Pinboard (jm)
https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/
recent bookmarks from jmCan You Trust a Pro-Beef Professor? It’s Complicated2022-07-27T11:10:11+00:00
https://undark.org/2021/02/03/beef-industry-funding-climate/
jmacademia astroturfing frank-mitloehner research uc-davis jhu climate-change beef dairy cows farming emissionshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:e40633f5e047/Ireland by land quality2022-05-03T14:29:38+00:00
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Classification-of-Irelands-land-area-into-four-categories-in-relation-to-availability_fig1_292988995
jmrewilding rural land ireland maps geodata fishery agriculture farminghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:6c8b099c84ff/GNI report on biomethane generation in Ireland2021-10-22T08:48:05+00:00
https://www.gasnetworks.ie/biomethane-sustainability-report-2021.pdf
jmbiogas biomethane methane fuel ireland sustainability climate-change gni farminghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:5e21011430d2/excellent letter to the editor of the Farmer's Journal regarding the IFA's climate-denialist stance2020-02-17T11:13:53+00:00
https://twitter.com/think_or_swim/status/1227942724197900290
jmDr Donal Murphy-Bokern M.Agr.Sc. (NUI), Kroge-Ehrendorf, Germany
Dear Sir: I've been involved in reseach on diet, sustainable agriculture and climate change for 25 years. Having followed the public debate across Europe in that time, I can only describe the current debate about diet and greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland as hysterical.
This hysteria started a year ago with the then Irish Farmers Association's president appearing to refer to the EAT Lancet Commission, which includes highly respected nutritionists from the Harvard School of Medicine, as "quacks masquerading as nutrition experts".
This was followed by his condemnation of the Taoiseach for answering a question about his carbon footprint by stating an intention to moderate his consumption of red meat. No vegan-led campaign could have better drawn public attention to the links between diet and environment than the IFA's boorish and ignorant reflex reactions.
The hysteria goes on. Now, just a year later, the IFA's chosen greenhouse gas "guru" reports that methane from farming should be treated differently to CO,, raising hopes of a get-out-of-jail card for cattle and sheep.
Self-description as a guru does not invite the confidence of scientific peers and Dr Mitloehner's presentation, published by the IFA, reveals why he is as controversial as is widely reported.
Methane's short-lived nature does not lead to the public policy outcomes that he implies it should with climate acquittal for ruminant production. He reduced discussion about the impact of livestock to one currency, which is carbon, and then misrepresented the valuation of that currency.
Despite being a native of Germany, where most land not suitable for arable crops is under forest, he argued that marginal land in Ireland cannot be used for anything other than for keeping cattle and sheep.
But what was most striking about the IFA's guru is how he worked the audience using rhetorical tricks more associated with demagogic politicians than science.
This science denial included using the strawman fallacy, raising and then countering several bogus opposing arguments. Listening to him, one could be forgiven for believing that vegans have been protesting on the streets of Dublin threatening to interfere with the nation's food supplies.
He used the classical conspiracy theory complete with a collective name for the conspirators: "destructors".
He then drew on popular images of Ireland ("green and lush" and "happy cows") to ingratiate himself with the audience while making wild and poorly informed assumptions about the scope for carbon sequestration on Irish grassland, displaying a poor understanding of basic soil science.
The IFA's stated purpose was the rebalancing of the public debate. Hosting a controversial US scientist who refers to those with views different to those of the IFA on these matters as "destructors" is hardly a promising way forward.
The IFA seems to continue to take pride in caring little for the concerns and expectations of the wider society upon which the real long-term interests of its members ultimately depend. Their faux-militancy might go down well with some members, but it now risks presenting Irish farmers as environmental and social pariahs.
]]>letters farmers-journal farming ifa ireland climate-change climate-denialismhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:0788c97473cf/Food types by CO2 footprint2020-01-27T10:12:54+00:00
https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local
jmFor most foods – and particularly the largest emitters – most GHG emissions result from land use change (shown in green), and from processes at the farm stage (brown). Farm-stage emissions include processes such as the application of fertilizers – both organic (“manure management”) and synthetic; and enteric fermentation (the production of methane in the stomachs of cattle). Combined, land use and farm-stage emissions account for more than 80% of the footprint for most foods.
Transport is a small contributor to emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters. In beef from beef herds, it’s 0.5%. Not just transport, but all processes in the supply chain after the food left the farm – processing, transport, retail and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions.
