The project began this month, with the goal of restoring degraded land, strengthening refugees’ food security and income levels, and increasing the production of diverse, nutritious foods.

The Dadaab Refugee Complex falls within the expansive arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL) of Kenya, characterized by hot, dry weather and high rates of evapotranspiration interspersed with occasional flooding in poorly drained areas. Dramatic changes in weather patterns have caused prolonged drought and extreme rainfall, placing 209,584 refugees and 200,000 host community members living near the border of Kenya and Somalia in dire need of food and financial support.

Funded by the AAF, the first phase of the project focused on meeting the agricultural and nutritional demands of refugees and host communities through the establishment of a mechanized farm for pivot irrigation and crop production.

“Climate change is a serious threat to the livelihood and food security of many marginalized farming communities. The impact reported from the initial phase of our project in Dadaab Refugee Complex has propelled us to expand the project deliverables and continue this strategic partnership with the KRCS. This project demonstrates our commitment to address climate change and help farmers in the Dadaab camp and host community improve their soil health and build resilient food systems,”

said Metti Richenhagen, Director, AGCO Agriculture Foundation.

The second phase of the project will support 6,000 beneficiaries in the Ifo 2 refugee camp and the host community. The goal is to promote climate-smart agriculture and soil fertility management practices, strengthen farmers’ skills in modern irrigation and mechanized agriculture, and create employment opportunities for vulnerable communities.

The KRCS will help farmers establish and manage their farms as well as connect them with local markets. The vegetable crops, lentils, and leguminous grass that will be grown during this project phase will support the livelihoods of local farmers and their families.

The project is also supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which maintains the water infrastructure serving the pivot farm and provides logistical support. The Kenya County Government of Garissa donated the parcel of land for the project and helps identify vulnerable community members who can benefit the most from the program.

“The AAF’s strong partnership and funding have enabled us to advance our work towards climate change adaptation and food security for the Dadaab refugees and host community. This second phase of this project is the right next step to ensuring access to nutrition and improving the livelihoods of refugees and their host community,”

said Dr. Asha Mohammed, Secretary-General, Kenya Red Cross Society.

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The Organic Trade Association on Thursday released a major report on organic and its ability to mitigate climate change, identifying policy opportunities to elevate the role of organic in the climate change discussion, support organic farmers and encourage transition to organic farming. Reflecting close dialogue with organic stakeholders and the association’s membership, the white paper, “Advancing Organic to Mitigate Climate Change,” incorporates the key principles identified by the Organic Trade Association’s Board of Directors to achieve meaningful climate policy solutions.

The trade association also recently announced the launch of a Climate Task Force, open to all Organic Trade Association members. The task force will amplify the Organic Trade Association’s voice in climate policy discussions by advocating for policies that address the association’s core principles and sharing recommendations with lawmakers and key stakeholders.

Avi Garbow, Organic Trade Association Board member and Environmental Advocate for Patagonia Works said:

“Our climate crisis is real, is immediate, and affects us all. It is clear that urgent action is needed to help us mitigate and adapt to this crisis. While the nation’s conventional agricultural sector’s emissions and practices contribute to our worsening climate, there is a time-tested climate solution that regenerates our soils, nourishes our communities, and safeguards our environment from harmful synthetic chemicals: organic agriculture.”

Garbow, a nationally recognized environmental leader who served as the General Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency from 2013-2017, added,

”The Organic Trade Association, through the work of its members, the Climate Task Force and its research and analysis, will ensure that organic is well-positioned to play a leading and cost-effective role in stemming and ultimately reversing the effects of our changing climate.”

Organic priorities in the climate change fight
Organic agriculture provides a critical opportunity to mitigate climate change and at the same time create economic, environmental and health benefits for all those involved in our food system–from the grower and the processor, to the distributor and the consumer. But although public and private initiatives to support organic as a climate mitigation tool exist, stronger federal support is needed for organic to reach its full potential to fight against climate change.

The Organic Trade Association’s Board of Directors early this year determined that organic had to be elevated in the climate change policy discussions that are increasingly taking place in the halls of Congress, in government offices, in corporate boardrooms. The Board also agreed that the Organic Trade Association, as the leading voice in the nation for the organic sector, should spearhead the effort to advance organic as a solution to climate change and to protect organic from the risk of climate change. A climate task force consisting of seven Board members was formed with the goal of developing principles for good climate policy to guide organic’s engagement in climate policy discussions.

In June at the association’s annual meeting, the Board unanimously endorsed ten principles for climate policy. The Organic Trade Association will engage in smart climate policy solutions that:

1. Advance organic agriculture. Any policy that addresses the role of climate change in food and agriculture should advance the opportunity for organic to be a climate change solution, allow organic to be successful, and not undermine organic.

2. Are science-based, data-driven and verifiable. Policy solutions should be based on and supported by science and data, with strong verification measures to meaningfully reduce agriculture’s impact on climate change.

