The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean

Prokopy, Linda Stalker; Gramig, Benjamin M.; Bower, Alisha; Church, Sarah P.; Ellison, Brenna; Gassman, Philip W.; Genskow, Ken; Gucker, Douglas; Hallett, Steven G.; Hill, Jason; Hunt, Natalie; Johnson, Kris; Kaplan, Ian; Kelleher, J. Paul; Kok, Hans; Komp, Michael; Lammers, Peter J.; LaRose, Sarah E.; Liebman, Matt; Margenot, Andrew J.; Mulla, D. J.; O’Donnell, Michael; Peimer, Alex W.; Reaves, Elizabeth; Salazar, Kara; Schelly, Chelsea; Schilling, Keith E.; Secchi, Silvia; Spaulding, Aslihan D.; Swenson, David A.; Thompson, Aaron W.; Ulrich‐Schad, Jessica D.

doi:10.1007/s10460-020-10077-x

Cited by 47 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…Similarly, I find that areas with higher rates of insured acreage are strongly associated with decreased crop suitability (figure 3; SI figure 18). Participation in these programs is also associated with other maladaptive practices such as reduced on-farm diversification [66,67], the cultivation of more water-intensive crops [68,69], and the expansion of corn and soy production beyond the periphery of the Corn Belt, displacing other crops better suited to the biophysical realities of the region [11,[70][71][72][73]. Given the overwhelming importance of federal crop insurance to countless U.S. farmers [31,61,74], it is imperative to critically examine whether these insurance programs are decoupling farmers from environmental risk in a manner that disincentivizes agricultural adaptation to changing climate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting cultivation geographies in the Central and Eastern US

Burchfield¹

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Climate change is projected to transform agricultural systems around the globe. Though climate strongly influences where and how farmers cultivate, millennia of agricultural innovation have expanded cultivation geographies far beyond what sun, soil, and water alone can support. Evaluating how climate interacts with human activity to shape cultivation possibilities for farmers is vital to understanding the impacts of climate change on agriculture. I assess how climate interacts with agricultural activity to shape the cultivation geographies of six major crops: corn, soy, wheat, cotton, hay and alfalfa. For each crop, I model biophysical suitability, or the probability of a crop’s occurrence given only biophysical conditions, and agricultural suitability, or the probability of a crops occurrence given biophysical conditions as well as agricultural inputs, farm resources, and farm(er) characteristics. Though biophysical conditions strongly shape cultivation geographies, agricultural activity—particularly the use of crop insurance and agricultural inputs—amplifies and expands the cultivation geographies of these major crops, often into regions biophysically unsuited to their cultivation. I project biophysically driven shifts in cultivation geographies to 2100 under low, moderate, and high emissions scenarios and find that these geographies will shift strongly north, with the Corn Belt becoming unsuitable to the cultivation of corn by 2100. These results indicate that significant agricultural adaptation will be necessary and inevitable in the Central and Eastern U.S.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting cultivation geographies in the Central and Eastern US

Burchfield¹

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…The U.S. agricultural landscape urgently needs transformation (Prokopy et al., 2020). Along with other annual grain crops, maize ( Zea mays L.) production is devastating soil, water, atmospheric, and biotic resources (Franzluebbers et al., 2020).…”

Section: The Grain‐fed Beef Finishing System Is Devastating To Ecosys...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazed perennial grasslands can match current beef production while contributing to climate mitigation and adaptation

Jackson

2022

Agricultural & Env Letters

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The U.S. grain-finished beef system is highly productive but has many negative consequences for human health and well-being because it pollutes surface and groundwaters, exacerbates flooding, reduces biodiversity, and contributes to climate change. Moving the entire U.S. grain-fed beef production system to a grass-finished system is possible without displacing food production and under conservative soil carbon (C) change estimates would result in a reduced but similar C footprint, while improving soil health, water quality, and biodiversity. More optimistic estimates for soil C accumulation indicate the system would result in significant atmospheric C drawdown. Agroecological transformation like this is limited only by our imagination and policies that incentivize agriculture for the public good rather than profits for a few.

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“…We must identify “new paths to a new normal grounded in more sustainable, resilient and just forms of agriculture” (Sanderson 2020 , p. 516). The experience of pandemic demonstrates the importance of a shift toward a food system that prioritizes food sovereignty, sustainability, diversity and resiliency within communities and supply chains (Altieri and Nicholls 2020 ; Blay-Palmer et al 2020 ; Darnhofer 2020 ; Emmad and Pena 2020 ; Gleissman 2020 ; Imhoff 2020 ; Nabhan 2020 ; Prokopy et al 2020 ; Richardson 2020 ).…”

Section: Resiliency In the Food Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food sovereignty and sustainability mid-pandemic: how Michigan’s experience of Covid-19 highlights chasms in the food system

King

McFarland

2021

Agric Hum Values

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This paper offers observations on people’s lived experience of the food system in Michigan during the early Covid-19 pandemic as an initial critical foray into the everyday pandemic food world. The Covid-19 crisis illuminates a myriad of adaptive food behaviors, as people struggle to address their destabilized lives, including the casual acknowledgement of the pandemic, then anxiety of the unknown, the subsequent new dependency, and the possible emergence of a new normal. The pandemic makes the injustices inherent in the food system apparent across communities, demonstrating that food injustice destabilizes all members of the food system, regardless of their social location. The challenges of eating in a pandemic also reinforce the importance of building a sustainable food system; the challenges of food sovereignty and food sustainability are inextricably linked, and the pandemic lays this bare.

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The urgency of transforming the Midwestern U.S. landscape into more than corn and soybean

Cited by 47 publications

References 1 publication

Shifting cultivation geographies in the Central and Eastern US

Shifting cultivation geographies in the Central and Eastern US

Grazed perennial grasslands can match current beef production while contributing to climate mitigation and adaptation

Food sovereignty and sustainability mid-pandemic: how Michigan’s experience of Covid-19 highlights chasms in the food system

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