Excellent graph from Our World In Data. tl;dr: beef is massively damaging in terms of emissions, poultry is far less, then fish, then various kinds of veg are at the low end. It's shocking how much impact beef has.]]>co2 food data farming carbon emissions climate-change methane transport locavoreshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:bbc987d21be4/Financial supports to growing forests on farmland in Ireland2019-10-08T13:16:37+00:00
https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/forestry-enviro/forestry/how-farmers-can-capitalise-on-fastgrowing-willow-and-eucalyptus-37278722.html
jm
Rather than focusing on the production of a commercial conifer (or broadleaf) timber crop, you can also choose to establish a new native woodland. Not only will an ecologically rich, biodiverse woodland be created, but it also presents opportunities for planting in various environmentally sensitive areas such as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs). Establishing a native woodland will provide you with higher annual payments of €665-€680/ha/yr for 15 years.
]]>farming forestry trees growing rewilding ireland fundshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1845cd94d9cf/"Thread on climate change & Irish agri lobbyists"2018-12-21T11:49:11+00:00
https://twitter.com/climatecaseire/status/1017404613417316352
jmdairy beef ireland farming climate-change climate lobbying governmenthttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d62d9ad53810/Irish agricultural CO2 emissions actually INCREASED by 2.9% last year2018-12-06T10:07:22+00:00
https://twitter.com/ellamcsweeney/status/1070290888914546688?s=08
jmIrish EPA: agriculture greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.9% in 2017 “The most significant drivers are higher dairy cow numbers (+3.1%) which reflects national plans to expand milk production”
Feck's sake.]]>epa ireland co2 greenhouse-gases emissions green farming agriculturehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8e5a393df43b/Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware2017-03-22T14:26:45+00:00
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
jmTo avoid the draconian locks that John Deere puts on the tractors they buy, farmers throughout America's heartland have started hacking their equipment with firmware that's cracked in Eastern Europe and traded on invite-only, paid online forums. Tractor hacking is growing increasingly popular because John Deere and other manufacturers have made it impossible to perform "unauthorized" repair on farm equipment, which farmers see as an attack on their sovereignty and quite possibly an existential threat to their livelihood if their tractor breaks at an inopportune time.
(via etienneshrdlu)]]>hacking farming drm john-deere tractors firmware right-to-repair repairhttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ded2bfd950e1/No Harm, No Fowl: Chicken Farm Inappropriate Choice for Data Disposal2015-11-10T10:55:27+00:00
http://www.canadiancybersecuritylaw.com/2015/10/no-harm-no-fowl-chicken-farm-inappropriate-choice-for-data-disposal/
jmThat’s a lesson that Spruce Manor Special Care Home in Saskatchewan had to learn the hard way (as surprising as that might sound). As a trustee with custody of personal health information, Spruce Manor was required under section 17(2) of the Saskatchewan Health Information Protection Act to dispose of its patient records in a way that protected patient privacy. So, when Spruce Manor chose a chicken farm for the job, it found itself the subject of an investigation by the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. In what is probably one of the least surprising findings ever, the commissioner wrote in his final report that “I recommend that Spruce Manor […] no longer use [a] chicken farm to destroy records”, and then for good measure added “I find using a chicken farm to destroy records unacceptable.”
]]>data law privacy funny chickens farming via:pinboard data-protection health medical-recordshttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:8fc2d27d6956/This tree produces 40 different types of fruit2014-07-23T16:42:48+00:00
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142107-25892.html
jmAn art professor from Syracuse University in the US, Van Aken grew up on a family farm before pursuing a career as an artist, and has combined his knowledge of the two to develop his incredible Tree of 40 Fruit.
In 2008, Van Aken learned that an orchard at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station was about to be shut down due to a lack of funding. This single orchard grew a great number of heirloom, antique, and native varieties of stone fruit, and some of these were 150 to 200 years old. To lose this orchard would render many of these rare and old varieties of fruit extinct, so to preserve them, Van Aken bought the orchard, and spent the following years figuring out how to graft parts of the trees onto a single fruit tree. [...]
Aken’s Tree of 40 Fruit looks like a normal tree for most of the year, but in spring it reveals a stunning patchwork of pink, white, red and purple blossoms, which turn into an array of plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and almonds during the summer months, all of which are rare and unique varieties.
]]>fruit art amazing food agriculture grafting orchards sam-van-aken farminghttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:11d4846f0468/