Food & Agriculture Archives - Inside Climate News

A New UN ‘Roadmap’ Lays Out a Global Vision for Food Security and Emissions Reductions

By Georgina Gustin — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Critics applaud food-related ambitions at COP28, but say they don’t address livestock emissions and rely too much on bioenergy.

By Georgina Gustin

As the United Nations’ annual climate summit wraps up in Dubai this week, farm and food groups are applauding the conference leadership for its intensified focus on agriculture, a major source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that has been overlooked in previous years.

Deemed Sustainable by Seafood Industry Monitors, Harvested California Squid Has an Unmeasurable Energy Footprint

By Georgina Gustin — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 18:00:00 +0000

Tens of thousands of tons of the cephalopods caught off the California coast are shipped to China for processing, then sold to consumers around the world.

By Georgina Gustin

This story is being published as part of an international collaboration between news outlets led by The Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit journalism organization based in Washington, D.C. The first story, published by The New Yorker, is here.

Dirty Water and Dead Rice: The Cost of the Clean Energy Transition in Rural Minnesota

By Karina Atkins — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Mining the critical minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries could threaten local water supply and Indigenous culture.

By Karina Atkins

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.

Environmental Justice a Key Theme Throughout Biden’s National Climate Assessment

By Kristoffer Tigue, Georgina Gustin, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

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.

By Kristoffer Tigue, Georgina Gustin, Liza Gross, Victoria St. Martin

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.

In the Florida Everglades, a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Hotspot

By Amy Green — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Drainage has exposed the fertile soils of the Everglades Agricultural Area, a region responsible for much of the nation’s sugar cane.

By Amy Green

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.

Toxic Pesticides Are Sprayed Next to Thousands of US Schools

By Liza Gross — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 08:45:00 +0000

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.

By Liza Gross

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.

Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Sprawling Conservation Area in Everglades Watershed

By Amy Green — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 09:30:00 +0000

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.

By Amy Green

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.

Corn Harvests in the Yukon? Study Finds That Climate Change Will Boost Likelihood That Wilderness Gives Way to Agriculture

By Kiley Price — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 21:22:40 +0000

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.

By Kiley Price

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.

Like Canaries in a Coal Mine, Dragonflies Signal Threats to Freshwater Ecosystems

By Juanita Gordon — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0000

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.

By Juanita Gordon

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.

As the Colorado River Declines, Some Upstream Look to Use it Before They Lose it

By Wyatt Myskow — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 09:00:00 +0000

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.

By Wyatt Myskow

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