Image Source: Rose Marie Cromwell
This year, climate change has challenged crop productivity, the pandemic has interrupted global supply chains, and restaurant closures have sapped demand. Plus, the government's trade wars with China and Europe have led to tariffs on American corn, soybeans, lobsters, and peanuts. According to the American Farm Bureau, debt among farmers will increase by 4% to a record $434 billion this year. In response, the federal government is allocating its largest farm subsidies since 2005. subscription model
First Fish Farm In Federal Waters Proposed Off San Diego Coast
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The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and investment group Pacific6 Enterprise have proposed the first ever open-ocean fish farm in federal waters. The pair submitted a federal permit application for its Pacific Ocean AquaFarm project, which aims to produce 5,000 metric tons of farmed sushi-grade yellowtail (hamachi) per year. Approvals are pending from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
USDA To Issue Another $13 Billion In Farm Aid Funds
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In Wisconsin last week, the President announced an additional $13 billion in funding for America’s farmers. Wisconsin dairy farmers have suffered steep losses this year due to both pandemic supply chain challenges and reduced exports caused by the White House’s trade policies. The new round of funding will draw from the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Ancient Judean Dates Grown From 2,000 Year Old Seed
Fifteen years ago, Dr. Sarah Sallon, who researches natural medicine, teamed up with Elaine Solowey, an expert on arid agriculture, to germinate ancient date seeds from the region of Judea in modern-day southern Israel. Both the Bible and the Quran venerated date palms as symbols of beauty, and from an archive in Jerusalem, Sallon learned that traditional healers considered dates to be beneficial for digestion, blood production, and memory. Dates were also thought to be an aphrodisiac. However, Judean date plantations died out by the Middle Ages. Fortunately, Dr. Sallon found a few date seeds while excavating Masada, the desert fortress near the Dead Sea where Jewish zealots, captured by the Romans in A.D. 73, famously died by their own hands instead of becoming slaves. Sallon took the seeds to Dr. Solowey, who operates the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura. In 2005, Dr. Solowey planted the seeds in quarantined pots with very few expectations. A couple weeks later, one shoot appeared, and since then the plant has grown into a sturdy tree outside of her office. After 15 years of patiently growing the date plant from 2,000 year old seeds, Sallon and Solowey recently celebrated their first fruit harvest at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel.
USDA’s Market Facilitation Program Leaves Small Farms Behind
In the most recent round of federal funding, U.S. trade aid has mostly benefited large corporate farms, despite the government’s promise to help America’s small farmers. In 2018, when the U.S. trade war with China began, a trade bailout program was instituted specifically to help family farms survive the trade the anticipated reduction in demand for U.S. agricultural products. While direct payments were supposed to help small famers, roughly two-thirds of those payments went to the top 10% of recipients at the start of the year, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture records. The top half of recipients received 95% of the $28 billion allocated to the Market Facilitation Program. The top tenth of recipients received an average payment of $164,813. Yet, the average payment for the bottom half of recipients was only $2,469.49. The USDA increased the limit for individual payments from $125,000 to $250,000, however, corporate farms have exceeded that upper limit. The top 1% of the program’s beneficiaries got 17% of total trade relief over the most recent two-month span of payments, with an average payment of roughly $455,600, according to CNBC’s analysis.
USDA Announces First Recipients Of Urban Agriculture Grants
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has chosen recipients for $4.1 million in grants and cooperative agreements via its Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. Among the very first to receive the grants, three Planning Projects will receive roughly $1.14 million, while seven Implementation Projects will receive about $1.88 million. The Department also invested $1.09 million in 13 projects that advance and test strategies for using municipal compost and for food waste reduction. In making its selections, the USDA said priority was given to those projects that demonstrated or expected economic benefits. The Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production also prioritized projects that improve accessibility of compost for farmers, pursue food waste strategies, and included multiple collaborators.
High-Tech Produce Greenhouses Begin Supplementing Traditional U.S. Agriculture
In Kentucky, a 2.76 million-square-foot facility is being built on 60 acres of land using environmentally-friendly techniques to help feed the country while adapting to a changing climate. Jonathan Webb, founder and CEO of the high-tech greenhouse company AppHarvest, says, “By 2050, we’re going to need 70% more food. [The University of California at] Berkeley says we will need two planet Earths to have enough land and fresh water to produce that food.” Webb added, “We got the United Nations saying we have 60 years left of topsoil before the topsoil is degraded to a point to where it’s not going to be very fertile.” According to AppHarvest, the eastern region of Kentucky is the ideal location for distributing produce to 70% of America’s population in a one-day drive. Another company, Kentucky Fresh Harvest, has also positioned itself in Kentucky with its own high-tech greenhouse. The 30-acre, $13.5 million Kentucky Fresh Harvest facility is located in Stanford and takes some of its inspiration from the high-tech, high-output greenhouses currently used in the Netherlands. That country is the size of Connecticut yet it became the world’s second-largest agricultural producer through its agricultural technologies. After the famine of World War II, the Dutch pledged to produce twice as much food with half the resources. Through its advanced greenhouses, they have drastically reduced the amount of water required on key crops by 90% while cutting the use of chemical pesticides on plants.
