Chipotle Airs Sustainability Ad

Last night during the Grammy Awards, Chipotle aired their animated "Cultivate a Better World" advertisement, a music video argument for sustainability. Set to a soundtrack featuring Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's "The Scientist," the advertisement depicts a farmer wrestling with the practice of factory farming. By the end of the video, the farmer breaks down his confinements, frees the animals, and loads his product directly onto a Chipotle truck. Chipotle says that the ad was commissioned to "emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system."

The video has been available on YouTube for several months, but last night the advertisement reached a wider audience and since then has been tweeted over 10,000 times.

Soil Health Webinars

Need something to do while snowed in this week? The nonprofit educational group No-Till on the Plains has posted several free, online webinars about soil health. They cover a range of topics and come in bite-sized lengths. Click through to watch

Rolf Derpsch explain "The Importance of Quality Continuous No-tillage"

Dr. Kristine Nichols discuss "Microbes Description and General Activites: The Living Soils"

Dr. Nichols lecture on "Management: Managing Soil Biology for Profitability"

Dr. Nichols show how in "Demonstrations: Measuring Soil Health Toolkit"

New online tool: Farmer's Legal and Regulatory Guide

Corn and Soybean Digest
The Iowa Soybean Association's Environmental Programs and Services team announced a new, free online tool for farmers wanting to know what rules and regulations impact their operation. Organized in a question and answer format, the "Iowa Farmer's Legal and Regulatory Guide to Environmental Issues" is intended to help farmers navigate issues to figure out what are their rights and responsibilities and where to find more information. Topics include: air quality, animal production, fertilizers, fuel storage, leasing, manure management, pesticide use, soil conservation programs, water quality and more. More

More from this week's Conservation NewsBriefs at http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/swcs/

Message to Congress: Healthy lands, waters support a healthy economy
The Huffington Post    Share   
Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy, writes that despite the billions of dollars generated from agriculture (among other lucrative industries), there's a serious misconception in the way people think and talk about government funding for conservation. Tercek says that conservation investments sustain the valuable benefits that nature provides to people — safe and plentiful water supplies, coastal buffers from storms, reduction in pollution and support of agriculture and forestry. More

Ohio farmers battle sedimentation, nutrient runoff in creative ways
Farm and Dairy    Share   
Agricultural runoff and sedimentation into nearby water systems is nothing new in Fremont, Ohio. New data shows that the impact — large concentrations of harmful algal blooms just a few miles north in Lake Erie, where most of the water drains — is growing. A new device created by a farming family — a concrete trough or chute that's called an "instream sediment collector" — may help solve the problem. More

Agriculture must increase pace of food production
Western Farm Press    Share   
The world's farmers are increasing food production, but not at the pace needed to meet the needs of 9 billion to 10 billion people in 2050. That was the message the Global Harvest Initiative delivered at this year's World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa. GHI's Bill Lesher and Laura Barringer discussed the organization's findings during interviews at a media briefing. More

Agriculture foes use 'perfect storm' to target farm programs
Delta Farm Press    Share   
With farm commodity prices having hit record highs in recent years, and with the federal government facing record deficits, "in this fiscal environment, we have something of a perfect storm for opponents of production agriculture to target all of our programs for cuts," says Carlisle Clarke, agriculture liaison for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. The Obama administration, Clarke says, issued a proposal that would lop $33 billion from agriculture spending, coming from commodity, conservation and crop insurance titles. More

Paying farmers to protect habitat could save environment, cash
Canada.com    Share   
A research consortium is field-testing a revolutionary plan that would pay farmers and ranchers in British Columbia, Canada, to produce cleaner air, water and wildlife habitat alongside their food crops. The enhancements range from increasing the buffer zone between crops and waterways, livestock fencing around environmentally sensitive areas, replanting native plant species to encourage native wildlife and reforesting to capture carbon or shade salmon spawning streams. More


Federal program would offer annual payments for North Dakota wetlands protection
Grand Forks Herald    Share   
Farmers in the flooded Devils Lake Basin could benefit from a federal agricultural program designed to voluntarily protect wetlands and flooded agricultural lands. An appropriations bill recently released by a joint U.S. House-Senate conference committee includes $7.5 million for the program, according to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., a member of the Appropriations Committee. The program allows producers and landowners to enter into 10-year agreements to voluntarily protect wetlands and flooded farmland in return for annual payments. More

From tragedy to action: USAID's environmental trajectory
USAID Frontlines    Share   
On the border between Ecuador and Colombia, communities of Cofan Indians are using improved cocoa-production techniques to reduce pressure to convert neighboring forests to agricultural lands. Three indigenous groups in this highly biologically diverse region participate in a program with the Government of Ecuador under which they receive annual payments for upholding conservation agreements. These conservation efforts are just one example of USAID's innovative environmental work around the globe. More

Increased agriculture regulations still to come from EPA
Southwest Farm Press    Share   
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doesn't necessarily have farm interests lined up in its crosshairs, but it's not exactly ignoring agriculture as a target of opportunity either. "We've had it pretty good in agriculture for a long time," said Shannon Ferrell, assistant professor at Oklahoma State University, during the recent Rural Economics Outlook Conference. "EPA went after the low-hanging fruit first, the big polluters," Ferrell said. "Now, they're going after the rest." More

Iowa farmers complete 61,000-ton biomass harvest for cellulosic ethanol
Hoosier Ag Today    Share   
As part of the 2011 harvest, farmers around Emmetsburg, Iowa, have baled approximately 61,000 bone-dry tons of corn crop residue. The bales of corn cobs and light stover will be delivered to a biomass storage site in Emmetsburg, where POET's commercial cellulosic ethanol biorefinery will be completed in 2013. More

Minimal tillage makes a difference in dry areas
Voice of America    Share   
Since the dawn of agriculture, tilling the soil has been fundamental to farming. But today, experts say this age-old practice may do more harm than good in some places. That's why they've been telling farmers to throw away the plow. More




Conservation NewsBriefs is a weekly compilation of news stories of interest to SWCS members and stakeholders. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official policy of the Soil and Water Conservation Society unless so stated. The products mentioned herein are not endorsed by the Soil and Water Conservation Society unless so stated.

