We're undergoing the most devastating environmental crisis the human-populated earth may ever see, in the form of climate change. What responsibility do food and especially meat producers have in this crisis, and what should they be doing to mitigate climate change, now and in the future?
When it comes to the environmental impact of our diet, with a few exceptions, what we eat has a far greater influence than where or how it was produced. Yes, local is important, yes, organic production is important, but by far the change that would cause the greatest reduction in the environmental footprint of the average American's diet is to eat less animal-based foods. Ultimately, this should be a choice that the eater makes, but it needs to be a well-informed choice. My question: how is USFRA contributing to this dialogue and helping eaters understand that animal-based foods, almost regardless of how they are produced, have an inherently higher environmental impact than plant-based foods? ps - I am not a vegetarian, but I am a scientist that studies the environmental impact of our food system!
Could we learn from other cultures who have installed monoculture crops for cash at the expense of biodiversity?
In response to the question of useing genetics - shouldn't we consider the ethics of NOT using genetics when its use enables a safe and more environmentally sustainable production system?
How would you respond to criticism that "farmers primary goal is yield- not quality?"
How can we tell the world outside of no till farming about all of the benefits that a no till cropping system adds to the environment and how it greatly improves soil health?
Have we lost sight of the main goal of conservation programs? Seems the farmer/rancher is often the last to have input on developing conservation programs that will truly benefit farming/ranching while protecting resources.
Should farmers have to enact environmentally friendly practices in exchange for taxpayer support for insurance and subsidies?
When I first opened this site, there was a place to make a comment about a question. I really wanted to comment so I registered. Now there is no comment button to be found, only a vote. I don't even know what "vote" on a question means,
Why do none of the large agribusinesses consider building the soil to be a priority? Chemical farming, far from being traditional, is the antithesis of truly traditional farming, which entails great efforts to build the soil each and every year, leading to healthier plants which are far more resistant to pests and disease without the need for chemical amendments. Addicting plants to chemical fertilizers, much as addicting humans to chemical drugs, can only have a deleterious effect in the long run. Building the soil, conversely, leads to healthier plants and a healthier environment in which to grow them.
As an individual about to start a small organic farm, where I am planning on growing a wide variety of crops using primarily aquaponics and permaculture, how can I best ensure that my crops will not be tainted by GMOs from Monsanto and DuPont, among others?
Some people rail against the use of chemical fertilizers. Then, they also criticize the use of manure as fertilizer, claiming that is runs off into water bodies. If farmers can't use synthetic fertilizer, and they can't use manure, how the heck are we going to grow enough food for everyone? It's easy to criticize this practice and that practice, but we shouldn't starve ourselves in the process of trying to shrink agriculture's environmental footprint.
Runoff from commercial fertilizers can endanger our water resources. What standards, if any, does the agricultural industry use for fertilizing commodity and other crops? How does the industry work to offset damages to the environment caused by commercial fertilizer runoff?
The Clean Water Act is almost 40 years old. The EPA regulations generally require confined animal feeding operations to have no discharges unless a 25 year rainfall event occurs and limit land application of wastes to less than required for safe fertilization. A big effort has been made to reduce fertilizer use to only that which will be removed by harvest and shipped off the farm. Has there been a measurable improvement in river quality?
How are members of the USFRA addressing the massive dead zones (in the Gulf Coast and elsewhere) caused by nitrogen runoff?
The press reports that the carbon footprint of animal agriculture is high. What are farmers / ranchers doing to reduce ag carbon footprint?
Are farmers and ranchers really focused on sustainability?
FROM THE WASHINGTON POST ON DECEMBER 4, 2011
AS CLIMATE-CHANGE negotiators from nearly 200 countries meet this week in South Africa, Carter Roberts, the World Wildlife Fund’s president, argues that the leading environmental challenge of this century won’t be global warming. It will be feeding people.
The WWF reckons that about 70 percent of the world’s land either is used to produce food or is unsuitable for that. Global population is heading from 7 billion toward a possible 10 billion by 2100. Per capita consumption rises as countries develop. Some vacant land may not be all that fertile.
The U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), a coalition of 49 agriculture groups, says it will begin a $10 million media campaign to reintroduce consumers to the origins of their food. USFRA includes the National
For farmers and ranchers, The Food Dialogues town halls (September 22, 2011) were an important first step in listening and answering questions about food production. But they were only the beginning. Much more work needs to be done.
For U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) it was the beginning of a long-term commitment to helping consumers understand how their food is grown and raised. It was an acknowledgement of the need to find common ground among diverse voices.
Guess who’s coming to dinner?
About 310 million people, looking for three squares a day, 365 days a year. Nearly a billion meals per day. And that´s just in the United States.
How do you feed so many people, year in, year out, providing them the quality and nutrition they need and the consistent availability they’ve come to expect, no matter where they live?
Farming and ranching are the most important things that can be done to enable people to live as comfortably as possible. Even city dwellers can raise SOME food, no matter how small their available space...with a little imagination!
I have recently inherited my mother's 80 acre farm and will be moving there to research ways of helping people become self-suffiient.
