President Trump's decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement threatens our children's health and future. MCAF. C3. Regional.

President Trump's decision to leave the Paris Climate Agreement threatens our children's health and future. MCAF. C3. Regional.

A bill in the House of Representatives would strip the EPA of critical funding for clean air and water protections. Your representatives voted wrong. C4. Regional.

A bill in the House of Representatives would strip the EPA of critical funding for clean air and water protections. Your representatives voted wrong. C4. Regional.

A bill in the House of Representatives would strip the EPA of critical funding for clean air and water protections. Your representatives voted wrong. C4. Regional.

Agriculture has a large impact on water quality – the sector is the source of 70 percent of the nutrients that flow down the Mississippi River and cause dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico – but farmers have made big strides on implementing and scaling conservation measures to improve water quality and agriculture’s overall environmental footprint. Unsung heroes like Tim Richter, Kristin Duncanson and Denny Friest are constantly fine-tuning nutrient and soil management with new efficiency tools, finding better ways to implement cover crops or reduce tillage, installing wetlands and buffers, and introducing new crops into their rotations.

Agriculture has a large impact on water quality – the sector is the source of 70 percent of the nutrients that flow down the Mississippi River and cause dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico – but farmers have made big strides on implementing and scaling conservation measures to improve water quality and agriculture’s overall environmental footprint. Unsung heroes like Tim Richter, Kristin Duncanson and Denny Friest are constantly fine-tuning nutrient and soil management with new efficiency tools, finding better ways to implement cover crops or reduce tillage, installing wetlands and buffers, and introducing new crops into their rotations.

By Suzy Friedman

Iowa farmer Denny Friest (Photo credit: John Rae)

I spent the summer meeting with farmers, commodity groups and food companies in the Midwest to discuss collaborative conservation approaches. Whether we were in Missouri, Iowa or Minnesota, water quality was top of mind.

Agriculture has a large impact on water quality – the sector is the source of 70 percent of the nutrients that flow down the Mississippi River and cause dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico.

Farmers have made big strides on implementing and scaling conservation measures to improve water quality and agriculture’s overall environmental footprint. Unsung heroes like Tim Richter, Kristin Duncanson and Denny Friest are constantly fine-tuning nutrient and soil management with new efficiency tools, finding better ways to implement cover crops or reduce tillage, installing wetlands and buffers, and introducing new crops into their rotations.

They aren’t the only ones.

When the USDA conducted its Conservation Effects Assessment Program on the Mississippi River Basin, its research showed that farmers had installed structural practices for controlling water-related erosion on 45 percent of all cropped acres in the region and had adopted reduced tillage on at least one crop in their rotation on 95 percent of the region’s farmland.

In fact, on 40 percent of the region’s farmland, growers had already taken enough steps to reduce runoff and boost soil health that there was little need for additional conservation treatment.

The same report, however, identified 47 percent of cropped acres that need more and better nutrient management to address excessive levels of nitrogen loss. That’s where we should focus conservation efforts. And we can’t ask farmers to bear the burden alone.

The entire food and ag supply chain has a role to play in improving water quality, says…
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Responsibility should be shared throughout the supply chain.

We need to incentivize innovations that make sustainable production more accessible and cost-effective. This includes creating more public-private partnerships, incorporating flexible practices into USDA conservation programs through the 2018 Farm Bill, and making it easier to find independent information about how well nutrient use efficiency tools work.

Agribusinesses that sell inputs and advice to farmers need to offer more robust programs for sustainable production. Land O’Lakes has been a leader in this space, creating a first-of-its-kind business unit that helps to train and equip its ag retail network to implement on-farm sustainability practices. Land O’Lakes’ SUSTAIN aims to enroll 20 million acres in conservation agronomy by 2025.

We need more ag retailers to follow this lead, as well as expand services through independent crop consulting firms like TeamAg Inc. and G&K Consulting.

Food companies and consumer-facing retailers need to commit not only to improving the sustainability of their supply chains, but also to investing time and resources into education and infrastructure that will help farmers help them deliver on their commitments. They can follow the example of leaders like Smithfield Foods, Campbell Soup Company and the partners in the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative.

All parties have the same goal – optimizing nutrient use to ensure clean water. Making progress toward that goal requires talking openly and honestly about tough issues like the pervasiveness of water quality problems, as well as the complex, all-hands-on-deck approach we need to solve them.

Building a resilient, sustainable food and ag system is hard work, and farmers are on the frontlines. Let’s support them as we jump in to do our share.

This post originally appeared on AgWeb and is used with permission.

