Former Ag Secretaries 30 Harvests
Former Secretaries of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Dan Glickman are sounding the alarm and gathering forces to help farmers and ranchers take the lead on fighting climate change.
The former ag officials recently authored an editorial in the Des Moines Register in which they state, unequivocally, that the next 30 years promise to be the most critical in the history of agriculture.
Their editorial echoes the message in a short film produced by the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance that underscores the important role agriculture plays in combating climate change. The film, "30 Harvests," documents the challenges farmers face while highlighting the opportunity to positively impact the environment.
The editorial says tremendous challenges lie ahead including how to feed an unprecedented population while protecting the world in which we all live. The global population expected to hit 9 billion by 2050, requiring 70% more food than what is currently produced.
Farmable land is shrinking. According to American Farmland Trust, cropland in the U S disappears at a rate of 175 acres per hour due to business and residential expansion.
And there's climate change. The U.S. Global Change Research Program reports that the effects of climate change are already being felt. Increases in average temperature, extreme heat conditions, heavy rainfall, droughts and extreme weather events contribute to excessive runoff, flooding, and soil erosion, loss of soil carbon and reduce the availability and quality of water.
Glickman and Vilsack write that agricultural soils have the capacity to draw down and store carbon through the photosynthesis process. Farmers and ranchers continually adopt methods that reduce greenhouse emissions in animal production They say continual improvement in production practices through science has the potential to stabilize and reverse climate trends.
