Earth Day is Every Day for Farmers and Ranchers

Earth Day - a day that reminds us all to recycle more, use less and think about future generations when making decisions that can affect our environment for years to come.

But guess what? We should be cognizant of our choices more often than just once per year - as consumers we should be striving to lessen our environmental footprint every day in order to preserve our world for future generations.

Good thing that farmers and ranchers have been working towards sustainability and resource conservation for as long as they have been producing food. Here are some hard facts about food production and resource conservation:

• Farmers who grow crops like corn, soybeans and wheat, will practice crop rotation which is the process of changing what is planted in a particular location on a farm from season to season. This helps with nutrient management of the soil and soil erosion.
• Hog farmers use manure from their farm as a valuable organic fertilizer that is readily used by crop farmers to help build beneficial carbon content in soil.
• Hog farmers have also streamlined their production practices which have led to a 35% decrease in carbon footprint from 1959-2009. That's quite an improvement!
• The beef industry reduced its water use and greenhouse gas emissions by 3% and 2%, respectively

The beef industry works towards sustainable production every year.
Courtesy www.factsaboutbeef.com

What are you doing in your life to lessen your environmental footprint? How could you improve?

Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~

Conserving the Gulf Coast

I ran across a neat blog post I'd like you to see.

It's all about working together to preserve the land to the south known as the Gulf Coast.

Farmers and conservationists. Farmers as conservationists.

During the next 3 years, a program being formed by the USDA will provide farmers and ranchers in the Gulf Coast states with program assistance that will invest in the future of 16 priority watersheds in 7 major river basins. This project is being conducted with the NRCS.

The NRCS is the National Resources Conservation Services which was established during the 1930's. You'll remember from your American History courses that the Dirty 30's were a rough time for Americans because of the severe drought. Today the NRCS has expanded as a program that helps to establish conservation programs for all natural resources, and ensuring private land conservation, restoration. 

One way the GoMI program in the Gulf Coast area is working with area farmers and ranchers is to provide on-site watering technology for people who raise cattle. In the area, ranchers let their cattle graze lands that have access to streams and creeks that feed into major river basins. This can contaminate the water and threaten wildlife species. By fencing off the cattle and not allowing them to access these water sources, ranchers are playing their part in the conservation world. The NRCS is helping ranchers accomplish this goal by providing financial assistance for them to drill wells, put in wind mills or install solar-powered pumps.

I see this program as an investment in the future of this important region to the U.S. economy. The Gulf Coast employs thousands of fisherman and is home to some of the busiest tourist attractions.

What's your take on it? 

Tera