Conservation NewsBriefs: 11/10/11

Research shows health of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay is improving
United Press International 
The water quality of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay is improving through efforts to reduce the flow of fertilizers, animal waste and other pollutants, U.S. researchers said. An analysis of bay water quality records from the past 60 years show the size of mid- to late-summer oxygen-starved dead zones has been declining since the 1980s, when a concerted effort to cut nutrient pollution was initiated through the federal Chesapeake Bay Program.More

Crop sensors outperform farmers at choosing nitrogen rates
Agronomy Journal via Crop Science Society of America

Researchers make variable-rate irrigation simpler to use
University of Georgia via Southeast Farm Press

Amending soils with gypsum
Crops & Soils magazine

Company wants to tap Mojave aquifer; conservationists worry about impact
The Associated Press via MSNBC

Expert: Kenya's agricultural sector at risk as biodiversity loss accelerates
Africa Science News

Genome of 'orphan crop' cracked; pigeonpea set for sustainable food production
ScienceDaily

Conservation NewsBriefs for 11/3/2011

Farm bill talks drag amid regional differences
The Argus Leader
Lawmakers missed a self-imposed deadline for having a new farm bill as they worked to resolve regional differences among farmers in how their crops would be subsidized. Leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees and their aides have been rushing to write a bill that would reduce farm spending but still guarantee that grain and cotton growers can count on government payments to supplement their income.More

California farmers face future of grueling water regulations
Western Farm Press

Agroforestry: A growing science seeks to boost its practice
CSA News

Conservation practices survey coming to New York in November
National Agricultural Statistics Service via The Post Standard

Vertical farming: How a former meat-packing facility became a successful farm
Climate Progress

Expert: Climate change making country's water problems worse
Reuters

Rancher concerned about effects of fracking on water supply
Calgary Herald

Recycled sewage water aids biofuel crops
Laboratory Equipment

Catastrophic drought in Texas causes global economic ripples
The New York Times

SWCS Conservation NewsBriefs

Sept. 22, 2011

More trouble lies ahead for Mississippi River watershed
Twin Cities Daily Planet
A three-hour drive separates the rolling hills of Minnesota's Douglas County from the front steps of the Bell Museum of Natural History. But a year after the controversy over "Troubled Waters" — the Bell's film on farmland pollution in the Mississippi River basin—brought words like dead zone, hypoxia and nitrogen fertilizer to the attention of the general public, what's happening in places like west-central Minnesota provides an insight into what the future holds for the health of the entire watershed all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.More
Chesapeake Bay: Farmers learn about tools that help reduce nitrogen pollution
Daily Press Diggin' In Blog
A U.S. Department of Agriculture soil scientist in Colorado is helping farmers grow crops with less nitrogen-based fertilizer. Jorge Delgado, with the Agricultural Research Service Soil Plant Nutrient Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., helped develop a tool designed for fledgling environmental trading credit programs that reward growers for reducing nitrogen losses. Known as the Nitrogen Trading Tool, it can be used to determine how much a proposed management practice may be able to reduce nitrogen losses, and how much "trading credit" could be earned by switching to it.More
A push to farm smarter — not bigger — to feed the world's hungry
The Christian Science Monitor
With famine in Africa and food prices at record highs, governments and agencies around the globe are looking to educate small farmers about more efficient, sustainable agriculture practices. The United States is rolling out agricultural partnerships around the globe, particularly through its $3 billion Feed the Future Initiative, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development. One of its stated goals is "to leverage $70 billion in private investment in agriculture that improves sustainable market opportunities and linkages with smallholder farmers."More
Study: Organic farming shows long-term profitability
WholeFoods Magazine
Farms that produce organic food are economically viable on a long-term basis, and are perhaps more profitable than conventional farms, according to new research by the American Society of Agronomy. The study, conducted by the University of Minnesota and recently published in Agronomy Journal, analyzed 18 years of crop yields and other farm data. Findings included a lower risk of poor returns for organic corn and soybean crop rotations than for conventional rotations.More
Sucking up water, sand in the quest for natural gas
Dallas Observer
For folks in the sandy hills an hour and a half northwest of Dallas, it's a devil's bargain for gas, water and jobs. The record drought is forcing farmers in and around Saint Jo, Texas, to tap into well water, putting added pressure on the Trinity Aquifer. The locals are especially worried about what is being fed into Mountain Creek with the construction of EOG Resources' sand mine just 50 yards away. EOG will soon need to pump large amounts of water from the aquifer for its sand mine’s primary business — fracking.More
Conservation farming threatened by lack of funds in Namibia
The Namibian
A six year conservation farming project in has led to a massive rise in output for around 400 northern Namibia agricultural farmers who took part in the trial runs. Statistics show that yield increases at farms which adopted a conservation approach to agriculture ranged from between 200 to 500 percent. Despite the success of the two phases of the project, funding has ended and the project's future hangs in the balance.More
Why hairy vetch should interest farmers
Winnipeg Free Press
Cover crops have traditionally been used by organic farmers to produce fertilizer, writes columnist Laura Rance. A legume crop, which produces its own nitrogen, such as clover, is planted in the field every second year or so and then worked into the soil, where it decomposes and feeds the following year's crop. As it turns out, some of these cover crops, particularly a legume called hairy vetch, are also good at controlling weeds.More
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