3. Focus on outcomes and continuous improvement. Policies should reward the outcomes of good agricultural practices and enable a system of continuous improvement that achieves specific positive outcomes over time.

4. Promote soil health and carbon sequestration.  Improving soil health is an important and central component in addressing agriculture’s role in climate change. Policies should include provisions for advancing soil health and carbon sequestration. .

5. Lower the use of fossil-fuel based chemicals: Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are a key source of greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. Climate policies should minimize the use of and eliminate the dependency on fossil-fuel based inputs, especially synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

6. Provide solutions for mitigation and adaptation: Policies should provide the resources to not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also help the agricultural sector adapt to a changing climate.

7. Incentivize farmers and businesses: Farmers should not have to bear the brunt when making transformational changes. Public and private sector programs should provide tools and resources to achieve outcomes through market-based incentives or financial payments that encourage conservation practices or ecosystem services.

8. Decarbonize the economy: Policies that increase greenhouse gas emissions or rollback progress in decarbonizing the economy and reducing emissions should be opposed.

9. Foster agricultural diversity and innovation: Climate policies should foster diversity and innovation in farming systems, and provide incentives for increasing diversity in cropping systems.

10. Address equity and inclusion: Policies should address the environmental and economic inequities caused by climate change, and include ways to support disadvantaged communities in adapting to climate change.

“Among the many threats posed by the climate crisis, perhaps the greatest is the potential it has to impact food production.  The good news is that organic farmers are already focused on building soil health and eliminating the use of synthetic fertilizers, two steps that can help agriculture shift from being a source of greenhouse gas emissions to being a net sink,” said Britt Lundgren, Director of Organic and Sustainable Agriculture at Stonyfield Farm and member of the association’s Board. “At Stonyfield we are excited to be working with the Organic Trade Association’s Climate Change Task Force on advancing organic agriculture as a climate change solution. The climate change principles adopted by the association provide a roadmap for how federal policy can support climate mitigation and adaptation in agriculture.”

Recommendations to support organic’s battle on climate change
Incorporating the Organic Trade Association’s guiding principles to fight climate change, the new white paper offers specific recommendations for policymakers to support organic farmers and encourage transition to organic farming as a key strategy for climate change mitigation.

“As a company that has made organic food for over 30 years, Amy’s has witnessed firsthand the inherent benefits of organic agriculture on the health of the planet. The Organic Trade Association’s Climate Change White Paper, through scientific research, provides a practical set of policy recommendations to make organic agriculture a bigger and more meaningful part of the climate change solution. We look forward to seeing the positive impact of this important work,”

said Paul Schiefer, Senior Director of Sustainability at Amy’s Kitchen and member of the association’s Board of Directors.

Specific policy recommendations in the white paper include:

• Elevating organic as a key voice in climate-smart agricultural policy;
• Establishing a national program to support transitioning organic farmers by reducing financial risks, improving market infrastructure development and increasing access to land;
• Developing a competitive grant program to provide technical services to organic and transitioning farmers to create better access to information about organic production methods that sequester greenhouse gases and improve crop yields;
• Creating a federal Healthy Soils pilot program, based on existing programs at USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the California Healthy Soils Initiative.

Doug Crabtree, Montana organic farmer and member of the Organic Trade Association Board of Directors, said:

“Extreme weather variability, caused by climate change, is the greatest challenge facing farmers. The (over)use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers is agriculture’s most egregious contribution to climate change. Organic farmers demonstrate that farming systems can be productive, profitable and a significant part of the solution to climate change by avoiding synthetic nitrogen, building soil organic matter and sequestering carbon in the soil. I am proud that our trade association is taking the lead on illustrating the key role of organic food and farming in managing climate change.”

Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director of the Organic Trade Association, said:

“U.S. communities, economies and ecosystems are under threat from climate change. Federal policies can help advance organic as a key solution by encouraging the adoption of organic practices and maximizing benefits for mitigating climate change. The Organic Trade Association and our members stand ready to engage and support federal lawmakers in advancing these recommendations.”

Source: Organic Trade Association

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Chairman and CEO Juan Luciano said:

“Every single day, ADM is focused on keeping its employees healthy and safe while simultaneously ensuring we are continuing to support the world’s food supply. At the same time, we believe it remains vitally important that we continue to plan for the future and remain good long-term stewards of our company and our planet. We know that the health of our natural resources is critical to our future. Consumers around the world know it as well, and they are making it clear that they expect their food and drink to come from sustainable ingredients, produced by companies that share their values. We care deeply about our partners, our customers, our employees, our shareholders, and the planet, and that is why we are setting these ambitious emissions and energy goals for ourselves. Our future will be stronger for these goals.”

