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Global leaders made progress this year, but urgent work remains to ensure farmers, fishers and ranchers can feed a growing population on a changing planet. The post Four takeaways from a year of global action on food, agriculture and climate first appeared on Growing Returns.

From extensive droughts across the Great Plains and back-to-back hurricanes damaging vegetable and citrus crops in the Southeast, the last two production seasons have demonstrated the intensifying damage of extreme weather on America’s farms. In 2023 alone, natural disasters caused nearly $22 billion in crop and rangeland losses. While crop insurance is a critical safety …

EDF and IAC leading a study to understand the financial, soil and animal health impacts of regenerative agriculture practices on Native farming.

As groundwater depletion accelerates amid climate change and growing agricultural demands, integrating Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) into water management strategies can safeguard India’s water security and resilience. Groundwater has sustained human societies for thousands of years, serving as a critical shared resource. However, the current rate of extraction — driven largely by climate change,

Agriculture is both a driver of climate change and on the frontlines of climate impacts. A variety of farming practices, technologies and system changes can reduce emissions to help stabilize the climate and build resilience to help protect global food production. However, a lack of access to fit-for-purpose finance keeps farmers from transitioning to climate-smart …

The emerging hydrogen market presents opportunities and risks for investors. These key principles and due diligence questions offer a guide.

The emerging hydrogen market presents opportunities and risks for investors. These key principles and due diligence questions offer a guide.

Sustainability-linked loan signals that major financial institutions are looking to direct more financing toward their customers’ sustainability efforts in innovative ways.

The farmer-owned cooperative will be able to leverage CoBank's new loan to expand conservation programs that enhance Iowa communities’ water quality

EDF is helping farmers address one of their core climate challenges: securing a reliable water supply. This September, an EDF team led by Ann Hayden, Nikhil Goveas, Gopal Penny and Leah Beaulac conducted a series of comprehensive site visits and workshops across drought-prone areas of central India. Water availability in India is a core climate issue …

Authors: Erin Leonard and Maggie Monast With more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after its release, methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gasses. One major contributor to global methane is livestock operations — 32% of methane emissions from human activity come from livestock and …

High-integrity carbon credits will require improved measurement, reporting and verification for livestock methane, and stronger environmental and social pr

As companies adopt new tools to cut livestock methane emissions, there’s an opportunity for investors to lean in.

As companies adopt new tools to cut livestock methane emissions, there’s an opportunity for investors to lean in.

In-depth cover crop financial data from 141 Minnesota and Wisconsin farms informs farmers’ cover crop decisions.

As farmers grapple with severe weather conditions, it's crucial to support them in implementing climate-smart agriculture practices that can bolster the resilience of their operations.

Belching bovines are major emitters of methane in agriculture. A new seaweed food additive could help decrease cows' burps and therefore lower their methane emissions

As the world faces growing climate impacts and shocks, the need for a more sustainable and resilient food system has never been more urgent. Last year, the Kansas wheat harvest, known as a bellwether for global agriculture, hit a 60-year low due to severe drought. Record-breaking floods decimated European harvests in the same year.   Climate-driven …

The Wittmans are using sustainable farming practices today to ensure their family farm endures changing climate conditions. 

In EDF’s new guide for food companies engaging their farmers on dairy methane solutions, we walk through how to get started with new manure management systems.

The EMIT LESS Act is an essential proposal to empower farmers and ranchers to address methane emissions from livestock. It builds on bipartisan momentum that advances climate-smart livestock farming.

The reauthorization of the farm bill, which offers critical funding to support farmers and food businesses, is currently being debated in Congress. This is a crucial moment to support farmers and businesses—and major food companies need to make sure they take advantage of it. What is at stake? Billions of dollars in funding intended to …

This spring, hundreds of scientists, engineers, water managers, farmers and ranchers gathered in New Mexico to share and learn about how OpenET data is being used to advance water resources management. OpenET has radically improved access to data on evapotranspiration (ET) — or how much water plants and other vegetation consume. The result has been …

The ground beneath our feet holds more carbon than the Earth's atmosphere and all its plants combined. Scientists are investigating how to keep it there.