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The Climate Impact Of Diets | Earth Wise

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The food system is responsible for 70% of the world’s freshwater use and almost 80% of freshwater pollution.  About three-quarters of the ice-free land area of the planet has been affected by human use, primarily for agriculture.  Land-use change such as deforestation is a major source of biodiversity loss.  What we choose to eat has a major effect on how the food system impacts the environment.

A comprehensive study by researchers at several UK universities has found that a plant-based diet yields one-fourth as much greenhouse gases as a diet rich in meat.  Vegan diets produce 75% less heat-trapping gas, generate 75% less water pollution, and use 75% less land than meat-rich diets.

Just going to a low-meat diet cuts the environmental cost of a high-meat diet in half.  Pescatarian diets perform better than low-meat diets, and vegetarian diets do even a little better than that.

There are a variety of reasons why many people won’t, can’t, or even shouldn’t become vegans.  What should be learned from this study is that our dietary choices have a major environmental impact.  So, taking actions like cutting down the amount of meat and dairy – which most people can do with relative ease – can be valuable.

There are many choices with respect to where we live, how we get from place to place, where we get our food, and, yes, what food we eat, that impact the environment.  We are not all going to do the best possible thing in all these cases, but if we each make some choices that at least help, it can make a big difference.

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Vegan Diets Have One-Fourth the Climate Impact of Meat-Heavy Diets, Study Finds

Photo, posted November 5, 2017, courtesy of Stephanie Kraus via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fungus And Carbon Storage | Earth Wise

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It is well-known that plants and trees store enormous amounts of carbon.  What has not been common knowledge is that the vast underground network of fungi across the world’s lands stores billions of tons carbon, roughly equivalent to 36% of yearly global fossil fuel emissions.

These mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with almost all land plants.  The fungi transport carbon, converted by sugars and fats by plants, into soil.  They have been supporting life on land for at least 450 million years and form sprawling underground networks everywhere – even beneath roads, gardens, and houses – on every continent on earth.

An international team of scientists analyzed hundreds of studies looking at plant-soil processes to understand how much carbon is being stored by fungi on a global scale.  The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, revealed that over 13 billion tons of CO2 is transferred from plants to fungi each year, more than China emits annually.  This process transforms the soil beneath our feet to a massive carbon pool and constitutes the most effective carbon storage activity in the world.

Given that fungi have such a crucial role in mitigating carbon emissions, the researchers are recommending that fungi should be considered in biodiversity and conservation policies. More needs to be done in protecting the underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi. The UN has warned that human activities are degrading soils and that 90% of the world’s soils could be degraded by 2050.  Not only would this obviously be very bad for the productivity of crops and plants, but we now know this could be catastrophic for curbing climate change and rising temperatures.

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Fungi stores a third of carbon from fossil fuel emissions and could be essential to reaching net zero

Photo, posted May 28, 2023, courtesy of Geoff McKay via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fewer Farms In The World | Earth Wise

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A new study by the University of Colorado Boulder looked at the trends in the number and size of farms around the world starting from the 1960s and projecting through the end of the 21st century.

The analysis shows that the number of farms globally will shrink in half while the size of the average existing farms doubles.

The study used data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organization on agricultural area, GDP per capita, and rural population size of more than 180 countries.  The analysis found that the number of farms around the world would drop from 616 million in 2020 to 272 million in 2100.  A key reason for the trend is that as a country’s economy grows, more people migrate to urban areas, leaving fewer people in rural areas to tend the land.

This decline has been ongoing in the US and Europe for decades.  For example, in the US, there were 200,000 fewer farms in 2022 than in 2007.

This trend has troubling consequences.  Larger farms typically have less biodiversity and more monocultures.  The greater biodiversity and crop diversity of smaller farms makes them more resilient to pest outbreaks and climate shocks.

Currently, 600 million farms provide for 8 billion people. By the end of the century, it is likely that half the number of farmers will be feeding even more people.  That is a weighty responsibility for agricultural workers.  Support systems and education for farmers becomes ever more important.