Related:

Conservation relies on profitability >>

How ag retailers are helping improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay >>

A call to help us strengthen the economic case for sustainability practices >>

Written by Marcia G. Yerman

Aerial view of Houston after Hurricane Harvey.

This is a Moms Clean Air Force exclusive interview with Dr. Robert D. Bullard. Dr. Bullard is known as the “father of  environmental justice.” He has been a leading campaigner against environmental racism:

We have spoken previously about frontline and “fence-line” communities surrounded by a variety of fossil fuel plants in Port Arthur, Texas. Children there already suffer a disproportionate health issues from air pollution – resulting in elevated levels of asthma. How has Hurricane Harvey specifically impacted families of color and low income families in the shadow of these facilities?

Hurricane Harvey exacerbated pre-storm inequality and increased health threats to Port Arthur’s vulnerable communities. Port Arthur was considered an environmental “sacrifice zone” before Harvey — and home to world’s largest oil refinery complexes, including the 3,600-acre Motiva plant, Shell Oil, Saudi Aramco, and the 4,000-acre Texas-based Valero. The Keystone XL pipeline was planned to end in this 64 percent people of color city. The most vulnerable population impacted by the ‘triple whammy’ of flooding, pollution from chemical plants and refineries, and mental stress of hurricane evacuation are children.

Could you comment about many industrial sites in and around Houston refusing to give clear facts about how dangerous the materials in their refineries are, even during this crisis? ExxonMobile has released information that two of their refineries were damaged, and harmful pollutants were released into the air. Why did regulations for being transparent with the public get rolled back?  Why weren’t adequate precautions already in place for these companies?

Harvey shone the spotlight on the power imbalance between polluting industries and fence-line communities. Environmental justice leaders for decades have fought to get stronger regulations that protect fence-line communities from refinery pollution assaults. They have fought for greater transparency from industry and government regulators, at the state and federal level, who have resisted these calls and have responded by rolling back environmental enforcement and protection. This is a recipe for disaster. It means more illnesses, emergency room visits, and deaths. The call for eliminating regulations will aid and abet the ‘crime’ of increasing unnecessary health threats in vulnerable environmental justice communities. This is not only immoral and unethical; we believe it is illegal — or should be.

Harvey is a textbook example why the country needs a strong and independent EPA. (Tweet this) Harvey raised questions about the adequacy of industry preparations for monster storms. The petrochemical failed the safety test. More than 1.3 million pounds of extra air pollution were released in the week after Harvey struck. There were explosions and fires burning at the Arkema chemical plant in Crosby. Houston experienced flaring, leaks, and chemical discharges from oil refineries, chemical plants and shale drilling sites.

While the extent of the risk posed by Texas’ petrochemical industry in the wake of Harvey is unknown, we know that risks are not spread evenly across the Houston landscape.

Houston is segregated and so is industrial pollution. Pre-and post-Harvey pollution threats map closely with race and class. Houston’s communities of color face a ‘double jeopardy.’ Communities with higher percentages of people color and higher poverty levels face higher risks from chemical accidents and everyday toxic exposure. Poverty and race increase the likelihood of children living fence-line with risky chemical plants. Poor black and brown children are more than twice as likely to live in fence-line communities as poor white children. Houston has 133 schools that are within a one-mile radius of high-risk chemical plants — placing 101,720 students at risk.

A majority (9 of 16) of the Texas Superfund sites flooded by Hurricane Harvey are in low-income neighborhoods or communities of color. In order to be just, Harvey recovery plans will need to address these legacy environmental disparities.

The Department of Environmental Justice was eliminated from the EPA when Trump took office. What recourse do people on the ground have to protect their children from the results of extreme weather events  and the ensuing new air pollution dangers?

It is important to understand that the environmental justice movement — as all social movements in the United States — was not created by the EPA or government. The impetus for the environmental justice movement was grass-roots, community-driven resistance to environmental injustice — policies and practices by polluting industries and actions buttressed by local, state and federal government. Closing the EPA Environmental Justice Office will not close down the EJ Movement.

The pushback by the Trump administration on equal protection is a crystal-clear message to environmental justice leaders and their allies that our communities, our lives, and our children don’t matter to those currently in power. We say ‘No’ to this madness. We are educating, organizing and mobilizing our students and faculty mentors at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and community based organizations (CBOs) across the climate-vulnerable Gulf Coast and South in a HBCU/CBO Climate Change Consortium to fight for programs and plans to build healthy, sustainable and resilient communities.

Our consortium emphasizes children and families. When we strive to protect the most vulnerable in our society, our children, we protect us all.

