A Utah grant program is aiming to incentivize farmers to optimize their water use.
Historically, Utah agriculture has accounted for up to 80% of the state's water consumption, but the state's Agricultural Water Optimization Program is an initiative using state and federal funds to lower the financial barriers for ag producers to modernize and update their irrigation equipment.
Hannah Freeze, Agricultural Water Optimization Program manager for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said it covers half the cost of purchasing new, more efficient equipment. She explained the Utah Legislature and the federal government have allocated $276 million for the program and describes it as a step in the right direction, especially with agriculture being what she calls "nonnegotiable."
"It is essential to everything that we do in life," Freeze pointed out. "So, as we continue to use the scarce water that we have for agricultural purposes, this program allows our producers to be the best stewards of that precious resource. Our farmers are truly the first environmentalists."
Freeze added the program boils down to helping farmers use the scarce water the state has to still be able to meet agricultural demands. She noted it was only after capturing federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act that the program "got a big shot in the arm." Since 2019, the program continues to see increased interest, but has only been able to fund around half of the projects in the state.
The 2025 application period runs through Feb. 28.
Freeze stressed the biggest requirement to be eligible for the program is for a project to be directly tied to agricultural water use. She recognizes that irrigation needs across the state are diverse.
"We try to be open to all of the different needs based on the regions that the producers are in," Freeze added. "The real hard stop is, you've got to have 'ag water' to be able to participate. And other than that, we try to be accommodating with all the other projects."
Freeze emphasized the program has committed hundreds of millions of government dollars to help optimize water use and, while the state helps administer half of the cost of the infrastructure projects, the other half comes from the farmers themselves.
"If that doesn't say they are stepping up, they are here to help, they are at the table and they understand the role that they play as we optimize water use in the West, I don't know what does," Freeze concluded.
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About 20% of fish caught in the wild are not used to feed people across the world but a recent study found the unused portions of fish prepared for the public could be a sustainable alternative.
Inedible portions, called byproducts, can increasingly be rendered to create fish meal and fish oil. The bulk of fish meal and fish oil has traditionally come from wild-caught fish but researchers looked at rendering practices in five fisheries across the globe.
Dave Love, research professor for the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, said using byproducts from industrial fisheries is the most promising alternative to catching fish just to produce fish oil and meal. He added consumers in the U.S. have plenty of byproducts they could use.
"U.S. consumers favor things like fillets over eating whole fish or minimally processed fish," Love explained. "When you make a fillet, about 50% of the fish goes to the human food supply. About 50% goes to other uses. So we're really looking at that 50%, asking how much of it is used to produce fish meal and fish oil."
Fishmeal and fish oil are typically made from catching fish such as anchovy, sardine and menhaden, which are crucial to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Of fish caught specifically to produce fish oil and fish meal, less than 60% of byproducts were reused. Love pointed out there can be tension in the industry as it both fishes to feed humans and to make fish meal for other fish. He said disposing of byproducts by fisheries is not the most sustainable method and it can be better used to make sure fewer fish are being caught solely to feed other fish.
"The ones that were not using their byproducts were grinding it and dumping it in the ocean," Love noted. "That's not a really great use of this resource. And we think going forward, we'd like to see policymakers really encourage industries to better utilize byproducts and not grind and dump them at sea."
The aquaculture industry is the biggest user of fish meal and fish oil.
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School districts across Arkansas have until February 28 to apply to participate in the Farm to School Institute.
The yearlong program, through the department of agriculture, helps schools launch or expand their Farm to School programs.
Jessica Chapman, program coordinator with the state Department of Agriculture Farm to School Institute, said selected schools will bring a team to a summer retreat to devise a one-of-a-kind plan for their campus.
"Even if they already have something going, this is a great way to build their Farm-to-School program in all different aspects," said Chapman. "So, we focus on classroom, we focus on getting Farm-to-School in the cafeteria and in the community."
Each team will be paired with a coach and receive $1,000 to implement its plan. The application is available at ARfarmtoschool.org.
Nearly 85% of schools in Arkansas are participating in at least one Farm to School activity. All schools can apply to be part of the institute.
Chapman said each campus is different, and they look for programs with a strong community base and an engaged administration.
"You've got some elementary schools that's got an outdoor classroom," said Chapman. "You've got some that are at middle schools, and they've got maybe a hydroponic system, or maybe at the high school it has like a really strong FFA program. We help you evaluate where your school's at."
Arkansas is one of only 16 states nationwide to offer the institute. Fifteen teams will be selected to participate.
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Recent editorials in The New York Times and Washington Post defending factory farms make one critical mistake, according to environmental advocates: They both assume there is no other option.
Peter Lehner, sustainable food and farming program managing attorney for the advocacy group Earthjustice, said industrial agriculture does not feed the world. It feeds itself, perpetuating a cycle of overproduction, sickness, and environmental degradation. And U.S. taxpayers foot the bill, sending tens of billions of dollars each year to large corporations.
"There are huge numbers of subsidies to the livestock industry," Lehner pointed out. "The hamburger that you pay for is only a fraction of the true cost as reflected by what taxpayers pay."
The New York Times editorial argued the crop yields of smaller-scale family farms are insufficient to meet the world's daily caloric needs. The Washington Post editorial urged readers to save the planet by not eating free-range beef, arguing moving millions of livestock off pastures and into high-density operations, where in many cases animals cannot even move around, conserves valuable farmland.
Lehner contended a better way to make more farmland available is to stop growing inefficient crops. For example, it takes 15 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef.
"We use almost 60 million acres, an area the size of Indiana and Illinois combined, to produce biofuel," Lehner noted. "Where we could produce the same amount of energy with a couple hundred thousand acres of solar panels."
Lehner worries doubling down on industrial agriculture, which mostly produces commodity crops like corn, soy and sugar for highly processed foods, ignores other meaningful reforms like reducing waste. One third of all food produced in the U.S. ends up in landfills.
"Let's try to not have taxpayer subsidies for inefficient products," Lehner urged. "Ensure that we have a food system that produces nutritious food, not one that gets us sick, and we spend a trillion dollars a year in our health care system because of diet-related disease."
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