The new goals follow on ADM’s original “15×20” plan, unveiled in 2011, in which the company committed to per-unit improvements in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, water and waste to landfill by 2020. After meeting those goals ahead of schedule, ADM engaged WSP Global, one of the world’s leading engineering professional services firms, to conduct an in-depth feasibility study to help shape a new set of commitments to combat climate change. WSP’s study, which can be read here, identified several pathways toward success, including:

• Purchasing renewable electricity;
• Increasing use of biomass fuels;
• Transportation fleet changes; and
• Equipment changes in some locations.

Luciano continued:

“Our new goals are ambitious yet achievable. The greenhouse gas emissions we’ll save will be the equivalent of those from charging every single smart phone on the planet 250 times. This is going to have a real impact, and is a key way in which we’re going to continue to give our customers an edge in meeting the market challenges of today and tomorrow.”

ADM’s new goals are only one element of a wide-ranging plan to pave the way on sustainability. In 2019, ADM’s Board formed a new committee on Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, offering guidance, leadership and oversight at the highest level for its sustainability and corporate citizenship efforts. The company is increasingly using technology – such as satellite imagery – as it maps its supply chains. And in December, ADM was shortlisted as a Sustainability Champion by the Food Ingredients Innovation awards for its work promoting and supporting sustainable agricultural practices among more than 12,000 smallholder farmers in Brazil and Paraguay.

Source: ADM

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To understand how plant populations respond to climate stress, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers and collaborators are looking at modern wheat’s ancestor, wild emmer, to see how it has genetically adapted to deal with the stress of changing climates.

The project, led by researcher Dr. Yong-Bi Fu, looked at 10 populations of wild emmer wheat in Israel. The team analyzed population samples collected in 1980 and 2008. In that 28 year span, the average annual temperature in Israel increased while the average annual precipitation decreased.

Through their analysis, the researchers found that plant populations can acquire beneficial mutations, such as temperature tolerance. One practical implication stemming from this research is the presence of adaptive genes responsible for climate adaptability. If identified, these climate-resistant genes could eventually be bred into modern wheat crops using traditional or cloning techniques. This could help to help make food crops more resilient. Dr. Yong-Bi Fu said:

“While the threat of global warming can seem overwhelming, these challenges can, in part, be addressed by learning from nature. This study is exciting because it shows an example of plants knowing how to survive global warming.”

Dr. Fu says much can be learned from this research in terms of predicting plants’ adaptability and vulnerability in a hotter, drier climate. Predictive models (using statistics to predict outcomes) can provide guidance when it comes to crop production vulnerability in a changing climate.

Overall, the research findings underline the need to protect and conserve the diversity of plant genetic resources found throughout the world before they are lost to various threats, including climate change.

Key discoveries (benefits)

• Due to global warming over the course of the research, the wild emmer populations faced increased selection pressure and accumulated more mutations, which suggests population vulnerability and the need to conserve genetic resources in plants.
• Emmer wheat’s genetic reactions to climate change were extremely complex; however, some populations were still capable of acquiring climate-resistant mutations for future adaptation.
• Researching and identifying climate-resistant genes could lead to the development of more climate resistant crops.
• Understanding genetic responses to global warming could also inform the prediction of crop production vulnerability in a changing climate.

Source: Agriculture and Agri Food Canada

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In written testimony, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson thanked the committee for addressing the deleterious effects of climate change on the agricultural industry and emphasized the need for federal policies that assist farmers with the implementation of practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon, and build resilience to extreme weather events.

“Climate change is not a future or hypothetical issue for family farmers and ranchers – they are already suffering its effects every day. Higher average temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and more frequent and severe natural disasters have added several more layers of uncertainty to the already difficult job of food production. As the climate continues to change, we can only expect the challenges to multiply. This serious and immediate problem requires serious and immediate action – and we are glad that the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry is taking the first steps by holding this hearing.

“Though the agricultural sector is among the most directly impacted by climate change, it is also among the most capable of mitigating and adapting to its effects. Farmers and ranchers are not only able to cut greenhouse gas emissions on their operations, but they can also offset greenhouse gas emissions from other sectors by sequestering carbon in the soil, growing biofuels, and engaging in on-farm energy production. Many of the USDA’s existing conservation programs support these important efforts with financial and technical assistance. We encourage Congress to continue providing farmers with the tools they need by expanding and enhancing these programs. Additionally, we recommend robust investments in public agricultural research as well as the creation of market-based incentives for climate-smart practices.

“Farmers Union members understand the urgent threat that climate change poses to agriculture, and they want to do everything they can to lessen the damage. But this work isn’t free or easy – it often requires significant time, money, and expertise. We look forward to working with you to identify policies and solutions that help family farmers and ranchers achieve their sustainability goals.”

NFU members, numbering 200,000 family farmers and ranchers and rural residents, have long been concerned with the current and future consequences of climate change on agricultural livelihoods and global food security. At the organization’s 117^thannual convention in March, Farmers Union delegates passed a special order of businesscalling for “immediate and decisive action” to help farmers mitigate and adapt to this crisis.

Source: National Farmers Union

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