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☆ Record heat is set to drive the cost of fruits and vegetables higher
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Elisabeth Buchwald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But US consumers aren’t only taking a financial hit from this summer’s extreme heat by way of their electricity bills. Shoppers could soon have to pay much higher prices for fruit and vegetables as farmers shoulder higher growing costs from the heat, a reversal of a trend seen over the past year with the cost of fruits and vegetables dropping by 1%, according to June Consumer Price Index data. For the rest of this summer, consumers aren’t likely to see markedly higher prices for seasonal fruits like blueberries because contracts with distributors and retailers tend to be worked out in advance, he said. Climate change, he said, is causing his business to suffer financially with reduced crop yields. However, the steep costs to make that switch could also contribute to higher prices consumers pay for produce.

Persons: It’s, Tom Avinelis, ”, Avinelis, Tom Avinelis “, Mohamed bin, Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam, Ponnambalam, coauthors, Henry Gordon, Smith, it’s, Gordon Organizations: New, New York CNN, Foods, Costco, Safeway, CNN, Atlantic Council, University of Waterloo, University of Artificial Intelligence, “, Smart Agriculture, Columbia University Locations: New York, Fresno , California, Willamette, Oregon, California, Ontario, Canada, University, Abu Dhabi, Santa Maria , California

☆ Biden kicks off rural America tour in Minnesota
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden holds an event about American retirement economics in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2023. Thirteen top administration officials will visit rural places in 15 states, including election battlegrounds like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona, to highlight investments in rural communities, where one in five Americans live. A campaign official told Reuters that Biden would also participate in a fundraiser in Minneapolis after the farm visit. Biden beat former president Donald Trump in Minnesota by 52.4% to 45.3%, winning the state's 10 electoral college votes out of a total of 538 total. "President Biden believes that investing in America means investing in all of America and leaving no one behind," Neera Tanden, who heads the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters.

Persons: Joe Biden, Leah Millis, Biden, Dean Phillips, Donald Trump, Karine Jean, Pierre, Phillips, Jaylani Hussein, Tanden, Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason, Andrew Hay, Stephen Coates Organizations: White, REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Democratic, of American Islamic Relations, Muslim American, St Paul International Airport, Domestic Policy Council, Black, Republicans, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minneapolis, Gaza, Israel, America, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Raleigh , North Carolina, Northfield, Puerto Rico

☆ Agriculture Dept. to Invest $300 Million to Measure Greenhouse Emissions
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Linda Qiu | More About Linda Qiu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Agriculture Department said on Wednesday that it would establish a monitoring and data collection network to measure greenhouse gas emissions and determine how much carbon can be captured using certain farming practices. The network, using $300 million in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, will help quantify the outcomes of so-called climate-smart or regenerative agricultural practices, a cornerstone of the department’s approach to addressing a warming planet. The research and data that is collected will also be crucial to measuring progress on President Biden’s goal of halving greenhouse emissions by the end of the decade. “It’s not just simply about promoting climate-smart agriculture, not simply about promoting proper science,” Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, said in a news conference on Tuesday ahead of the announcement. The department has also provided billions in additional funding to farming projects that reduce emissions, in part by capturing carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases, from the atmosphere and storing it as carbon in the soil.

Persons: Biden’s, “ It’s, Tom Vilsack, Biden Organizations: Agriculture Department

The House agriculture committee will likely be led starting in January by Glenn "GT" Thompson of Pennsylvania. The farm bill has a historical reputation of bipartisanship, so some advocates told Reuters they are warily optimistic. Passage of the 2014 farm bill was held up more than a year as conservative House Republicans tried unsuccessfully to strip the bill of nutrition programs. Every Republican member of the House agriculture committee signed a letter calling the funding “abusive and troublesome." At an August farm conference in Iowa, Thompson said if he led the agriculture committee, he would "ensure that the farm bill doesn't become a climate bill."

SummarySummary Companies Money to help farmers adapt to climate impactsTo share tech innovations, help women farmersAdaptation finance a key focus of COP27 talksSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt Nov 7 (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $1.4 billion to help smallholder farmers cope with the impacts of climate change, part of efforts at global climate talks in Egypt to scale up supply of so-called adaptation finance. The world is currently not doing enough to help poorer nations withstand the effects of global warming, the United Nations said last week. The Gates Foundation's commitment, announced at the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, will help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia build resilience into their work practices and improve food security. "The climate crisis is causing enormous harm every day as it jeopardizes entire regions of people and economies," Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement. The foundation said its funding would go towards climate smart agriculture projects, new applications of digital technologies and other innovations, and to support women farmers.

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