New International Ag-Climate Alliance Formed

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Dec 17, 2009 at 12:00:00 PM PST

Press Release:
December 16, 2009

New agriculture research alliance on climate should focus on low input, sustainable farming

Research can't continue unsustainable, business-as-usual model for agriculture

Copenhagen - A new global research alliance, led by New Zealand and the U.S., on agriculture and climate change should include participation from farmers in countries facing food insecurity and emphasize practices that are low-cost and ready for immediate application, said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) today.

The Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases was announced today in Copenhagen at the global climate talks. The proposal was initially made by New Zealand, but has now added the U.S. and over a dozen other countries including Denmark, India, Japan and Uruguay. The alliance agrees to boost funding within the participant countries to focus on "improving management practices and technologies" to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and support food security.

"We are concerned that this agenda will simply duplicate the pitfalls we've already seen within the U.S. agriculture research agenda, which for example spends billions of dollars on genetically engineered seeds that largely benefit transnational corporations and can take a decade to develop." said Jim Harkness, President of IATP. "This new alliance recognizes food security within the framework of climate research, and that should be applauded. To truly support food security requires developing research in-country, based on local experience and indigenous knowledge."

"The loss of traditional knowledge and seed varieties in the Global South is a much more urgent crisis, and much more crippling to the world's capacity to address climate change, than what has been the traditional U.S. research model," said Harkness. "Unfortunately, national research institutions have largely ignored the types of low-input, sustainable, small-scale systems that are needed for both food security and climate-friendly farming."

A recent global agricultural assessment, modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change process, emphasized the need to stop business-as-usual in agriculture, stressed the importance of multidisciplinary research, the participation of farmers, and greater support of traditional knowledge in food production. That global report, known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), also identifies key research gaps.

"We think the IAASTD really provides a roadmap for addressing climate change and food security," said Harkness. "Further research should build upon the IAASTD, whose recommendations can be implemented tomorrow-not a decade from now."

IATP is in Copenhagen following agriculture aspects of the global climate talks. You can read more about IATP's work on agriculture and climate at: www.iatp.org/climate.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. www.iatp.org

UNITED STATES ANNOUNCES GLOBAL RESEARCH ALLIANCE TO COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE

USDA Makes Major Financial Commitment to Conducting Research

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 16, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today joined representatives from 20 other countries across the globe to announce the formation of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, an international research collaborative to combat climate change. Vilsack announced the Partnership at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Just as climate change has no borders, our research should not," said Vilsack. "No single nation has all of the resources needed to tackle agricultural greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time enhancing food production and food security. We will not only pool our talents and existing resources but draw new resources, and even new scientists, to better understand climate change in an agricultural context and in so doing tackle one of the most important international issues of our time."

Agriculture currently produces 14 percent of global annual greenhouse gas emissions. In the coming decades, agriculture will be faced with the twin challenges of not only reducing its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions but meeting a dramatic increase in global food demand.

Over the last half-century, research on agricultural production and energy efficiency in the United States has cut in half the energy used per unit of agricultural output helping to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of agriculture. So while climate change presents the agricultural research community around the world with an awesome challenge and responsibility, it provides an opportunity for research to lead the way.

"We are here to send a strong message to the world that we are taking a historical and meaningful step in addressing the most important issue of our time," said Vilsack.

Over the next four years, USDA will expand agricultural climate change mitigation research by $90 million and contribute this research to the GRA. The increase will raise USDA's agricultural climate change mitigation research portfolio to over $130 million over the next four years, up from a base level of funding of just over $10 million in FY 2009. USDA's enhanced commitment is part of a larger increase on climate change research at the Department. Overall, USDA expects to invest over $320 million in the next four years on climate change mitigation and adaptation research for agriculture.

USDA will support the participation of developing countries in the GRA through the Borlaug Fellowship program granting Borlaug Fellowships to researchers from Alliance member developing countries so that they can work side-by-side with our scientists on climate change mitigation research.

The GRA will focus on research, development, and extension of technologies and practices to grow more food (and more climate-resilient food systems) without growing greenhouse gas emissions. This will be accomplished through partnerships among researchers in participating countries with the purpose of developing new knowledge and technologies that can be transferred to farmers and other land and resource managers around the globe. Anticipated products of the worldwide scientific collaboration include cost-effective and accurate ways of measuring greenhouse gas emissions and carbon stored in soil; new farming practices that reduce emissions and increase carbon storage in farmland in different countries; and farming methods that sustain yields while helping to mitigate climate change.

The countries which have agreed to participate in the GRA thus far include Australia, Canada, Columbia, Chile, Denmark, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

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