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The number of farms in the world is declining, here’s why it matters to you

Photo, posted January 18, 2011, courtesy of 2010 CIAT / Neil Palmer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Two Lost Lakes Return To California | Earth Wise

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The recent siege of powerful storms in California driven by a series of atmospheric rivers has had a significant effect on the severe drought that has plagued most of the state for many years.  Many of the state’s reservoirs are at the highest level they have been for decades.   The snowpack in the Sierras is well over 200% of its historical average.  Many parts of the state are no longer considered to be in drought conditions, and, in fact, flooding has been a serious problem in some areas.  This flooding has had some surprising results.

Two California lakes that drained a century ago have reappeared as a result of floodwaters from the recent storms.

Tulare Lake, in California’s Central Valley used to be fed by rain and snowmelt from the Sierras.  A system of dams and canals constructed in the early 20th century to support regional agriculture diverted water away from the lake.  It used to be the largest freshwater lake in the West but farmers ultimate planted crops in the dried lakebed.

The atmospheric river events in March inundated that farmland and once again there is water in Tulare Lake.

Owens Lake, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, was long fed by mountain streams.  The 1913 construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct redirected water to that city and desiccated the lake.   Floodwaters in March caused a partial collapse of the aqueduct and when the spill gates on the aqueduct were opened to drain the damaged areas, floodwaters poured in and partially refilled the lake.

California has suffered from drought for many years.  With its massive snowpack, as the weather warms, the state may face even more flooding.

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Two Long-Drained California Lakes Refilled by Floodwaters, Satellite Images Show

Photo, posted November 10, 2014, courtesy of CN via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Giant Farming Robots | Earth Wise

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Farmers are perpetually engaged in a battle against weeds, which can strangle crops and destroy their yields.  There are basically two ways to fight weeds:  spraying herbicides that are bad for the environment and human health or using human labor to pull the weeds by hand. 

Both choices are increasingly undesirable.  Herbicide resistance is a growing problem facing farms around the world and widespread labor shortages in the agricultural sector are making it increasingly difficult to use human resources to combat weeds.

A startup company called FarmWise founded by an MIT engineering alumnus is providing a third option for farmers.  The company has developed giant autonomous weeding robots that use artificial intelligence to cut out weeds without damaging crops.

The company’s first product is called the Titan.  It looks like a large tractor without a driver’s seat.  It uses machine vision to distinguish weeds from crop plants like leafy greens, cauliflower, artichokes, and tomatoes.  It snips off the weeds with sub-inch precision.

Fifteen titan robots have been roaming the fields of 30 large farms in California and Arizona for several years.  A newer robot, called the Vulcan, is more lightweight and is pulled by a tractor.  FarmWise continues to add new crops to its database so that the robots can be used to fight weeds in more and more kinds of farms.

Weed problems are especially acute for farmers of specialty crops, which grow on smaller farms than corn and soybeans, and have unique growing practices, which limit the effectiveness of chemical and technical solutions. 

The overall goal of FarmWise is to turn artificial intelligence into a tool that is as reliable and dependable as GPS is now in the farming industry.

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Titanic robots make farming more sustainable

Photo, posted August 23, 2021, courtesy of Carol VanHook via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Spiders And Pest Control | Earth Wise

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Climate change facilitates the spread of invasive pest species by expanding their habitable environment ranges.  In conventional agriculture, farmers depend on chemical pesticides to control agricultural pests.  But 99% of all synthetic chemicals, including pesticides, are made from fossil fuels, and turning petrochemicals into pesticides requires massive amounts of energy.  These chemical pesticides also pollute the air and water, and destroy biodiversity by killing many non-target species as well.  

According to new research led by scientists from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K., groups of spiders could be used as an environmentally-friendly way to protect crops against agricultural pests.  The study, which was recently published in the journal Insects, suggests that web-building groups of spiders can be used to control populations of the tomato leafminer moth, a devastating pest of commercially important crops like tomatoes and potatoes.

The research team explored the use of tropical tent spiders for this pest control.  They are found in colonies around the world, and their range overlaps with regions of moth infestations, including Mediterranean Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

In lab settings, different types of prey were introduced to colonies of spiders of varying body sizes.  The research team found that the larger spiders built larger webs and caught more prey, including tomato leafminer moths and fruit flies.   

