Cornell Climate Stewards

CICCA’s Climate Smart Farming (CSF) team will be presenting at PASA’s (Pennsylvania Action for Sustainable Agriculture) 25^th Annual Farming for the Future Conference at the end of this week.

The 2016 conference runs from February 3^rd to 6^th and will be held at the Penn Stater Conference Center in State College, PA. This is the largest sustainable agriculture conference in the East, and convenes over 2,000 farmers, processors, consumers, students, environmentalists, and business and community leaders every year. The theme of “Farming in a Changing Climate” this year reflects the ever-increasing impact of climate change on agricultural systems, and the need to raise awareness of best management practices for mitigation and adaptation.

The CSF team is excited to be involved with the conference, and talks to be given by team members and affiliates are listed below:

• Art DeGeatano (Director, Cornell’s Northeast Regional Climate Center) will be giving a workshop with Dan Dostie (USDA-NRCS Climate Hub) from 8:30 AM to 9:50 AM on Friday, February 5^th entitled: “Northeast Climate Change Impact Projections & Planning Considerations for Selecting Adaptation Practices”
• Allison Chatrchyan and Mike Hoffman (CSF Program Founders, and Director and Executive Director of the Cornell Institute for Climate Change) will be giving a workshop from 4:10 PM to 5:30 PM on Friday, February 5^th entitled: “Impacts, Opportunities & Adaptations: Climate-Smart Farming in the Northeast”

Please consider joining us at these events in State College, and contact us for more information if needed!

By David Wolfe

This article originally appeared in The Hill [2015-11-02].

Now that the majority of people in both political parties accept that climate change is occurring, Washington’s top task is to catch up with the rest of the country — particularly business and farming communities — and engage in a real debate about practical solutions.

In a recent op-ed in the Miami Herald, Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R) said lawmakers need to do a better job of focusing on ways to cut carbon emissions, invest in clean energy and combat climate change. While some politicians are just beginning to speak out, community and business leaders of all political persuasions have had little choice but to tackle the very real costs of more frequent and intense weather extremes. It is clear that economic development, capital investments and resource planning today must take into account the best information we have on changing weather patterns and the risks they pose. We may have not reached the point where everyone is comfortable with the phrase “climate change,” but there are many examples showing that the American can-do spirit has come alive as people roll up their sleeves to confront this challenge.

Nowhere is this more evident than with today’s farmers — a group I have worked with closely for three decades as a faculty researcher at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Farmers are on the front lines of climate change, and while they may not all call it by that name or agree about the causes, the vast majority recognize they are the first generation of farmers, ever, who cannot rely on historical weather patterns to tell them when to plant, what to plant or how to grow it.

Many farmers have told me that if the changes were as straightforward as a few more days of heat stress or drought each year, they could plan around that. But the changes are all over the map. One year, farmers may face record-breaking spring rain that delays planting. The next year could bring a record-breaking drought near harvest. Another year, their fruit crops bloom weeks early and get blasted by a spring frost. As a result of this unpredictability, many are hedging their bets, staggering planting dates, planting a wider range of crops and considering investments such as irrigation or drainage systems.

In most cases, adapting to climate change isn’t rocket science. If it is getting drier, expand your irrigation capacity. If you are reaping the rewards of a longer growing season, invest in equipment and skills to produce and market new crops. But these adaptations are not cost- or risk-free. It is hard to know if a changing weather pattern is in fact part of a long-term climate shift or just an unusual blip of weather variability. Lack of response has repercussions for global food security, and will be an important issue in upcoming United Nations climate negotiations in Paris, as pointed out last month by Secretary of State John Kerry at the Milan Expo (which has the theme “Feeding the World, Energy for Life”). Washington can help with policies and programs that provide timely information, investment incentives and access to capital for adaptations that buffer farmers from climate change or help them take advantage of opportunities.

I’ve focused on farmers, but other businesses and communities face similar challenges. If the time has come for a town to replace its storm drainage system, that system should be designed based on the latest flood-risk projections for the region. Land-use planning near coastal zones should take into account sea level rise and the impact of coastal storms. Local and national economic development will require an infrastructure of support for dealing with these decisions. Luckily, we are not starting from scratch. Despite political rhetoric through recent Republican and Democratic administrations, federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been developing critical resources on climate risks and opportunities for strategic adaptation.

Equally important is the issue of slowing the pace of change. Many economists have argued that the transition to an energy future free of greenhouse gas emissions will not only reduce the costs of weather-related disasters, but will be a boon to those nations that are at the forefront of new technologies that will take the world there. On Oct. 19, the White House announced that 68 new companies have joined the original 13 signatories of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge. These companies, which include Wal-Mart, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, pledge support for a strong international deal on climate change and commit to taking climate action.

We simply can’t afford another do-nothing Congress on climate change. Business and local community leaders are pulling the plug on the “is it real?” debate and turning our attention to what we will do about it — how we can build climate change resilience and develop smart energy solutions that become the economic engine of the future.

David Wolfe is professor of Plant and Soil Ecology in the Horticulture Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University and chair of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future Climate Change Consortium. 

In December, 2014, CICCA Executive Director, Mike Hoffmann gave a talk about climate change and future risks. This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Stymied about what to do about climate change? Mike Hoffmann of Cornell University, encourages us to become aware, accept the reality, and then act by raising our voices to address this grand challenge facing our generation…and those that follow.

Watch the full TEDx Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIeU001iYTo

Mike Hoffman holds a leadership position in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. His role focuses on sustainability, in particular responding to the threat of climate change. Mike also leads a Northeastern U.S. and Eastern Canada climate change initiative, and established an Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture that helps food growers adapt to changing conditions. His passionate messages about climate change include its impacts on the world around us and its meaning to future generations. He hopes his involvement in TEDxChemungRiver will help spread the word about climate change and how to address this challenge now facing humanity. Mike grew up on a small (one cow) dairy farm in Wisconsin where one of his best friends was a crow.

