crop

Sunlight As A Cash Crop

July 10, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It isn’t so easy to be a farmer these days. Farming has always involved long hours, hard work and the uncertainties of weather and yield. The 21st Century has added new and unique challenges such as increasingly unpredictable weather, insect infestation and disease, and low commodity prices. Add in sudden tariffs and farmers struggle even more to make ends meet. The default rate for farmers’ loans is the the highest in at least nine years.

One thing that remains reliable for farmers is the sun. It rises in the morning and goes down at night. The sun can be trusted, unlike politicians, rain, or commodity prices. These days, many farmers are taking advantage of the dependability of the sun to make money from a new cash crop: solar energy.

The trend is spreading. North Carolina has been a leading solar energy state for several years and a 2017 report found that solar energy generates 30% of the income of many farms. Typical annual rent payments for farmland by solar companies range from $500 to $1,400 per acre in North Carolina.

A growing list of states have clean energy mandates targeting 100% use of renewable energy. These mandates provide incentives for farmers that make installing solar a financially smart decision and falling prices for solar installations make it an even better deal.

Solar works well when co-located on a farm and can be built in ways that minimizes impact. It is quiet, uses almost no water, doesn’t pollute, and if it is decommissioned, the land can go back to its previous use. If the solar facilities are raised up, the same land can be used to graze livestock or grow shade-tolerant crops.

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Harvesting the sun is the new cash crop

Photo, posted December 25, 2017, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Crop Diversity

March 22, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A study at the University of Toronto suggests that on a global scale, we are growing more of the same kinds of crops, and this diminishing diversity presents major challenges for agricultural sustainability.

In some places, for example here in North America, crop diversity has actually increased. Back in the 1960s, North Americans grew about 80 crops. Now there are 93.

But on a global scale, more of the same kinds of crops are being grown on much larger scales. Just four crops – soybeans, wheat, rice and corn – occupy nearly 50% of the world’s entire agricultural lands. The remaining 152 crops cover the rest. Large industrial farms often grow one crop species – usually just a single genotype – across thousands of acres of land.

This decline in global crop diversity is problematic in several ways. On a cultural level, it threatens regional food sovereignty. If regional crop diversity is threatened, it makes it more difficult for people to eat or afford foods that are culturally significant to them.

On an ecological level, the dominance by a few genetic lineages of crops makes the agricultural system increasingly susceptible to pests or diseases. The deadly fungus that is threatening the world’s banana plantations is a prime current example. The Irish potato famine in the 19^th century is a tragic historical example.

As large industrial-sized farms in Asia, Europe and the Americas start to look more and more alike, the dangers of large monocultures of crops that are commercially valuable will only increase. It will be important for global governments to consider the impact of policies that affect the diversity of the agricultural system and its sustainability in an increasingly hungry world.

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A small number of crops are dominating globally. And that’s bad news for sustainable agriculture

Photo, posted August 13, 2012, courtesy of Alasdair McKenzie via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hacking Photosynthesis

February 25, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There is an enzyme known as RuBisCo that is involved in carbon fixation, the process plants use to convert carbon dioxide into sugar molecules. The RuBisCo molecule is inside the leaves of most plants and is probably the most abundant protein in the world.

RuBisCo picks up carbon dioxide from the air and uses energy from the sun to turn the carbon into sugar molecules. This process of photosynthesis is pretty much the foundation of life on Earth.

Wonderful as it is, the process is not perfect. RuBisCo is not very selective in grabbing molecules from the air. It picks up oxygen as well as CO₂ and it produces a toxic compound when it does that.

Plants operate a whole other complicated chemical process to deal with this toxic byproduct and uses up a lot of energy along the way, leaving less energy for making leaves or food that we can eat.

A research program at the University of Illinois called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (or RIPE) has been trying to correct this problem; they have been trying to hack photosynthesis. And they may well have succeeded.

Using genetic modification on tobacco plants, they have shut down the existing detoxification process and set up a much more efficient new one. The result is super plants that grow faster and up to 40% bigger.

The next step is to get it to work on plants that people actually rely upon for food, like tomatoes, soybeans and black-eyed peas (which are a staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa where food is scarce.)

It will be years before we know if the process can really produce more food and be safe, but it may end up leading to a major increase in crop productivity.

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Scientists Have ‘Hacked Photosynthesis’ In Search Of More Productive Crops

Photo, posted June 10, 2013, courtesy of Boon Hong Seto via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bad News For Beer

November 28, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As extreme weather events become increasingly common, arctic ice disappears, and wildfires burn for weeks on end, many people wonder just what it will take to change some of the entrenched opinions about climate change.

[Read more…] about Bad News For Beer

Using Rye To Grow Edamame

April 17, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Herbicide-resistant weeds are becoming a more and more common problem for farmers growing grain and vegetable crops. As a result, the farmers are looking for alternatives to herbicides to control weeds. One promising approach is the use of cover crops, which are planted in the off season to protect the soil. Thick cover crop growth can often compete well with weeds during the cover crop growth period, and can prevent most germinated weed seeds from completing their life cycle and reproducing.

Small Grains In Corn Country

January 31, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Large portions of the Midwest are called the Corn Belt and for good reason. Overall, about 90 million acres or 140,000 square miles of the United States are planted with corn and about half of that is in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota. In most of the Corn Belt, the corn is planted in rotation with soybeans. Both are warm weather crops and the soil is left barren for nearly half of the year when the two crops are out of season.

Climate Change And Barley

January 10, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The impacts of increased carbon dioxide and the changing climate are often complicated and, it turns out, not always negative. In some areas of the world, people can actually benefit from increased CO2 and climate change. Barley, the most important feed crop for beef production in Alberta, Canada, as well as the province’s beef industry itself actually stand to gain from the changes that are most assuredly not a good thing for much of the world.

Is A Real Christmas Tree Or A Fake One Better for the Planet?

December 7, 2017 By EarthWise 2 Comments

For many, the Christmas tree is a quintessential part of the holiday season. According to the American Christmas Tree Association, 81% of Christmas trees Americans decorated in 2016 were artificial. But are artificial trees really the better option for the environment?

Saving Bees With Software

April 11, 2017 By EarthWise

The worldwide decline in the population of bees and other pollinators has impelled farmers to do what they can to encourage and nurture bees on their land. Protecting bees is important because pollinators are essential for growing many foods including coffee, cacao, almonds and many other fruits and vegetables.

Is Coffee Endangered?

October 5, 2016 By WAMC WEB

There are many worries related to climate change, notably the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, melting polar ice, rising seas, and so forth. But perhaps one of the most ominous warnings comes from a new report issued by the Climate Institute about the future of coffee.

Solar Power As A Crop

December 15, 2015 By WAMC WEB

The historic, relentless drought in California has caused a number of the state’s farmers to start planting photovoltaic panels instead of crops. Because of the drought, Federal water deliveries to farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere have been dwindling. As a result of the water shortage, more than 500,000 acres will lie fallow this year.