Tropical tent spiders could be an effective and climate-friendly way to control flying insect pests.  However, more research is needed to ensure that these spiders don’t negatively impact crop pollination by also catching pollinators.

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Using spiders as environmentally-friendly pest control

Photo, posted June 10, 2018, courtesy of Lies Van Rompaey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

How To Meet Protected Land Targets | Earth Wise

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More than half of the world’s countries have set a target of setting aside 30% of land and sea areas across the globe for conservation by 2030, in order to preserve and protect nature and essential services to people.  This pledge creates some difficult questions to answer.

What sorts of land should be protected and where should it be located?  What effects of these new land protections will there be on carbon emissions and the climate and on land usage for food production and energy generation?  Policymakers have to grapple with such questions in order to move forward on these ambitious biodiversity protection goals.

A recent study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory attempts to answer many of these questions.  The study found that meeting the 30% goal could lead to substantial regional shifts in land use and, in some cases, still fail to protect some of the most important biodiversity hotspots.

Protecting land entails tradeoffs with other land uses and can have negative impacts on the agricultural sector as well as land use for bioenergy crops and forest land use for timber.

In particular, the study found that the amount of land used for crops for conversion into biofuels could be significantly impacted by doubling current protected areas while still preserving the amount of land used for food crops.  This is particularly true for land in Russia and Canada.

The study also found that while it may be possible to meet the 30% target by only protecting agriculturally unsuitable land, it may not end up protecting many of the world’s 36 identified biodiversity hotspots.  The uneven distribution of species has a significant bearing on how to manage the conservation of biodiversity.

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Doubling Protected Lands for Biodiversity Could Require Tradeoffs With Other Land Uses, Study Finds

Photo, posted September 19, 2020, courtesy of John Brighenti via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Vaccine For Bees | Earth Wise

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The US has seen annual reductions in honey bee colonies since 2006.  According to the USDA, there are many factors that have contributed to the decline.  These include parasites, pests, insecticides, disease, and a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder in which worker bees abandon a hive and leave behind the queen.

One of major threats to bee colonies is American foulbrood disease, which is a bacterial condition that attacks bee larvae.  It is highly contagious and has no cure.  Until now, the only treatment method required burning the colony of infected bees along with the hives and equipment and treating nearby bee colonies with antibiotics.

Recently, the USDA has approved a conditional license for the world’s first vaccine for honey bees.  The vaccine contains inactive bacteria of the type that causes American foulbrood disease.

The vaccine is incorporated into the royal jelly fed by worker bees to the queen bee.  The queen ingests the feed and keeps some of vaccine in her ovaries.  This gives bee larvae immunity to the disease as they hatch and thereby reduces death from the illness.

According to the California State Beekeepers Association, the new vaccine could be a major breakthrough for protecting bees.  Preventing the infection in hives could avoid costly, destructive measures and allow the beekeepers to focus on other important elements of keeping bees healthy.

Bees as pollinators play a critical role in many ecosystems.  For humankind, pollinators such as bees, birds, and bats are responsible for about a third of the world’s crop production.

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US approves world’s first vaccine for declining honey bees

Photo, posted June 6, 2022, courtesy of Bernd Thaller via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agriculture Turning Wild Plants Into Weeds | Earth Wise

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We often hear about the importance of native plants in the environment and how invasive species can wreak havoc with ecosystems.   But it turns out that human activities can change the characteristics of native species and create unexpected new problems.

Common waterhemp is plant native to North America that typically grows near lakes and streams.  It never used to be any kind of problem, but in recent times it has become nearly impossible to eradicate from farms as a result of genetic adaptations triggered by modern agriculture.

A study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia looked at waterhemp samples from modern farms and neighboring wetlands and compared them with historical samples dating back as far as 1820 stored in various museums.

In recent times, mutations in genes related to drought tolerance, rapid growth, and resistance to herbicides have resulted in waterhemp that has become a pervasive weed on farms.  These genetic shifts, scarcely ever seen in historical samples, have made the plant thrive among human agricultural activities and enable it to outcompete crops.

