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The Agriculture Finance Sustainability Coalition, a new partnership between agriculture, environmental groups and financial institutions, supported a significant awardee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's $14-billion National Clean Investment Fund. Climate United secured $6.97 billion, which it will use to mobilize financing and private capital and accelerate market activity to combat the climate crisis.

Next time you find yourself looking up driving directions on your phone, scroll over to central California and zoom out a bit. Turn on the satellite layer. What you’ll see is a mindboggling patchwork. A massive brown and green checkerboard, cut up in rectangles, sliced by highways, besieged by a ring of arid foothills. This …

Co-authored by Pinion The use and production of fertilizer in agriculture is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and a major cause of pollution in the nation’s rivers and lakes. Agriculture is the largest global source of nitrogen pollution, and annual damages from nitrogen pollution are estimated to exceed $200 billion in the US.

Social networks play a pivotal role in shaping human behavior. To accelerate climate-smart practices, farmers’ social networks are crucial. The post How food companies can harness the power of social networks for scope 3 reductions first appeared on Growing Returns.

Social networks play a pivotal role in shaping human behavior. To accelerate climate-smart practices, farmers’ social networks are crucial.

African farmers like Joshua Zinzombe and Grace Gondwe are facing a hotter future with optimism and ingenuity as they look to lead a global food system transformation.

  A new survey of agricultural lenders in the upper Midwest reveals important insights about their perceptions and support for farmers’ conservation efforts. As the first of its kind, the survey can inform agricultural lending institutions’ climate and sustainability strategy development. Farmers rely on agricultural lending institutions for loans to cover equipment, land and operating …

Lenders’ conservation knowledge and challenges can inform how lending institution executives can support farmers in conservation decisions.

A new survey of agricultural lenders in the upper Midwest reveals important insights about their perceptions and support for farmers’ conservation efforts. As the first of its kind, the survey can inform agricultural lending institutions’ climate and sustainability strategy development. Farmers rely on agricultural lending institutions for loans to cover equipment, land and operating expenses.

A new survey of agricultural lenders in the upper Midwest reveals important insights about their perceptions and support for farmers’ conservation efforts. As the first of its kind, the survey from EDF and partners can inform agricultural lending institutions’ climate and sustainability strategy development.

Environmental Defense Fund works with major food companies for the same reason we engage with other sectors: We follow the emissions. 

Environmental Defense Fund, Cornell University, and Kansas State University studied how severe weather financially impacts Kansas farms and how management choices and government programs mitigate the negative impacts. The study used a 40-year Kansas farm financial dataset and historic weather data to measure the impacts of extreme heat on gross and net farm income.

The satellite-based water data platform OpenET, co-developed by EDF, demonstrates considerable accuracy in measuring evapotranspiration in agricultural settings according to a new study in Nature Water. Evapotranspiration—the amount of water lost to the atmosphere through soil evaporation and plant transpiration—is a key measure of water consumption in agriculture and has previously been difficult and expensive to monitor accurately at scale.

Groundwater is facing unprecedented pressure from over-extraction, pollution, and climate change. EDF has developed a flexible management framework for communities to adapt in their effort to achieve sustainable groundwater use.

Understanding the impacts of extreme weather on Kansas farms can inform solutions that support farmers in adapting to climate change.

During the summer of 2023, Kansas endured a historic heat wave with temperatures soaring above 110°F in some areas. As climate change continues to intensify, the frequency and severity of extreme heat are projected to increase. Are Kansas farmers at risk of losing money in the face of these extreme growing conditions? A new study …

Climate change is expected to bring more severe weather, like droughts and extreme heat, to Kansas in the coming decades, with significant negative impacts on farm productivity and profitability. EDF's new research shows the financial risk to Kansas farms posed by extreme heat, and how management decisions and government programs partially mitigate the negative impacts.

In the 1970s, industrial-scale agriculture transformed the world's ability to feed hungry populations. As climate change threatens yields, and the environmental cost of intensive, large scale farming becomes apparent, meet the farmers are re-envisioning a new green revolution. 

This report aims to educate, empower and mobilize diverse policymakers, private asset managers and owners, and business executives toward agrifood systems transformation with far greater and more equitably distributed health, climate and financial returns for all.

We’re seeing the impacts of climate change in real time. There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere to avoid more catastrophic climate change impacts. This will require both reductions in GHG emissions and the removal of GHGs from the atmosphere. In recent years, this need has driven interest in …

RISDoC participants are building a more resilient future in Cuba. Check out a few of their key priorities in this blog post. The post Sharing innovative solutions to build climate resilience in Cuban coastal communities first appeared on Growing Returns.

By Vrashabh Kapate Led by food and dairy giants the Bel Group, Danone, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Lactalis USA, and Nestlé, as well as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Dairy Methane Action Alliance (DMAA) launched at COP28 last week in a COP Presidency event–to great global attention.  These leading food companies together represent more than …

It's time to talk about developing a new approach to food production that meets the reality of our rapidly changing future.

Deepening patterns of water scarcity and excess pose a growing threat to agriculture across much of the United States. Intensifying climatic extremes — combined with accelerating disruptive human interventions including groundwater over-extraction, sprawling drainage networks and misaligned governance — are driving mounting water-related agricultural costs, particularly in midwestern and western states.

At COP28, over 130 countries endorsed the UAE Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, marking a significant elevation of the importance of food systems for a climate-resilient future.