Leading Change: Climate & Conservation
NWI Food & Farm Climate Action Plan
Happening now! Thanks to a grant from the ReAmp Network, the NWI Food Council, the Shirley Heinze Land Trust and partners from around the region are coming together in 2024 to create a Food and Farm focused Climate Action Plan for our region. Learn more about this project.
We are currently seeking participants for focus groups for the NWI Food & Farm Climate Action Plan! It’s pretty simple — we want to hear your stories and experiences living in NW Indiana. How has our changing environment impacted you?
As we co-create a plan and create a vision for the future, we believe that it is important to hear from the people who are living in our communities, and who may be experiencing the impacts of climate change in real time.
Focus groups have very limited spots. Compensation is available and you can apply at the button below!
Focus Group Details:
Rensselaer Focus Group: April 17, 2024, 5-7PM CST
LaPorte Focus Group: March 20, 2024, 5-7PM CST
East Chicago Focus Group: April 18, 2024, 5-7PM CST
Climate Change
The industrial agriculture industry is a significant source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, from farm equipment emitting carbon dioxide with tilling, planting, pesticide and fertilizer applications, and harvest. Transporting produce and livestock long distances to market adds even more. Industrial farmers typically feed their animals corn and soy, which are grown in vast monocultures with fertilizers and pesticides produced via fossil fuels. Methane emitted from corn and soy fed livestock has a devastating impact on our climate. Furthermore, nitrous oxide, another potent greenhouse gas, seeps into the air from bare soil and synthetic fertilizers.
But agriculture offers some of the most hopeful and compelling opportunities to counter climate change. Trapping carbon in the soil through practices such as cover cropping, low- or no-till cultivation, and crop rotation could globally store up to the equivalent of eight billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year—almost matching current annual emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
What is Regenerative Agriculture?
“Regenerative Agriculture” describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.
Infographic provided by Grain Millers, Inc.
Climate Resources, Statistics and Literature:
Project Drawdown Climate Change Solutions for Food, Agriculture & Land Use
Kiss the Ground - Documentary, Toolkits, Grants and Education Tools
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) - Regenerative Agriculture 101
Our Partners in Countering Climate Change:
Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Indiana Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts
“Without farmland and ranchland, we can't win the global fight against climate change. Our food, our water, our environment, our survival—it all depends on American agricultural land.”
– American Farmland Trust
Conservation
We must keep farmers on the land, promote regenerative farming practices, and protect farmland.
“America’s irreplaceable farmland grows our food. It also supports a trillion dollar a year agriculture economy. Farmland is the foundation of our rural communities, providing jobs, recreational opportunities, and a deep connection to the land.
Well-managed farmland supports wildlife and biodiversity, cleans our water, increases resilience to natural disasters like floods and fires, and helps combat climate change. It’s now clear that we can’t realize global climate goals only by reducing emissions, that we also need to retain farmland and actively manage it to draw down carbon from the air. Yet we are losing it at an alarming rate. We have lost millions of acres of farmland to development. On land that continues to be farmed, we are also losing ground—quite literally. We have lost billions of tons of topsoil.”
– American Farmland Trust
Future Conservation Initiatives:
Our future initiatives include:
Provide farmers with support for agricultural land conservation easement applications
Develop an agricultural land trust for NW Indiana
Advocate for municipalities to include long range farmland preservation in planning and code