Genetic analysis of the plants showed that herbicide-resistant mutations that were mostly absent from historical samples stand out as factors that allow waterhemp to prosper in agricultural settings. There are some plants in natural habitats that have herbicide-resistant mutations, but in many cases, these mutations are actually harmful to the plants in the wild.

Understanding how plant adaptations occur on relatively short timescales is increasingly important as farming and climate  change continue to drive rapid plant evolution.

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How intensive agriculture turned a wild plant into a pervasive weed

Photo, posted February 16, 2016, courtesy of Aqua Mechanical via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Energy From Rice Straw | Earth Wise

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Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of rice production.  Globally, as much as a billion tons of rice straw is produced each year, three-quarters of it in Asia.  Straw incorporation in soil for fertilization is not practical in most places because with multiple crops per year, there is not enough time for the material to decompose and become good fertilizer.  As a result, open-field straw burning is increasingly the standard practice.

Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham in the UK are embarking on a project to convert rice straw in Indonesia into low-cost energy on a commercial scale.

Indonesia produces 100 million tons of rice waste each year, of which 60% is burned in open fields, causing air pollution. 

The Aston researchers are developing a biomass conversion process based on pyrolysis.  This involves heating the rice straw to high temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit to break it down, producing vapor and solid products.  Both of these things can be used to generate electricity.

A new combustion engine designed by a company called Carnot Limited is capable of converting 70% of the thermal energy extracted from the rice straw into electricity.

Energy extracted in this way could help low and middle-income countries to create their own locally generated energy, thereby reducing emissions, creating jobs, and improving human health.   The biomass electricity is predicted to be cheaper than solar, geothermal, wind, coal, or even subsidized gas-generated power.

The Aston University project will help develop a business model that could support companies and communities to produce local, cheap energy in Indonesia and other countries with biomass capacity. 

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Aston University to help power Indonesia with affordable energy made from rice straw

Photo, posted September 11, 2006, courtesy of Kristen McQuillin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Growing Threat To Wheat | Earth Wise

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Wheat is one of the most widely-grown crops in the world and plays a major role in human nutrition.  In fact, wheat contributes approximately 20% of the protein and 20% of the calories consumed by humans globally.  It is grown on every continent except Antarctica.  

But wheat is under growing attacks from harmful toxins.  According to a new study by researchers from the University of Bath and the University of Exeter in the U.K., almost half of wheat crops across Europe are impacted by the fungal infection that gives rise to mycotoxins.

Mycotoxins are naturally occurring toxins produced by the fungus that causes Fusarium Head Blight.  Fusarium Head Blight is a disease that affects wheat and other grains growing in the field. Eating products contaminated with mycotoxins can cause sickness in humans and livestock, including vomiting and other gastrointestinal problems.

In the study, the research team examined 10 years of government and agribusiness data, which tracked Fusarium mycotoxins in wheat entering the food and animal supply chains across Europe and the U.K.  Half of the wheat intended for human food in Europe contained the Fusarium mycotoxin.  In the UK, 70% of wheat was contaminated.

Governments set legal limits on mycotoxin contamination levels in wheat that is to be consumed by humans. But with the ubiquitous nature of these mycotoxins, the effect of constant, low-level exposure in the diet over the course of a lifetime is not known. 

With climate change and the war in Ukraine already impacting both wheat yield and price, preventing toxin contamination is critical to help maintain a stable crop price and to protect global good security. 

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Harmful fungal toxins in wheat: a growing threat across Europe

Photo, posted July 11, 2011, courtesy of Maria Keays via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Examining The Decline Of Honey Bees | Earth Wise

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For many years, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the global struggle of pollinators.  Many of the invertebrate pollinator species, such as bees and butterflies, are facing extinction. And since 75% of the world’s food crops depend on pollination to some extent, the decline of pollinators poses a major threat to global food security.

Honey bees are among the struggling pollinators.  Over the past 14 years, bee colonies have been disappearing at an alarming rate in what is known as the “colony collapse disorder.” 