TELL CONGRESS: NOBODY VOTED TO MAKE AMERICA DIRTY AGAIN

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On today’s show Erin Brown of Vanishing Paradise stops by to talk with Simone and Jacques about how they advocate for restoration of the Mississippi River Delta by nationalizing the issue, raising awareness, and educating members of Congress. Chef Nathan Richard also joins the program to talk with Simone & Jacques about the Fresh Water Supper at Cavan Restaurant in New Orleans for the Vanishing Paradise, highlighting species that depend on freshwater marsh in coastal Louisiana. Below is a transcript of ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Advocating for Louisiana's Vanishing Paradise appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

On today’s show Erin Brown of Vanishing Paradise stops by to talk with Simone and Jacques about how they advocate for restoration of the Mississippi River Delta by nationalizing the issue, raising awareness, and educating members of Congress. Chef Nathan Richard also joins the program to talk with Simone & Jacques about the Fresh Water Supper at Cavan Restaurant in New Orleans for the Vanishing Paradise, highlighting species that depend on freshwater marsh in coastal Louisiana. Below is a transcript of ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Advocating for Louisiana's Vanishing Paradise appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

On today’s show Erin Brown of Vanishing Paradise stops by to talk with Simone and Jacques about how they advocate for restoration of the Mississippi River Delta by nationalizing the issue, raising awareness, and educating members of Congress. Chef Nathan Richard also joins the program to talk with Simone & Jacques about the Fresh Water Supper at Cavan Restaurant in New Orleans for the Vanishing Paradise, highlighting species that depend on freshwater marsh in coastal Louisiana. Below is a transcript of ...

Read The Full Story

The post Delta Dispatches: Advocating for Louisiana's Vanishing Paradise appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Do you love your local estuary? Restore or Retreat sure does!  And what better way to spread that estuarine ecosystem love than during National Estuaries Week?! Restore or Retreat (ROR) is a non-profit coastal advocacy group created in 2000 by coastal Louisiana residents and stakeholders who recognize that the Barataria and Terrebonne estuaries are among the most beautiful ecosystems in America. Unfortunately, these estuaries are rapidly eroding, creating  an economic and ecological crisis. As part of ROR’s mission, we seek to ...

Read The Full Story

The post Help Us Celebrate National Estuaries Week appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Do you love your local estuary? Restore or Retreat sure does!  And what better way to spread that estuarine ecosystem love than during National Estuaries Week?! Restore or Retreat (ROR) is a non-profit coastal advocacy group created in 2000 by coastal Louisiana residents and stakeholders who recognize that the Barataria and Terrebonne estuaries are among the most beautiful ecosystems in America. Unfortunately, these estuaries are rapidly eroding, creating  an economic and ecological crisis. As part of ROR’s mission, we seek to ...

Read The Full Story

The post Help Us Celebrate National Estuaries Week appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Do you love your local estuary? Restore or Retreat sure does!  And what better way to spread that estuarine ecosystem love than during National Estuaries Week?! Restore or Retreat (ROR) is a non-profit coastal advocacy group created in 2000 by coastal Louisiana residents and stakeholders who recognize that the Barataria and Terrebonne estuaries are among the most beautiful ecosystems in America. Unfortunately, these estuaries are rapidly eroding, creating  an economic and ecological crisis. As part of ROR’s mission, we seek to ...

Read The Full Story

The post Help Us Celebrate National Estuaries Week appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

By Irene Burga

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post

Downtown Los Angeles with misty morning smog.

This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing.

After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a community website that provides real time air quality data collected from 40 different pollution monitors across the county.

Frances Nicklen said the air monitors make a huge difference to her community.

"The placement of these 40 air monitors throughout the Imperial Valley will be very beneficial so that the people can make educated decisions to protect their health and that of their families," she told the Comite Civico Del Valle. “We only have one valley, and we have to live here, and we need to make it a better place for all of our residents.”

As a result of the IVAN project, an entire community now has access to real-time pollution data that can identify the region’s largest sources of harmful emissions.

Even local air quality regulators are using it to help inform their policy decisions, demonstrating that community-led science projects can, and do, drive real change.

What’s next?

Several companies are now developing lower-cost air pollution monitors that can collect real-time air quality data 24-hours a day with more precision, and can detect a wider array of pollutants than ever – factors which can help propel better environmental controls. These technological advancements are incredibly encouraging, and – as is clear with the IVAN project – regulators, operators and community groups alike are taking advantage of this evolution in environmental technology.

Communities with poor air quality – like those in Los Angeles – appear to be on the verge of getting a new set of tools to help aid in pollution reduction.

Why Los Angeles?

