Agriculture

April 9, 2024

SciLine Media Briefing: Climate Change & Agriculture — Air, Water & Soil

SciLine’s next media briefing will cover the myriad ways agricultural production is — and may soon be affected further — by climate-driven shifts in air quality, including changing carbon dioxide and ozone levels; water quality and quantity; and soil health. 2:00 p.m. ET.

Visibility: 

"Enviva Bankruptcy Fallout Ripples Through Biomass Industry, U.S. and EU"

"In March, Enviva, the world’s largest woody biomass producer for industrial energy, declared bankruptcy. That cataclysmic collapse triggered a rush of political and economic maneuvering in the U.S. (a key wood pellet producing nation), and in Europe (a primary industrial biomass energy user in converted coal plants)."

Source: Mongabay, 04/03/2024

Hay For Cattle Consumes Nearly Half The Water Drawn From Colorado River

"With chronic water shortages afflicting the Colorado River, discussions about how to cut usage have increasingly focused on a thirsty crop that consumes an especially large share of the river’s water: hay that is grown to feed cattle and produce beef and dairy products."

Source: LA Times, 04/02/2024

"Extreme Drought In Southern Africa Leaves Millions Hungry"

"Delicately and with intense concentration, Zanyiwe Ncube poured her small share of precious golden cooking oil into a plastic bottle at a food aid distribution site deep in rural Zimbabwe." "They’re aiming to help some of the 2.7 million people in rural Zimbabwe threatened with hunger because of the drought that has enveloped large parts of southern Africa since late 2023."

Source: AP, 04/02/2024

"Bird Flu Spreads To Dairy Cows In Idaho, Michigan And New Mexico"

"A highly virulent bird flu first detected in dairy cows in Texas and Kansas this week has spread to additional herds, bringing the number of affected states to five and adding evidence the virus may be spreading cow-to-cow."

Source: Washington Post, 04/02/2024

"Chocolate Prices To Keep Rising As West Africa’s Cocoa Crisis Deepens"

"Surveying the stripped landscape of her farm - dotted with pools of cyanide-tainted, tea coloured waste water left by illegal gold miners - is enough to make Janet Gyamfi break down. Only last year, the 27-hectare plot in western Ghana was covered with nearly 6,000 cocoa trees. Today, less than a dozen remain."

Source: Reuters, 04/01/2024

Calif. Latino Communities Most at Risk From Brain-Damaging Weed Killer

"Growers’ use of the neurotoxic weed killer paraquat is concentrated in just five agricultural counties, leaving low-income Latinos disproportionately exposed to a chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease, a new analysis shows."

Source: Inside Climate News, 03/29/2024

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