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Agriculture is one of the major causes of climate change. Soil erosion, methane from livestock, and exhaust from tractors are major sources of greenhouse gases.

Last week, Governor Cuomo announced a $1.4 million grant program to help farmers in New York reduce their greenhouse emissions. Farmers can apply for projects to help them better manage water, soil, and waste.

Allison Chatrchyan, director of the Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture at Cornell University, said programs like these are critical to help farmers conerve more energy through by installing solar panels or anaerobic digesters. She said, “It’s really important for farmers to play a role, as everyone should be, to reduce their carbon footprint.”

Farmers in New York are also already reacting to the effects of climate change. According to Chatrchyan, the number of heavy precipitation events is up almost 75 percent in the Northeast and most farmers are conscious of the changes, but need help adapting. “They realize that there’s more extreme rainfall and they realize that there can be more heat stress days and high temperatures, but they need to know what to do about it,” Chatrchyan said. The institute has set up a website to help farmers adapt.

Allison Chatrchyan: If a farmer has just planted their seed—I talked to a farmer in Central New York who actually had just planted seed—it was very difficult for them to get into the field because it was so wet all spring. When they finally got into the field and planted seed, they got a very, very heavy rainfall; I think it was four to five inches in 24 hours, and all their seed washed off. They lost probably more than $50,000. So there are huge economic impacts.

David Sommerstein: And it’s sometimes harder to get in the fields to plough sometimes early in the spring. I’ve talked with dairy farmers whose fields have just been far wet for far too long before they can even get those fields plowed.

AC:  Right.

DS: Now what are you doing in talking with these farmers to help them start to adapt to some of these changes.

AC: What we’ve heard from farmers is that they need more specific information about what they can do to adapt. They realize there is more extreme rainfall and they realize there can be more heat stress days, and high temperatures, but they need to know what to do about it.

So, we are working with Cornell researchers to take the data that we have from applied research and develop models, and then develop these online decision support tools. So for example, we are now in the process of developing a growing degree-day tool that will show three things. It will show: where you are in the current growing degree-day, season this year, how does that compare to the last few seasons or the weather over the last 100 years, and then give you the projections for climate change. In the next 20, 30, 50 years, how is that going to change? So a farmer can make some decisions right now about this season, and also compare to how it’s changing over the last couple seasons. And then start thinking about long-term decisions. That’s just one of the tools. We are also developing a frost risk tool that will be really important for fruit growers.

DS: Let me ask you a question about the other side of this issue. Agriculture is one of the large sources of carbon emissions and therefore a cause of climate change. What kinds of things are farmers doing, or are you helping farmers to do to mitigate that?

AC: That’s a really great point. Our cooperative extension offices can provide information to farmers about grants that are available or conducting energy audit, thinking about energy conservation on their farm, or applying for grants to put in solar panels or anaerobic digesters on their farm. So, it is really important for farmers to play a role, as everyone should be, to reduce their carbon footprint

DS:  We you talk with farmers about these changes, do they recognize it as climate change, or are there some who push back against that idea?

AC:  We found that 82 percent of New York State residents believe the climate is changing. There hasn’t been a similar survey yet of farmers, but we’re hoping to conduct it in New York. In general, nationally, we’ve also found that a vast majority of farmers believe that climate is changing. And so maybe the misconception is that farmers are skeptical about climate change. Many of them may be still, maybe, but they do know that the weather is getting more extreme and we know that is caused by climate change, and many are already doing things to adapt.

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By David Sommerstein

The Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture was a proud sponsor of the 2nd International Conference on Global Food Security, which took place from October 11th-14th at Cornell University.

The conference addressed the food system activities of processing, distributing and consuming food, as well as food production from crop, livestock, tree, freshwater and marine sources; the availability, access, utilization and stability dimensions of food security; and the synergies and trade-offs between economic, environmental, health and social objectives and outcomes. The conference ranged across disciplines and spatiotemporal scales of analysis to span the drivers, activities and outcomes of food systems to encompass both contextualized and holistic treatments of the broad challenge of food security. The conference delivered state-of-the-art analysis, inspiring visions and innovative methods arising from research in a wide range of disciplines.

To learn more visit their website at: http://www.globalfoodsecurityconference.com/index.html

Cornell University will be hosting the Dairy Environmental Systems and Climate Adaptation Conference from July 29-31, 2015. This two-day regional conference will feature a unique opportunity to learn about regional climate trends and national and international drivers, along with emerging dairy housing and manure management systems and, adaptation strategies for agriculture in the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Nestlé’s Corporate Head of Agriculture in Switzerland, Hans Jöhr, will be delivering the Keynote Address for the conference. Jöhr is responsible for providing technical and strategic leadership for Nestlé’s world-wide agricultural raw material supply chain. Active in all facets of agri-business, and having grown up on a family farm, Mr. Jöhr has extensive experience based on several long-term international assignments and additionally has consulted in over 40 countries.

Jöhr will discuss the role of climate change with respect to global agricultural policy decision making, and will highlight the importance of planning for and adapting to perceived changes in climate and their impact on production agriculture. This event will take place on Wednesday, July 29^th from 7:00-8:00 pm in the Statler Auditorium at Cornell University, and is open to the public. There will an ice cream social to follow.

The conference is being co-hosted and co-organized by Cornell’s PRO-DAIRY Program: Dairy Environmental Systems Group; the Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture; the Animal Agriculture and Climate Change Project, Sustainable Dairy Cap Project (USDA-NIFA); and the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA). For conference details or to register, visit: http://prodairy.cals.cornell.edu/dairy-climate-conference.