In an effort to understand why, scientists have often focused their research on environmental stressors, such as parasites, pesticides, and disease.  But according to new research by entomologists from the University of Maryland, honey bee life spans are simply 50% shorter today than they were 50 years ago.  In the study, which was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers found that honey bees kept in a controlled, laboratory environment lived half as long as honey bees did in the 1970s.  This is the first study to show that genetics – as opposed to environmental stressors – may be influencing the broader trends seen in the beekeeping industry.

When the researchers modeled the effect of their findings on a beekeeping operation, they found that the resulting loss rates were about 33%.  This is similar to the average overwinter and annual loss rates reported by beekeepers during the past 14 years.

The next step is for researchers to compare trends in honey bee life spans across the U.S. and in other countries to see if there are differences in bee longevity. 

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Honey Bee Lifespans are 50% Shorter Today Than They Were 50 Years Ago

Helping Agriculture’s Helpful Honey Bees

Photo, posted June 23, 2007, courtesy of Susan E. Ellis via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Perennial Rice | Earth Wise

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People have been cultivating rice for more than 9,000 years.  Cultivated rice is an annual crop which is often extended to two crops a year by a process called ratooning, which is cutting back annual rice to obtain a second, weaker harvest.

An extensive project involving multiple institutions in China, the U.S., and Australia has been developing perennial rice.  The researchers developed it through hybridization, crossing a type of Asian domesticated annual rice with a wild perennial rice from Africa.  Using modern genetic tools to identify candidate plants, the team identified a promising hybrid in 2007, planted large-scale field experiments in 2016, and released the first commercial perennial rice variety, called PR23, in 2018.

The researchers spent five years studying the performance of the perennial rice alongside annual rice on farms in China’s Yunnan Province.  For the most part, the yield of the perennial rice was equivalent to that of annual rice over a period of four years. 

Because farmers don’t have to plant rice each season, growing perennial rice requires almost 60% less labor and saves nearly half the costs of seed, fertilizer, and other inputs.

Perennial rice is already changing the lives of more than 55,000 smallholder farmers in southern China and Uganda.  The economic benefits vary by location, but overall profit increases ranged from 17% to 161% over annual rice.

There are already three perennial rice varieties available to farmers, but researchers aren’t done refining the crop.  They plan to use their methodology to enhance traits such as aroma, disease resistance, and drought tolerance to newer versions.

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Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice

Photo, posted February 25, 2002, courtesy of Matthieu Lelievre via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel From Coffee Grounds | Earth Wise

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The world drinks a lot of coffee.  Americans alone consume 400 million cups a day.  Each cup of coffee results in about half an ounce of coffee grounds.  Adding that up, this country produces over 6,000 tons of coffee grounds each day.  While coffee grounds are not particularly harmful, that is an awful lot of waste that mostly ends up in landfills or is incinerated.

Researchers at Aston University in the UK have developed a method of producing high-quality biodiesel fuel from coffee grounds.  Their study was published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

The technique consists of growing a particular species of microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) directly on spent coffee grounds.  The coffee grounds provide both the nutrients for the microalgae and a structure upon which it can grow.   Exposing the algae to light for 20 hours a day and dark for just four hours a day produced the best quality biodiesel.

Microalgae is well-known as a feedstock for biodiesel production.  Previously, it has been grown on materials like polyurethane foam or nylon which don’t provide any nutrients.   Using the coffee grounds as the substrate for growth means that no external nutrients are needed.

The resultant enhanced biodiesel produces minimal emissions and good engine performance and meets both US and European specifications.  This feedstock for producing biodiesel is ideal since it doesn’t require any competition with food crops and instead makes use of a widely available waste product.  The hope is that it may reduce the cutting down of palm trees to extract oil for biofuel.  In southeast Asia, this has been a major source of deforestation and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

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Aston University researchers ‘feed’ leftover coffee grounds to microalgae to produce low emission biodiesel

Photo, posted October 13, 2007, courtesy of David Joyce via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

El Paso’s Water Future | Earth Wise

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El Paso, Texas is part of the Paso del Norte region, which includes Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and Las Cruces, New Mexico.  The population on both sides of the border is booming, approaching 3 million people.  The region’s primary water source is the Rio Grande River.  But that river is declining.

Rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall have led to diminishing flow in the river.  Eighty percent of the river’s flow has historically been diverted to agriculture, but the reduced flow of the Rio Grande has forced many farmers to reduce planting or change to less water-hungry crops.  The river is expected to continue to decrease its flow as time goes by.

The city of El Paso gets 40% of its water supply directly from the Rio Grande.  Urban water authorities in the region are scrambling to find ways to provide cities with alternative supplies of water.

El Paso now gets some of its water from a desalination plant, which is the world’s largest inland municipal desalination plant.  The water comes from brackish groundwater rather than from the sea.  The briny waste from the plant is piped to an injection well many miles way and is permanently stored 4,000 feet underground.

El Paso continues to seek new water sources and reduce its water use.  It gets much of its water from wells drilled in nearby aquifers.  It is working to make this use of groundwater more sustainable.  The city recycles used residential water through its so-called purple pipe system, which cleans up waste water and delivers it for non-potable use on golf courses and park lawns. 

Like many places in the increasingly dry west, El Paso’s water future is uncertain. 

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As Rio Grande Shrinks, El Paso Plans for Uncertain Water Future

Photo, posted April 29, 2018, courtesy of R. Baire via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agrivoltaics | Earth Wise

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According to a study last year at Oregon State University, co-developing land for both solar photovoltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget.  Widespread installation of agrivoltaic systems could reduce carbon emissions by 330,000 tons annually and create more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities.

Agrivoltaics could provide the synergistic combination of more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and improved local prosperity.  The problem with agrivoltaics to date is that the existing implementations have used solar arrays designed strictly for electricity generation rather than to be used in combination with agriculture.  They are not that well suited to co-exist with growing crops or grazing animals.

A new project is underway at Oregon State that will help researchers to optimize agrivoltaic systems.  The five-acre Solar Harvest Project is being built at the university’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon in partnership with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative. 

The solar array for the project is designed specifically for agrivoltaics research and uses panels that are more spread out and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to pass through.  The project will allow researchers to study the impact of solar panels on soil health, water use, and plant physiology and yields.

Electricity generated from the 326-kW solar system will be available for purchase by Oregon State and community members. 

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Construction starts on Oregon State agrivoltaics farm that will merge agriculture and solar energy

Photo, posted April 5, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Onshore Algae Farms | Earth Wise

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According to some estimates, food production will need to increase by 50% by 2050 in order to feed a projected global population of 10 billion people.  How can this be achieved?  

One solution, according to researchers at Cornell University, could be to grow nutritious and protein-dense microalgae in seawater-fed onshore aquaculture systems.

According to the research, which was recently published in the journal Oceanography, growing algae onshore could close a projected gap in society’s future nutritional demands while also improving environmental sustainability.  

Climate change, environmental degradation, limited arable land, and lack of freshwater will all constrain the amount of food that can be grown in the coming decades.  Wild fish stocks are already heavily exploited, and there are limits to how much finfish, shellfish, and seaweed aquaculture can be produced in the coastal ocean. 

As a result, the researchers argue for expanding algae production in onshore aquaculture facilities.  The research team’s models found that the best locations for onshore algae farming facilities are along the coasts of the Global South, including desert environments. 

Algae can grow as much as ten times faster than traditional crops.  Algae can also be produced in a manner that is more efficient than agriculture in its use of nutrients.  In addition to its high protein content, algae also provides nutrients lacking in vegetarian diets, such as essential amino acids, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Algae could become the breadbasket of the Global South.

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Onshore algae farms could feed the world sustainably

Photo, posted June 17, 2011, courtesy of NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Bad Year For California Rice | Earth Wise

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Rice production is the third largest cereal crop in the United States after corn and wheat.  Four regions in the country produce almost the entire U.S. rice crop:  the Arkansas Grand Prairie, the Mississippi Delta, the Gulf Coast, and the Sacramento Valley in California.  Arkansas is the largest producer of rice in the country by far, but California ranks second.

