Food & Agriculture Archives - Inside Climate News https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/food-agriculture/ Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet. Tue, 21 Nov 2023 15:04:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Food & Agriculture Archives - Inside Climate News https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/food-agriculture/ 32 32 Dirty Water and Dead Rice: The Cost of the Clean Energy Transition in Rural Minnesota https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21112023/talon-metals-tamarack-minnesota-copper-nickel-mining-wild-rice-water/ Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=75288 Mining the critical minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries could threaten local water supply and Indigenous culture.

More than 250 years ago, the Ojibwe people, one of the largest Indigenous populations in North America, received a prophecy to migrate westward until they reached the land where food grows on water. 

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Environmental Justice a Key Theme Throughout Biden’s National Climate Assessment https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14112023/biden-national-climate-asssessment-environmental-justiice/ Tue, 14 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=75071 The report finds that societal factors, including historic racism, have shaped the climate reality for many communities of color. It also details the impacts of climate change on Indigenous people, public health and agriculture.

WASHINGTON—Whether it’s the likelihood of living in a flood zone, lacking access to parks or having fewer resources to recover from a destructive storm, the consequences of climate change are not experienced equally in the United States. That’s a key message from some of the nation’s leading climate scientists, public health experts and economists in a landmark federal report released Tuesday.

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In the Florida Everglades, a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Hotspot https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06112023/in-the-florida-everglades-a-greenhouse-gas-emissions-hotspot/ Mon, 06 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=74941 Drainage has exposed the fertile soils of the Everglades Agricultural Area, a region responsible for much of the nation’s sugar cane.

ORLANDO, Fla.—It used to be the water spilled over Lake Okeechobee’s southern shore, flowing eventually into the sawgrass prairies of the Florida Everglades. For thousands of years the marsh vegetation flourished and died here in an endless cycle, the plant remains falling beneath the slow-coursing water to form a rich layer of organic soil called peat.

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Toxic Pesticides Are Sprayed Next to Thousands of US Schools https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03112023/toxic-pesticides-sprayed-next-to-us-schools/ Fri, 03 Nov 2023 08:45:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=74921 As many as 2 million children attend elementary schools near farms where pesticides are likely applied, as federal legislators aim to gut state and local health protections.

Young children go to schools within just 200 feet of farms where pesticides are likely to be sprayed, a new analysis of farms across the country has found. Although most states have laws restricting how and when pesticides can be applied near schools, pesticide companies and their allies in Congress are trying to preempt such laws, the report warned.

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Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Sprawling Conservation Area in Everglades Watershed https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102023/florida-everlgades-conservation-area-protecting-watersheds/ Sun, 22 Oct 2023 09:30:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=74660 Explosive growth continues to pressure Florida’s natural resources, and climate change will drive more development inland. The hope is to push back against the impact.

ORLANDO, Fla.—A new federal proposal calls for creating a conservation area that would span 12 counties in Florida, from the Everglades’ headwaters in the center of the state to sawgrass prairies further south, preserving a region that is home to imperiled species like the Florida panther, the official state animal.

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Corn Harvests in the Yukon? Study Finds That Climate Change Will Boost Likelihood That Wilderness Gives Way to Agriculture https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19102023/climate-change-wilderness-agriculture/ Thu, 19 Oct 2023 21:22:40 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=74603 As new areas become suitable for planting, researchers predict that vast swaths of biodiversity will be at risk, particularly in northern regions and the tropics.

Climate change has the potential to restructure the world’s agricultural landscapes, making it possible to plant crops in places where they have never been viable historically. Within the next 40 years, these new growing regions could overlap with 7 percent of the world’s wilderness areas outside Antarctica, putting those ecosystems at risk, scientists reported Thursday. 

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Like Canaries in a Coal Mine, Dragonflies Signal Threats to Freshwater Ecosystems https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12092023/dragonflies-like-canaries-in-a-coal-mine-for-climate-change/ Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=73764 Research shows that some dragonfly and damselfly species may decline to near-extinction by 2100 as a result of climate change and human intervention in their habitats. Yet some freshwater ecosystems could see an increase in such species and more generally in biodiversity.

In gauging the growing threats to freshwater biodiversity, dragonflies and damselflies are viewed by ecologists as sentinels, reacting to threats by seeking out more stable homes. In a new study, researchers report that many of these aquatic insects are likely to begin relocating in coming decades as climate change makes their habitats warmer and drier. 

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As the Colorado River Declines, Some Upstream Look to Use it Before They Lose it https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10092023/colorado-river-upstream-use-it-before-they-lose-it-2/ Sun, 10 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=73675 As states negotiate future water cuts, some officials are looking to build new dams and reservoirs in the Upper Basin of the overallocated Colorado River to use more water.

RANGELY, Colo.—The fossil fuel industry once boomed here. 

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As Climate-Fueled Weather Disasters Hit More U.S. Farms, the Costs of Insuring Agriculture Have Skyrocketed https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07092023/climate-change-crop-insurance-increases/ Thu, 07 Sep 2023 04:05:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=73608 Critics of the federal program say it encourages more carbon-intensive farming and are calling for Congress to lower subsidies for big, wealthy producers.

The country’s farmers took in a record $19 billion in insurance payments in 2022, many because of weather-related disasters, according to a new analysis that suggests climate change could stoke the cost of insuring the nation’s farmers and ranchers to unsustainable levels.

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Could ‘One Health’ be the Optimal Approach for Human, Animal and Environmental Health? https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01092023/one-health-human-animal-environmental-health/ Fri, 01 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0000 https://insideclimatenews.org/?p=73428 The University of Arizona is getting millions in state funding to develop the program. The first task is communicating what it is.

Starting this year, the University of Arizona (UA) will receive $3.6 million in state funding annually until 2025 to grow its One Health model—which considers the correlation of human health to environment and animal health—and promote its development in the workforce.

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