable performance of 
growers is likely to become a strong factor in buying decisions. Greater 
education and investment from processors, retailers, industry groups, trade 
associations and throughout the value chain is needed to fully engage the 
growers, who are the furthest removed from any consumer or investor signal to 
respond to climate change, and yet are most susceptible and vulnerable to its 
effects.

As part of the solution, reporting of the greenhouse gas emissions in a 
company's value chain will become standard practice within three to five 
years. The agricultural sector must embrace this as an opportunity to ensure 
its profitability and sustainability. Humanity relies on food and fiber to 
fulfill our basic needs; the role of the farmer in protecting these resources 
is critical.