Funding farmers to tackle climate change

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Seth Itzkan

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Apr 4, 2018, 1:00:53 AM4/4/18
to Healthy Soils Coalition, Healthy Soils Legislation, soil...@googlegroups.com
This could be helpful info for our Healthy Soils initiatives.  It's from a UN Environmental Program website.

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/funding-farmers-tackle-climate-change

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Seth J. Itzkan
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Soil4Climate/
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Seth Itzkan

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Apr 4, 2018, 8:42:05 AM4/4/18
to Juan Alvez, Healthy Soils Legislation, VH...@list.uvm.edu, soil...@googlegroups.com
Fantastic Juan. Thank you. This gives me hope. 


On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 8:33 AM Juan Alvez <jal...@uvm.edu> wrote:

HI Seth,

 

This is great and the idea is similar to a proposal we crafted for a project in Southern Brazil in 2009: grants, small loans and/or financing at very low or zero interest to farmers willing to change their ag. paradigm, “from conventional to agroecological”. Results from a pilot have been successful so far and it helped spark policy changes that greatly broaden the original idea.

 

Here is the first publication:

How Valuing Nature Can Transform Agriculture

 

Volume 2 | Issue 6 | Page 64-73 | November 2011

Joshua Farley, Abdon Schmitt F., Juan P. Alvez, Norton Ribeiro de Freitas Jr.

https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/how-valuing-nature-can-transform-agriculture/

Key Concepts

·        Our conventional food system is the leading cause of habitat, soil, and biodiversity loss and nitrogen and phosphorous pollution. As a result, it is perhaps the single greatest threat to ecosystem function.

·        Agroecology—the study, design, and management of agroecosystems based on ecological principles, with particular attention to the needs of small farmers—is capable of increasing the production of both food and ecosystem services while reducing the use of harmful and expensive agricultural inputs.

·        Payments for ecosystem services (PES), a policy through which those who benefit from ecosystem services compensate those who adopt land-use decisions that provide them, can potentially provide the resources and incentives required to scale up agroecology.

·        The promotion of agroecology demands significant investments in public goods such as R&D, extension services (i.e., farmer education), infrastructure, and affordable, low-risk credit. The returns on investment flow to all farmers adopting the practices, not to private investors alone. Similarly, the returns from ecosystem services flow to all of society. An effective PES scheme for agroecology must account for this.

 

 

 

 

 

JUAN P. ALVEZ, Ph.D.

Pasture Program (Outreach Profesional Senior)

 

College of Ag. and Life Sciences |

UVM Extension,  Center for Sustainable Agriculture

23 Mansfield Avenue, Burlington VT, 05401-5933

E-mail (best way to contact): jalvez-at-uvm.edu | P: 802-656-6116 | F: 802-656-8874

 “Helping individuals and communities put research-based knowledge to work”

VT Pasture Network | pasture calendar | pasture blog | pasture videos | Rsch. Gate | Linked In

Seth Itzkan

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Apr 4, 2018, 12:39:00 PM4/4/18
to Healthy Soils Legislation, soil...@googlegroups.com
This helps inform the legislative movements.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Grace Gershuny <graceg...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: Funding farmers to tackle climate change
To: VH...@list.uvm.edu


Excellent! We're seeing more and more anecdotal material, with emphasis on increased profitability of farms, with articles like this one:

Now the big question is how this can be translated to alternatives for VT dairy farmers, given the realities of US farm policy that drive a race to the bottom. Organic conversion won't save them when the market is still saturated and the price is still tied to the conventional commodity milk market. With the huge investment in infrastructure, what can be done to reverse the confinement dairy debacle? See today's VT Digger story here:


Thanks!

Grace

Grace Gershuny
GAIA Services
Barnet, VT - USA
802-633-4152
graceg...@gmail.com
 
Author of Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir of the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing, & Human Liberation

 

This could be helpful info for our Healthy Soils initiatives.  It's from a UN Environmental Program website.


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Gillian Barker

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Apr 5, 2018, 5:04:26 PM4/5/18
to soil...@googlegroups.com, Healthy Soils Coalition, Healthy Soils Legislation
(This final link goes to the policy-makers' summary, which is packed full of interesting material.)

Best,

Gillian

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