Showing off Agriculture for Earth Day
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I’m Haylie Shipp.
Last week marked the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day. According to EarthDay.org. Gaylord Nelson, a junior senator from Wisconsin started the celebration as he wanted to hold teach-ins about air and water pollution at college campuses and invite members of the media. They chose the date April 22, which was a weekday between spring break and final exams, to get the most students involved. And so it shall be.
The tagline “every day is Earth day for farmers and ranchers” is oft used. It’s true, but as with everything in life, there are always ways to do better….and those in agriculture are rising to the challenge.
Shelby Myers, economist with American Farm Bureau Federation…
“Since 1990, per capita emissions for agriculture has decreased 20 percent. That means we're feeding more people and we're producing at a high efficiency, but also doing it in ways that are conserving resources and taking care of our land and natural resources, so ag continues to show itself as a strong partner in reducing greenhouse gases.”
With the EPA calculating that agriculture accounts for 10% of all U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions, Myers explains that we are actually net negative…creating our own offset with land use changes and the forestry sector pulling those emissions and more out of the air.
