That’s less than the emissions from the transportation, electricity generation and industrial sectors. Globally, agriculture accounts for about 24% of GHG emissions.

The EPA’s US Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions provides a first look at 2018 U.S. emissions data, which is incorporated into a new Market Intel report from the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Market Intel report finds that per-unit methane emissions from livestock have declined since 1990 as livestock producers have increased productivity. During the past 30 years, U.S. milk production has increased 71% while per-unit emissions of milk have declined by almost 25%. Beef production has increased almost 50%, while per-unit emissions have fallen nearly 8%.

Meanwhile, American farmers are producing more crops on fewer acres, according to an analysis of USDA data. When compared to farm production in 1990, U.S. farmers would have needed almost 100 million additional acres to grow the same amount of corn, cotton, rice, soybeans and wheat they harvested in 2018.

“We’re doing more with less and proud to lead the world in agricultural advances. Smarter farming, new strategies and technology are helping farmers reduce their environmental footprint and provide solutions.”

said American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall.

The analysis builds on data shared during the launch of Farmers for a Sustainable Future (FSF), a coalition of agriculture groups aimed at educating lawmakers and finding solutions to challenges posed by climate change. The gains farmers have made in reducing their environmental footprint have been significant, and FSF supports federal investment in innovation, science-based research, voluntary conservation programs, resilient infrastructure, and incentives to assist farmers in furthering these efforts.

“Corn farmers are proud of their successful efforts to improve soil, water and air quality. These efforts are paying off in increased carbon sequestration and carbon retention in the soil, which helps offset agriculture’s relatively low contribution to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions”

said Kevin Ross, president of the National Corn Growers Association, an FSF member.

Source: America Farm Bureau Federation

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“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,”

said Chairman and CEO Juan Luciano.

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, identified several pathways toward success, including:

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

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.

In addiction, ADM’s Board formed a new committee on Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility in 2019, 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.

Sources: Business Wide; ADM

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Key features and benefits of PioneerLine include:

• Multiple flow options that enable growers to precisely match irrigation and fertigation to the plant’s needs, thus increasing plant vigor, quality, and yield.
• Every plant receives a consistent and the same amount of water and nutrients due to precisely produced injection molded drippers. Precision delivery of water and nutrients results in stand consistency and higher yields.
• Tough seamless extrusion of the dripperline provides maximum protection against installation-related damages.
• Low filtration requirement ensures the highest level of plugging resistance during the growing season.

“We created PioneerLine due to hemp grower feedback indicating the need for an irrigation solution that provides precision control, reliability, and supply chain sustainability. As a pioneer of drip irrigation, we understand the challenges of pioneering a new crop.”

said Chuck Bates, Market Segment Leader of Netafim USA.

The release of PioneerLine PC and PioneerLine X follows the recent announcement that Netafim Financial Solutions is now opening their industry leading financing program to hemp growers. This program is the industry’s only end-to-end financing solution for complete drip irrigation systems (including design, materials, installation, and labor costs).

Sources: Business Wire; Netafim USA

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The highly-skilled team at California Berry Cultivars is currently engaged in developing new cultivars for use in both short-day and day-neutral markets. Their efforts focus on the balanced development of cultivars with superior yield, quality, and environmental tolerance traits, according to the company’s web site.

Their second greenhouse in French Camp, CA is less elaborate, but will still play an important role for the company as it breeds strictly strawberries for future integration into farms all over the world.

Project Leader Dr. Kyle VandenLangenberg has been spearheading this project since its inception almost four years ago and is happy to see that everything is proceeding as planned.

“Our goal is to release at least one new variety every other year starting in years six or seven,”

he said.

“In this location, we need things to be kept as cool as possible, because it gets hot in the valley. The system that ATI helped us to select includes an evaporative cooler, two 36 inch fans along with our HAF circulator fans, and it’s really working well. I’m able to keep the heat down by 20-25 degrees, with a 40% shade cloth in it. That’s pretty impressive, because without the fans and the evaporator, it would be 120-140 degrees in that greenhouse on some days.”

CBC will need to rely on this greenhouse for at least a decade or two and ask it to perform at a high level.

“I need interior volume at this location and I’m getting it with the Thermolator,”

VandenLangenberg said.

“It’s an excellent value for what we spent, including the structure, the benches, the concrete, the power and the irrigation–everything. It has a partial concrete floor in it, with a 10 foot concrete pad in the front of the greenhouse and another one down the middle and the rest of the floor consists of compacted gravel. We will have to replace the polyethylene single roof film every 3-4 years, of course, because it’s a wearable part, but otherwise we won’t have to touch it, which is nice.”

VandenLangenberg is delighted with his second greenhouse and credits much of its success to the people at Agra Tech.

“It’s a good step forward for our program and I always like working with Agra Tech,”

he said.

“Jim Bergantz is always very responsive and thorough and we also worked closely with Anita Pound on some of the design elements. Jim understands that we are still a startup for the most part, so we need the right tools to achieve our goals, but we obviously don’t want to overpay for anything or buy too much too soon. By understanding what we’re doing here, Jim isn’t trying to oversell us and we appreciate that.”

The French Camp greenhouse with six foot side walls will be used by CBC strictly in the spring and late summer/fall, VandenLangenberg explained.

“In April and May, we use it for six weeks and then again for eight weeks during August and September. The applications are similar with thousands of strawberry plants in the greenhouse and that’s why the components of the building need to work. If we lose 10 percent of that crop that’s an enormous big step back for our breeding program. We haven’t had any issues with our Oxnard greenhouse and that is the reason why we’re continuing to work with Agra Tech now and in the future. We’ve established a trusting relationship with them and as we go forward we are confident that they will help us as we grow and succeed in achieving our goals.

“We are on the right path toward creating superior strawberries, but the process is slow and we can’t rush it, of course,”

he said.

“The typical breeding cycle for strawberries is 6-10 years–from the original cross-pollination that we perform in our Oxnard greenhouse all the way to when we hit the market. We spend years testing under typical farm conditions before a grower ever plants one of our cultivars. This helps to ensure high-quality products and allows us to make best-practice recommendations, so that growers can maximize their quality yields while shippers maximize their arrivals.”

Throughout every aspect of their on-farm testing, CBC also conducts vigorous disease screening trials for common soil-borne diseases in order to provide its customers with the most disease-resistant cultivars. They also perform on-farm trials using various horticultural practices in order to ensure best-practice recommendations for each of their products, VandenLangenberg explained.

In years to come, CBC will be bringing new strawberries to the world, to go into your breakfast cereal in the morning or appearing in your favorite desserts.

“We will have a full array of products available for the marketplace,”

VandenLangenberg said.

“We will also continue to conduct dynamic scientific research as we create this long train and move it down the track as we produce the finest strawberries in the world.”

Source: Agra Tech

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