Kim ten Wolde’s Post

Here's an article that touches on some of the soil health work being done in eastern Colorado, including our farm. My presentation at the last Colorado Conservation Tillage Association meeting delved into far more detail, but basically my focus has evolved over the last few years away from the addition of "sexy" regenerative ag practices that usually make headlines towards more fundamental changes. First and foremost is intensifying and diversifying the crop rotation to build soil carbon in an area of not just limited precip, but also highly variable precip. Our crop toolbox has since expanded from wheat-corn-fallow to a flexible rotation with over 10 crop options. Livestock integration is another high priority, including the virtual fence collars and cattle infrastructure on cropland. I've found it critical to remember that no soil health principle identifies a specific practice (such as the revered cover crops), nor do they use the words "always" or "never". All that said, it's cool to watch the interest in soil health growing - not just at the farm level, but the institutions that can support a new mindset.

Last week, IPIFF (International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed)'s Secretary General, Christophe Derrien, and Deputy Secretary-General, Steven Barbosa, met with Mrs Isilda Gomes, President of the @Natural Resources Commission of the European Committee of the Regions.   The Committee of the Regions' NAT Commission brings together over 100 mayors, councillors and regional presidents and covers a wide range of topics related to #rural development, #agriculture, and #fishery, amongst others. The Rural Agenda for Europe and public health are the leading policy themes in the current mandate.    🐛 The meeting between the President of the NAT Commission and IPIFF's Secretariat afforded an opportunity to discuss the benefits of the insect-farming sector for Europe's regions. The Secretariat also presented IPIFF's #ContributionPaper towards the Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on 'The Future of the Common Agricultural Policy'.   ✅ At IPIFF, we have been actively involved in multiple activities and initiatives related to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post-2027, working towards the fair inclusion of insect farmers as part of the CAP.    ♻ With its #circular practices, insect farming can have a tremendous contribution to the sustainability goals enshrined in the Common Agricultural Policy. #CAP #CommonAgriculturalPolicy #insectprotein #insectfarming #ipiff #sustainability 

Yesterday, we got Mad and Wild! We kicked off Day 2 of RFSI Europe with a fireside chat with Wildfarmed founders Andy Cato and Edd Lees and Philip Taylor, Ph.D. of Mad Agriculture. It was MADLY entertaining - complete with Phil’s final touches: a fire crackling on the cell phone and Stetson hats, and… It was WILDLY inspirational, with Ed and Andy sharing the passion and sincere motivation behind their work. We asked Wildfarmed to speak because the regenerative supply chain they have built is a critically important model of what can and should be done. But the real impact of what they shared came down to their unique grasp of the power of food in our lives. Here are a few quotes from Andy that really resonated with me to show you what I mean: 🌱 Of his own journey to farming, Andy explained how he planted some seeds and his feeling of joy and satisfaction when the food from this seed hit his table: “Why is this not the first thing and the last thing that we learn in school?” 👨🌾 He explained that most farmers have never eaten what they’ve grown and added: “Never underestimate the power of a farmer being able to take their kids or grandkids to the bakery and say this bread is grown with our wheat.” 💪 And he also warned us not to underestimate “The number of young people who feel like they are living through a slow plane crash, and that their food choices are a huge source of agency” All of this, reminding us of the deeply restorative power of food and food choices on so many levels. Regenerative Food Systems Investment #regenerativeagriculture #regenerativefarming #farming #foodsystems #supplychain #RFSIEurope24

According to the FDA, honeybees are indispensable to U.S. agriculture, yet their future and the future of dependent agricultural economies are perilous. MetLife supports the proliferation of honey bees by introducing beehives to some of our office locations. Following the success of our beehives at our Cary, North Carolina, campus, we partnered with Bee Downtown to bring beehives to our Tampa, Florida, campus. Our bees in North Carolina produced 235 pounds of honey in 2022, flying 12.9 million miles in the process. This yield is 100% higher per hive than North Carolina’s reported state average. Stay tuned for updated numbers in MetLife 2023 Sustainability Report in June. #Honeybees #Agriculture #Economy

“#SeizeTheDay” That’s what we should learn from the “#BusyBees ”.🐝 Bees serve as more than honey producers; they are indispensable pollinators crucial for fertilizing a wide variety of crops and wild flora. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, approximately 75% of the world's food crops rely, at least in part, on pollination, with bees emerging as the most efficient pollinators. The absence of bees would result in the disappearance of numerous fruits, vegetables, and nuts from our diets, leading to food shortages and disrupting ecological harmony. In recent years bees have faced many survival challenges with climate change and careless agricultural practices. How can we play a role in supporting the survival of bees? Given the challenges bees are encountering, particularly from the excessive use of pesticides especially, broad-spectrum neonicotinoids, it's imperative to adopt practices that support their survival. Embracing the principles of #SustainableAgriculture and #ResidueFreeFarming entails reducing the reliance on such chemicals, which is essential for safeguarding bee populations. Share this content with your connections and stay connected to receive such insightful knowledge on your feed.✅ #WorldBeeDay #HoneyBee #NanoBee