In 2015, NASA used data from satellites and 14 separate ground-based pollution monitors to confirm high levels of methane (climate pollution) in the Los Angeles region. This reiterated the findings of other studies which found that previous estimates of air pollution have been too low, and oil and gas extraction may be releasing twice as much methane and other harmful pollutants than previously thought.

What these studies didn’t tell us however, is exactly which facilities the pollution is coming from, and how harmful these emissions are to communities living in this region.

That’s the gap new monitoring technology can help close.

Continuous air pollution monitors can provide real-time data about a vast array of pollutants at a much lower price than the traditional technologies. In turn, these monitors can alert local residents, governmental agencies and facility operators to problems about sites that may be emitting toxic gases.

Similarly, mobile technology (devices mounted to cars and airplanes) can collect regional information from a wide variety of sources, helping to pinpoint and aggregate information about problematic pollution. Together these technologies can locate problems at individual oil and gas sites, or uncover pollution patterns at the neighborhood level and identify hyper-localized hot spots.

New legislation demonstrates this information can and should be used to develop local air quality improvement plans. In short, better data can set the stage for new levels of engagement and influence change in a positive direction, and efforts are under way to make that happen.

There’s no denying that the oil and gas industry in California has supplied a huge amount of goods, services and money into the state’s economy. At the same time, it’s clear that leaks and poor environmental performance at oil and gas sites, especially where sites are located within a few feet of people’s homes and businesses, can drastically impact quality of life.

Fortunately, California’s technology boom has revolutionized the way we hail a ride or rent a home. If used appropriately, it can also help create a safer, cleaner environment.

 

By Irene Burga

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post

Downtown Los Angeles with misty morning smog.

This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing.

After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a community website that provides real time air quality data collected from 40 different pollution monitors across the county.

Frances Nicklen said the air monitors make a huge difference to her community.

"The placement of these 40 air monitors throughout the Imperial Valley will be very beneficial so that the people can make educated decisions to protect their health and that of their families," she told the Comite Civico Del Valle. “We only have one valley, and we have to live here, and we need to make it a better place for all of our residents.”

As a result of the IVAN project, an entire community now has access to real-time pollution data that can identify the region’s largest sources of harmful emissions.

Even local air quality regulators are using it to help inform their policy decisions, demonstrating that community-led science projects can, and do, drive real change.

What’s next?

Several companies are now developing lower-cost air pollution monitors that can collect real-time air quality data 24-hours a day with more precision, and can detect a wider array of pollutants than ever – factors which can help propel better environmental controls. These technological advancements are incredibly encouraging, and – as is clear with the IVAN project – regulators, operators and community groups alike are taking advantage of this evolution in environmental technology.

Communities with poor air quality – like those in Los Angeles – appear to be on the verge of getting a new set of tools to help aid in pollution reduction.

Why Los Angeles?

In 2015, NASA used data from satellites and 14 separate ground-based pollution monitors to confirm high levels of methane (climate pollution) in the Los Angeles region. This reiterated the findings of other studies which found that previous estimates of air pollution have been too low, and oil and gas extraction may be releasing twice as much methane and other harmful pollutants than previously thought.

What these studies didn’t tell us however, is exactly which facilities the pollution is coming from, and how harmful these emissions are to communities living in this region.

That’s the gap new monitoring technology can help close.

Continuous air pollution monitors can provide real-time data about a vast array of pollutants at a much lower price than the traditional technologies. In turn, these monitors can alert local residents, governmental agencies and facility operators to problems about sites that may be emitting toxic gases.

Similarly, mobile technology (devices mounted to cars and airplanes) can collect regional information from a wide variety of sources, helping to pinpoint and aggregate information about problematic pollution. Together these technologies can locate problems at individual oil and gas sites, or uncover pollution patterns at the neighborhood level and identify hyper-localized hot spots.

New legislation demonstrates this information can and should be used to develop local air quality improvement plans. In short, better data can set the stage for new levels of engagement and influence change in a positive direction, and efforts are under way to make that happen.

There’s no denying that the oil and gas industry in California has supplied a huge amount of goods, services and money into the state’s economy. At the same time, it’s clear that leaks and poor environmental performance at oil and gas sites, especially where sites are located within a few feet of people’s homes and businesses, can drastically impact quality of life.

Fortunately, California’s technology boom has revolutionized the way we hail a ride or rent a home. If used appropriately, it can also help create a safer, cleaner environment.

 

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing. After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a […]

The post How community air monitoring projects provide a data-driven model for the future appeared first on Energy Exchange.

Nicoyia Hurt, EDF Oil and Gas Health Policy Intern, contributed to this post This month marks the one year anniversary since the residents in Imperial County California did something pretty amazing. After experiencing some of the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the state, the community got together to launch the IVAN air monitoring project– a […]