“LOS ANGELES — Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday the appointment of Los Angeles’ first forest officer, a position that will oversee urban forests in an effort to plant 90,000 trees by 2021.

“Every tree we plant can help stem the tide of the climate crisis, and when we expand our urban forest, we can sow the seeds of a healthier, more sustainable future for communities across our city,” Garcetti said.

The mayor appointed Rachel Malarich, a certified arborist, to the post.

According to the mayor’s office, Malarich has spent more than 12 years working to increase tree canopy in urban areas throughout Southern California, devising strategic management plans to expand urban forests and promoting community engagement.”

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“Will Harris is many things to many people. To chefs and foodies, he is a legendary farmer producing some of the world’s best pasture-raised meats infused with the terroir of South Georgia. To athletes, body-hackers, and health-conscious consumers, he is the owner of White Oak Pastures, which ships humanely-raised, non-GMO, grassfed proteins to their doorsteps. To the communities surrounding Bluffton, Georgia, he is one of the last good ole’ boys and the largest private employer in the county. To his colleagues in agriculture, he’s a renegade and an inspiration. But Will Harris’ legacy might turn out to be something else entirely. He may be remembered as the cattleman who figured out how to enlist cows in future generations’ struggle to reverse climate change.

Industrial-Sized Cow Farts

Almost everyone these days has been educated that carbon emissions from industrialized beef production are a startlingly large contributor to man-made climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that livestock is already responsible for at least 14.5% of greenhouse gases being released worldwide.^[1] FAO also estimates that global beef consumption will exponentially grow until it reaches 105 million metric tons before 2050.^[2] Statistics on how bad beef consumption is for the environment are so ubiquitous that it is almost unthinkable for many climate scientists to advocate for anything but a vegetarian diet. Luckily for meat-eaters, scientists at Quantis, one of the world’s most respected environmental research and design firms, were not convinced that was the full story.”

Read the rest of the article here!

Had a great visit with Resilient Agriculture grower Jim Koan of Almar Farm and Orchards in Flushing MI this past weekend. Jim says that weather challenges have grown more frequent and more extreme since 2013. His decision to move to producing cider and other processed apple products continues to serve him well. Jim has expanded his line of JK Scrumpy’s organic ciders and offers many other apple-based products, including a drinking vinegar (made with Jim’s apple cider vinegar) called switchel. Switchel is an old-fashioned “energy drink”, which has been served to generations of hard-working field hands to give them a boost of energy and to help them rehydrate in the hot summer sun. Yum! Thanks for a great visit Jim!

Check out their farm and some amazing products here. 

Thanks to Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, USDA Pacific Northwest Climate Hub Fellow, for this review of my SARE bulletin. 

“USDA SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education) recently published a new resource for land managers and those who advise them titled, “Cultivating Climate Resilience on Farms and Ranches.” This resource outlines some of the challenges that farmers and ranchers will face as climate change leads to more extreme and variable weather. While the resource is national in scope, there is a great table that briefly explores the observed and expected changes in weather across seven U.S. regions, including the Northwest.” 

Check out the rest of the review here! 

Looking forward to a busy spring schedule sharing the good news about the climate change solutions in resilient agriculture and food systems! Over the next few months, I’ll be working in North Carolina, Missouri, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, and Wisconsin with farmers and ranchers, agricultural educators, researchers and extension agents, students studying sustainable agriculture and food systems, ecological landscapers, sustainable wine producers, and climate change adaptation professionals.  If I’ll be in your neck of the woods, please stop by a say hi!