Just like we have been told that the more ingredients there are in a food product, then less likely that it is good for you, the same goes for meat - the more times the live animal has changed hands, the more times the meat has been processed, the more warehouses it has been stored in and trucks it has been shipped in, the less likely it will be healthy for the end user - the eater of the meat (or for the animal from whom the meat came...). If you can, buy your meat from the farmer who bred and raised the animal and has it processed in a small, local, USDA inspected, humane butcher. So meat goes from farm, to butcher to you.
Stewardship of the land, humane treatment of the animals who provide us with sustenance - these are part of our mission and the same goes for thousands of other small family farms like ours. They go hand in hand! If we don't care for the land, it wouldn't be able to give back to us!
Our family farm was recently honored as Western Nebraska Master Conservationists of the year. Like many of our neighbors, we have planted trees, no till farm with rotations, and take good care of our range and cattle. What sets us apart is the experience our son brought back from Iraq where it rains 36" annually; that is double our rainfall. In Iraq, the dust storms last days and irrigation and fertilization our required to grow crops. The Fertile Crescent is one of the places our civilization based upon tilling the soil started...and it was not climate change, but farming techniques that are "organic" and some would claim "sustainable" that turned an region with the climate of East Texas or Southern Florida into a desert. With the current research in soils, this is a very exciting time to be a farmer. For the first time in history, we have the knowledge and tools to try to build topsoil and control erosion.
Last week we had relatives come visit and we had to care for calves in the pasture with pneumonia. The first day, we let them watch while we took to well trained horses and carefully herded the mother and each calf that had to be treated into a small pen where the calf received an injection of a drug not used in human medicine per our veterinary protocol. The next day, we had the advantage of a nearby corral, so we saddled an extra horse for our guest. When we sorted our three pair to be treated, he thought, "now I'm done for; the cattle are going to scatter and what chance to I have when it took two riders per pair yesterday". Instead they stayed as a herd and queitly walked into the corral. Their are lots of urban myths about how to make contented cattle, and many of them are as naive as our guests. Please keep your mind open and ask a rancher about how to treat livestock.
Last week, some of our calves in pasture caught pneumonia and we also had relatives visiting. To treat the calves, we built a small catch pen in one pasture. Then my wife and I on two well trained horses would herd a calf with its mom into the pen. It was challenging. Then we would catch the calf with a halter and restrain it to insert an antibiotic into the ear. The antibiotic family is licensed for veterinary, not human use and we use it after consultation with our veterinarian. Treating several calves took several hours. The next day, we went to a pasture with an adjacent corral and saddled an extra horse for our novice guest. When we gathered up three pairs of cows and calves, he thought, now I am done for....they are going to all go there separate ways and I will lose mine becuase I saw how hard it is for two riders to control one pair. Instead they stayed as a herd and we easily got them into the corral. The press is full of opinions about how cattle think and what is good for animals that have no more accuracy than our guests expectation that the herd animals would all go their own way.
Our family was recently honored on as Nebraska Master Conservationists for 2011. We and the other four nominees are doing many of the same practices as our neighbors. We plant treee breaks, rotation graze, monitor range condition, no till farm to reduce soil erosion and improve the soil quality. We have crop rotations which include forages and legumes, usually fed where they are grown. We do this for the joy of watching the environment improve under our stewardship, and we can document that it truly has improved through improved vigor and diversity of the range plants and improved health of the soil which reduces the need for irrigation and improves the uniformity of seed germination and ultimately crop yield.
Grazing + grasslands = Enhanced Biodiversity Grazing = milk, nutritious food, food security for the Northeast Corridor
Farmers in the Northeast area that I am most familiar with serve as wonderfully rich areas for wildlife, wetlands and watersheds. I wish that I could share with the typical consumer the extent of the wildlife and even threatned bird species that are safe on my land. Studies are indicating in NY that grazing combined with grasslands leads to enhanced biodiversity. Unfortunately, there seems to be little interest by urban environmentalists about the biodiverse life of the typical farms of our part of the country.
Our family is just like theirs in the urban area. We get our food from the same stores they do, we drive the same highways, we want our children to have as good or better education as everyone else, and we want good research, communication and regulations to ensure what we produce is safe and abundant. We are proud of what we do and want to ensure our children, your children and the people around the world will have the food they need that is produced in an environmentally-friendly way.
I wish Americans understood that nobody cares more about the livestock they raise or the land they farm than the farmers themselves. They produce crops in livestock where they live, so they strive to perform their duties in the safest, most environmentally conscious means possible. If there were safety or environmental issues, the farmers and their families would be the first to suffer the consequences. There are many means and methods of producing agricultural products, and none of them is the absolute best option. Each has its own benefits. The important thing is that these various production practices offer consumers a variety of food options at various prices. This provides consumers with choices on how they would like to spend their food dollars, while allowing those with limited incomes to feed their families in the most affordable means possible.
U.S. farmers and ranchers share consumer’s values; we are committed to proper animal care, environmental stewardship and various production models can be used consistently with these values, providing consumers choice Your world and the technology you use has changed dramatically in the past 30 years; so has the technology involved in producing food. This technology brings you consistent high quality, ensures food safety and protects the environment.