A combination of drought and water shortages in the Sacramento Valley has taken a major toll on the California rice crop.  This year, rice growers have only planted half as much grain as usual.  The changes in rice plantings in California are so substantial that they are easily visible from space.

In Colusa and Glenn counties, rice acreage this year dropped by 84 and 75 percent respectively, compared to 2021.  Farther to the east, in Butte Country, rice acreage was down by 17%.  The change was smaller there because farmers in that county had more groundwater to tap into.

According to the USDA, the California rice crop will be reduced by 38% this year, making it the smallest rice crop in the state since 1977.  California mostly grows short- and medium-grained rice, which is used in dishes like sushi, paella, and risotto.  Arkansas and other states produce most of the long-grain rice such as basmati and jasmine rice.

In late September, there was a burst of rain, which offered some short-term relief for farmers.  However, it will take much more wet weather to ease the ongoing drought conditions.  As of the end of September, over 40% of California remained in extreme drought and 17% was in exceptional drought.

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A Rough Year for Rice in California

Photo, posted March 21, 2020, courtesy of Ajay Suresh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Food For The Future | Earth Wise

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Researchers predict that climate change will negatively impact most staple food crops, including rice, corn, and soybeans.  Therefore, climate resilient food crops – those that are salt, drought, and heat resilient – will have an important role to play in global food security.  Examples of climate resilient crops include quinoa, kernza, amaranth, millet, and tepary beans.    

According to a new study by researchers from Northwestern University, breadfruit – a starchy tree fruit native to the Pacific Islands – will be relatively unaffected by climate change.  Because breadfruit is climate resilient and well-suited to grow in regions with high levels of food insecurity, the research team suggests breadfruit could be a part of the solution to global hunger.

While it has ”fruit” in its name, breadfruit is more like a potato.  It’s starchy and seedless, and is closely related to jackfruit.  Breadfruit is nutrient-rich, and high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals.  It can be steamed, roasted, fried, fermented, and even turned into flour.  People in tropical regions around the world have been eating breadfruit for thousands of years. 

In the study, which was recently published in the journal PLOS Climate, researchers determined the climate conditions necessary to cultivate breadfruit and then looked at how these conditions are predicted to change in the future.  They examined two future climate scenarios: one that reflects high greenhouse-gas emissions and another in which emissions stabilize.

In both scenarios, the regions suitable for breadfruit cultivation were mostly unaffected.  Additionally, the researchers identified new suitable land where breadfruit cultivation could expand.   

As the climate continues to change, breadfruit might soon be on a table near you.

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Climate-resilient breadfruit might be the food of the future

Photo, posted August 11, 2007, courtesy of Malcolm Manners via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Tepary Beans | Earth Wise

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Tepary beans are an ancient crop native to the northern part of Mexico and the southwestern part of the U.S..  They have been grown in those places by native peoples since pre-Columbian times.  They are still grown in Native American reservations in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert.  One can purchase them from some small farms in that region. 

What sets tepary beans apart from other beans is that they are among the most drought- and heat-tolerant legume crops in the world.  They can be grown without irrigation under conditions that are not viable for other crops.  They can be consumed by people like many other kinds of beans, and they can also provide forage for livestock with better nutrition content than many other plants.  They seem to be a very attractive option for a crop in the changing climate.  What is lacking, at present, is large supplies of tepary seeds to be planted.

Researchers at Texas A&M have been funded to bring tepary beans into modern cropping systems and diets.  The goal is to develop tepary bean cultivars with high biomass and yield that are still well-suited to drought and heat conditions.  Getting the beans to the point of widespread commercialization will take several years.  The end result should be of interest to pulse growers, seed industries, and food companies across the U.S.

Tepary beans are higher in fiber and protein than most other beans.  They come in several different colors, each of which has unique flavor and texture characteristics.  The white ones have a naturally sweet flavor.   The brown beans are slightly nutty in flavor and are similar to pinto beans.  If the Texas program is successful, we may all be eating tepary beans some day.

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Web Links

Tepary Beans Offer Producers A Low-Input, Climate-Resilient Legume Alternative

Photo, posted August 25, 2017, courtesy of Katja Schulz via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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