ICYMI, to day is #WorldBeeDay. It's easy to take bees for granted - or to fear them for their stings (no matter how much you like their honey). But without them (and other pollinators), plants that require pollination will not bear fruit. Their are some 4,000 species of bees in the USA, 2,000 in Australia, and c. 270 in the UK. You've probably read about the collapse in insect populations around the world - and this effects bees too. What you may not know is that a lot of agricultural pollination now requires farmers to hire bees - yes, bees-as-a-service has become essential to the food chain... yet another example of how 20th century industrial agricultural practices may have increased food yields, but have also increased the fragility of our agricultural ecosystems. As Philip Lymbery put it rather well earlier today: "No bees, no insects, no life." Many of the people who will read this message work in finance and investment - so why does this matter to you? Leaving aside future crops of peaches and tomatoes, one inevitable reality is that we must reform our food supply chains so that they are more secure and more resilient (aka more sustainable). This means adopting 21st century regenerative and restorative agricultural techniques, which amongst other things will in turn boost insect populations. The best part: much of the investment required will essentially be infrastructure-like in nature. The birth of eco-infrastructure as an asset class is just around the corner! #Impact #sustainability #ESG #Regenerative #Agriculture #Food #Bees #Farming #Investment #Infrastructure

Want to learn more about climate-smart agriculture? Climate Solutions for Health Lab researcher Valerie Stull and Margaret Krome, Policy Program Director Michael Fields Agricultural Institute co-authored an op-ed earlier this year on conservation opportunities of the Farm Bill. The article starts off describing the threats of climate change to farming, including droughts and flooding, and then details how climate-resilient farms and supporting the conservation programs on working farmlands can make a positive difference for farmers. As of now, congress has not passed a new Farm Bill.To read the full article and see their three key recommendations, click the link below! #farmbill #climatefriendlyfarming #conservation

Commitment to what is best, is often a lot harder than doing what is typical. Even if we know some things are better, choices to do what’s cheaper, faster, easier, all exist. So does our innate ability to emotionally justify our own actions. So, yeah, it may be better to take the stairs but… I don’t want to be sweaty, I’m in a hurry, too tired… and it gets skipped again, I gain no stamina, don’t push myself a bit harder and stay “too tired” -again. It’s easier to use chemicals, processes that are familiar, things we can have delivered by morning, but how long can we say it’s acceptable? I love this story of doing the hard things, pushing through the overwhelming feeling that the problem is too big, and becoming another great example of resilience and success. #success #farming #naturalsolutions

🚫 #Florida bans #cultivatedmeat! 🌱 Governor Ron DeSantis signs legislation banning #cultivatedmeat in Florida on May the 1st. During a ceremony in Wauchula, the governor emphasized the need to protect the agriculture industry from what he described as an #ideological agenda. He declared: "“They want to basically eliminate meat, they want to eliminate cattle, they want to eliminate chickens, all this stuff, and they want to create protein in laboratories. So, it’s essentially lab-created meat. And their goal is to get to a point where you will not be raising cattle, you will not be developing meat like we’ve being doing for hundreds and hundreds of years in the state of Florida". 🛠️#RightWing #ClimateChangeDenialPolitics describe #CultivatedMeat as an expression of elites aiming to alter traditions. DeSantis, an alumnus of Yale and Harvard, not only overlooks his own elite background but also dangerously pits genuine politics of the people against techno elites. The reality is that "farm animals" themselves are influenced by corporate powers, elitist ideology, and technopower. 🧬#SelectiveBreeding, #genetic interventions, and sophisticated technologies have long been part of #animalagriculture. 🥩To label #CulturedMeat as ideology of the elites is #populism and disseminates #fakenews. 📉 It is also denial of the REAL elephant in the room, which is the need to drastically reduce the number of animals used in agriculture in a short time. 🌐Neither #technooptimism (aka #technodeterminism) nor #technodenial help the need for a rapid #justtransition in #foodproduction, just for human and nonhuman animals. https://lnkd.in/gYnzTRix #Florida #Agriculture #ClimateChange #RonDeSantis #culturedmeat #LabGrownMeat #Legislation #animalrights🌾🐄🚫

Transforming our fruit and vegetable growing sector is vital for our health, climate, and nature 🍎🥕🥔 The new report 'Home-grown', released by The Wildlife Trusts last week, delves into why we need to care about fruit and vegetable production in England. But you may ask why on earth do we care about horticulture? It occupies such a small amount of land compared to cereals or livestock. There’s not much wildlife in a potato field is there? Yet that potato field could harbour more nature above and below ground, especially if the soil is protected, fewer pesticides are used, and more nature rich habitats could surround it. This new report emphasises the critical need to increase support for the sector, allowing agroecological fruit and vegetable production to be scaled up across the country, while transitioning away from intensive cultivation of carbon-rich peat soils and exploring more sustainable, nature-friendly forms of production. 📖 Jointly produced with the Soil Association and Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming, you can read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eB3h2Vnp #Government #Horticulture #Argiculture #Food #Nature #Climate #Health #Peat #Carbon #Soil #Report