At the start of USDA’s 2020 Agriculture Outlook Forum on Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a new initiative to stimulate innovation so American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing production by 40 percent while cutting the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050. Secretary Perdue outlined the four components of the …
Ag Groups Form Farmers for a Sustainable Future Coalition
More than 20 farm and ranch groups representing millions of U.S. farmers and ranchers are launching Farmers for a Sustainable Future (FSF), a coalition committed to environmental and economic sustainability to serve as a primary resource for lawmakers and policymakers as they consider climate policies. The coalition will share with elected officials, media and the public U.S. agriculture’s commitment to …
Promoting Sustainability with e3 Cotton
Those attending the 2020 BASF Agronomic Performance Trials (APT) Summit had the opportunity to learn more about the e3 Sustainable Cotton Program. “What makes it unique is that we offer a program that can actually trace the cotton bale from the time it’s harvested at the grower’s field all the way through the entire value chain until it shows up …
Bayer Committed to More Sustainable Food System
Farmers, industry experts, journalists and other stakeholders are in Monheim, Germany this week for the Bayer 2019 Future of Farming Dialogue to engage in a collaborative discussion on the future of agriculture. “Agriculture needs to feed a growing world without starving the planet”, said Liam Condon, member of the Bayer Board of Management and president of the Crop Science Division. …
USFRA “30 Harvests” Focuses on Farmers and Climate Change
The U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA) has unveiled a short film called “30 Harvests” that highlights agriculture’s role in battling climate change for the next 30 years. Thirty harvests quantifies the crop cycles left before 2050, the year the global population is expected to be 9 billion people. The docudrama follows the plight of farmer Jay Hill of Dell …
Bayer Talks Sustainability, Transparency
Sustainability and transparency are more than just buzz words to Bayer, according to Utz Klages, who works in communications out of the company’s Crop Science headquarters in Monheim, Germany. “For us, it’s important to fill sustainability with life, with action, with measures and also with some core activity,” said Klages. “We are a company with more than 150 years history. …
Dairy Industry Recognizes Sustainability Winners
The Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy announced its eighth annual U.S. Dairy Sustainability Award winners during a May 8 ceremony in Rosemont, Illinois. The program recognizes dairy farms, businesses and partnerships whose practices improve the well-being of people, animals and the planet. Through creative problem solving, this year’s winners addressed environmentally beneficial production practices, resource and energy reduction as well …
Pig Farmers Make 55 Years of Sustainability Progress
Just in time for Earth Day, the National Pork Board has released a new study from the University of Arkansas confirming that “today’s pork is more earth-friendly than ever thanks to great progress in multiple key sustainability metrics over more than five decades.” According to the new study, A Retrospective Assessment of U.S. Pork Production: 1960 to 2015, the inputs …
Water for a Hungry World: Innovation in Water and Food Security
The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska (DWFI) will host the 2019 Water for Food Global Conference, April 29-30, at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln, Nebraska. Registration is now open for the event. The conference will convene leading international experts and organizations to discuss “Water for a Hungry World: Innovation in Water and Food Security,” …
Soil Health Rooted in Data
The theme for the 2019 Soil Health Summit was “Rooted in Data, Growing Success” and gathering data about soil health practices has been the focus of the Soil Health Partnership (SHP) since the beginning. SHP lead scientist Maria Bowman presented some of the latest data they have gathered. “A lot of our farmers are improving their soil organic matter and …