Climate Change

If climate change may benefit PNW agriculture, are farmers off the hook for reducing greenhouse gas emissions?

When discussing climate change, the scientific and policy communities generally differentiate between mitigation (reducing) of carbon/greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation to climate change. While there is certainly a causal linkage between these topics, this differentiation makes general sense in that taking action along either of these courses can take place independent of action along the […]

Climate change and ag initiatives: Can we achieve more than the sum of the parts?

Integrating Pacific Northwest Research, Extension and Teaching Initiatives on Climate Change and Agriculture: Achieving More than the Sum of the Parts? Over the past decade, more than 50 million dollars in competitive grant funding for climate change research has been invested in Pacific Northwest agricultural science institutions making the Pacific Northwest a global leader in […]

Can soil carbon storage really make a difference to our climate? Do we have the right data to answer?

Three studies on the relationship between agriculture and global carbon dynamics were released in the past couple of weeks that are relevant to Pacific Northwest agricultural systems. Two are studies published in a special issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation from CSANR’s Climate Friendly Farming Project (Brown and Huggins; Stöckle et al.) […]

Frequently Asked Questions about climate change and agriculture: Part 4

Are cows really worse for the climate than cars? The impetus for this question can usually be traced back to a 2006 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”. Actually, the controversy usually traces back to the FAO’s news release for the study entitled “livestock a major threat to environment” […]

Frequently Asked Questions about climate change and agriculture: Part 3

To get you up to speed, here are the first two questions: 1.The EPA says agriculture only accounts for 6% of US greenhouse gas emissions (2009). Shouldn’t we focus our efforts on bigger problems such as coal fired power plants and automobile emissions instead? 2. Do “food miles” – the distance that food travels from […]