National Climate Week: Agriculture Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Since 1961, food production has increased by 240 percent, the use of synthetic nitrogen has increased by 800 percent, and land degradation has increased by 200 percent.
As a result, agriculture accounts for about 13 percent of carbon dioxide, 40 percent of methane, and 82 percent of nitrous oxide greenhouse gas emissions.
But, while agriculture is a significant contributor to the greenhouse gases causing the climate crisis, it can also be part of the solution. Resilient, sustainable agricultural systems can sequester carbon and benefit our climate while improving public health. Land management-based responses to climate change can also help improve public health, eradicate poverty and hunger, and decrease food waste.
This year’s extreme rains, floods, and delayed planting have brought home the urgent need to address the climate crisis and its impacts on agriculture.
Now is the time to join thousands of other producers across the nation to ask policymakers and federal administrators to help us meet the challenges of a changing climate and become part of the solution.
As a member group of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, OEFFA is gathering signatures on a Farmer Letter on Climate Change Solutions in Agriculture. Beginning in the spring of 2020, we will use this letter in meetings with members of Congress, USDA program leaders, and other key decision-makers to urge effective policy action to combat climate change, and especially to help farmers and ranchers weather the storm and lead the way toward a more sustainable future.
Please take a moment now to add your name to letter and stand with farmers across this nation during National Climate Week.
There is no time to waste. We must rise to meet the challenges we face and champion policies that support sustainable, organic agriculture systems to protect our planet for the future.
Note that we are specifically seeking signatures from farmers, as defined by USDA (producers who sell at least $1,000 in farm products annually). If you are not making an income from farm products, please share this sign-on opportunity with the farmers you know, or at farmers’ markets or farm stands where you shop.