I have just come across an article in
Investigate Midwest which contains a lot of reading material both in the article itself and in links to other items of interest. I will try and highlight the gist of it all, but even that will take several citations and links.
With Corn Belt Inching North, Farm Diversification Gains Momentum
by Adam Goldstein
August 17, 2022
Introduction:
(investigate Midwest) CONCORDIA, MISSOURI — Corn and soybeans once covered Josh Payne’s farm as far as the eye could see. Tidy rows of green and brown marched across his 600 acres from spring to fall, kept in line by tillage, and herbicide. Though Payne’s operation was the picture of modern agriculture, he could not shake a general dissatisfaction.
Today, Payne calls his farm “a messy, complex, diverse life worth living.” Gone are the corn and soy, replaced by a diversified farm that includes various animals, nuts and fruits. Young chestnut trees reach their limbs skyward. Dozens of sheep, bleating and plodding, graze on native grasses in Payne’s front yard. And several brown cows lounge on rolling pasture in the distance.
“We're trying to rethink our food, and we're trying to regrow our land,” Payne said.
Payne is one of a small but growing number of Midwestern farmers re-evaluating how to manage their land as they face climate change, market shocks, and other threats. Diverse farms like his made up only 10% to 15% of the roughly 2 million farms in the 2017 U.S. agricultural census. Yet researchers predict these farms will become more common across the Midwest as climate change redraws the American agricultural map. Already, the Corn Belt – which traditionally spanned from Kansas to Ohio and from Missouri to the Dakotas – has shifted northwest, a trend that’s expected to continue.
Read more here:
https://investigatemidwest.org/2022/08/ ... -momentum/
One of the sites linked in the article explains an aspect of government policy on this matter:
Introduction:
(U.S. Department of Agriculture) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo., Feb. 7, 2022 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today at Lincoln University that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is delivering on its promise to expand markets by investing $1 billion in partnerships to support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity will finance pilot projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climate-smart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits. USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal year 2022.
“America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest owners are leading the way in implementing climate-smart solutions across their operations,” said Vilsack. “Through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA will provide targeted funding to meet national and global demand and expand market opportunities for climate-smart commodities to increase the competitive advantage of American producers. We want a broad array of agriculture and forestry to see themselves in this effort, including small and historically underserved producers as well as early adopters.”
For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a climate-smart commodity is defined as an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural (farming, ranching or forestry) practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.
Funding will be provided to partners through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation...
Read more here:
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releas ... ng-markets
Here is an interesting example of the kinds of projects being selected and promoted by the USDA:
(Purdue University) WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A $10 million project seeks to make Midwestern agriculture more resilient by diversifying farms, marketing and the agricultural landscape.
We’ve all heard of hedging a bet or diversifying a portfolio to be able to weather ups and downs, and this is the same concept, said Linda Prokopy department head and professor of horticulture and landscape architecture at Purdue University, who leads the project.
“What’s new is that market and environmental research tailored to this part of the U.S. will inform our next moves, and individual farmers and stakeholders will be involved in every step of the process,” she says. “Growing only a rotation of corn and soybeans is not necessarily sustainable economically, environmentally or socially. We will be working with farmers in Indiana, Illinois and Iowa to evaluate alternative cropping systems that can be used in the Midwest – we will be evaluating small grains and/or forage crops in rotations, perennial forage or bioenergy crops, agroforestry, horticultural food crops and grazed livestock.”
The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture selected the project, titled “#DiverseCornBelt: Resilient Intensification through Diversity in Midwestern Agriculture,” which has a multidisciplinary team that spans the life, physical and social sciences.
”This project draws upon the talents of our faculty and can make a crucial contribution to diversifying Midwest agriculture. The lessons learned can benefit farmers throughout the region,” said Karen Plaut, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture.
Read more here:
https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/release ... oject.html
Don't mourn, organize.
-Joe Hill