2.6 million acres of grassland habitat lost in North American Great Plains in one year

Across the U.S. and Canadian Great Plains, approximately 2.6 million acres of intact grassland—an area larger than Yellowstone National Park—were plowed up in 2019 to make room for row-crop production, according to World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2021 Plowprint Report. The new findings represent an increase of 500,000 acres of grassland conversion over the previous year, highlighting […]

Nestlé investing $1.29 billion to support transition to a regenerative food system

(Editor’s note: It’s great to see large companies like Nestlé make substantial commitments to regenerative agriculture, but there is no mention in their press release about reducing agrochemical inputs such as herbicides. Killing cover crops with Roundup is not regenerative agriculture.) Nestlé is laying out its plans to support and accelerate the transition to a […]

Cargill aims to create new revenue stream for farmers as part of 10 million-acre regenerative agriculture commitment

Cargill RegenConnectTM links farmers to the emerging carbon marketplace and aims to scale the voluntary adoption of regenerative ag practices. But questions remain about the emerging carbon markets. As part of Cargill’s commitment to advance regenerative agriculture practices across 10 million acres of land in North America by 2030, the agricultural giant has been enrolling […]

First-of-its-kind study shows that diverse landscapes could boost U.S. crop yields by 20%

The team found that landscapes with increased diversity produced ~17 to 18 bushels more per acre, of corn and wheat By Emma Bryce Increasing land cover diversity in agricultural landscapes is about more than protecting nature: it could also increase crop yields across large areas of the United States by up to 20%, according to […]

Cover crop cost-share funds available for farmers in Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska

Farmers thinking of planting cover crops this fall can access cost-share funds from one of seven private cost-share programs in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska thanks to cost-share initiatives Practical Farmers of Iowa of Iowa has launched over the past seven years with supply chain partners. The following grain merchandisers are participating: ADM/Unilever (Des Moines, Iowa) […]