In case you missed it…

Why you need to avoid the hype about “regenerative ag” as a climate solution.

Sure, it’s helpful — but it can distract from bigger, more central climate solutions — like cutting food waste, shifting diets, protecting forests, managing croplands, etc.

“Agriculture has disrupted the planet more than anything we have ever done, including burning fossil fuels. A sustainable future depends on recognizing this fact –and radically changing how we farm and eat” ⁦Dr. Jonathan Foley⁩ on ⁦Project Drawdown⁩ drawdown.org/news/insights/…

Latest update on the Minnesota legislature kicking tremendous ass despite its extremely slim Dem majority: it just passed an awesome bill on grid-enhancing technologies! watt-transmission.org/minnesota-pass…

Once again, Dr. Jonathan Foley demonstrates the power (and indeed necessity) of quantified thinking!

I grew up in rural Maine in a community filled with organic and conventional farms & orchards. I learned about organic farming as a toddler -- mainly from early adopters in the area. Johnny's Seeds and Tom's of Maine were pioneers at the time.

It might amuse folks to learn that I am an avid backyard gardener, and we are slowly turning our new yard into a permaculture garden & nano-orchard.

It features a bunch of fruit trees and vegetable beds, plus plants and little 'microhabitats' for birds, pollinators, and frogs.

I’m waiting for Fox News or the Trump campaign to show this video as proof that windmills cause tornadoes 🤔

'We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from nonprofits like Project Drawdown, who talk about every job being a climate job. That’s something that I really thought about in my leadership role.'- Alison Whritenour, CEO of Seventh Generation
bit.ly/3WTHr4O

Microsoft AI: we take the alignment problem very seriously

Microsoft Word:

I’m waiting for Fox News or the Trump campaign to show this video as proof that windmills cause tornadoes 🤔

Regenerative agriculture is a nice but small contribution to a food sector that first needs to focus on:
1) Shifting diets (less meat is the biggie)
2) Cutting food waste
3) Protecting forests
4) Better farmland management

This post by Dr. Foley and the threads under it are all worth reading. Reducing carbon emmissions is essential to prevent climate change. However I think that industrial agriculture is unsustainable and destructive to life and a genuine regenerative agriculture is needed.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we all followed electricians, HVAC technicians, farmers, wind turbine technicians, and others doing the hard work of making climate solutions a reality?

That would be far, far more interesting and useful.

I don’t understand the climate “influencers” on Instagram & TikTok who only post videos of themselves in fabulous outfits, in glamorous settings, requiring extensive travel…all mysteriously paid for.

That’s an easy “unfollow”.

I’d rather follow people with skills we need.

We can do “all of the above” — and we should — but we won’t build-soil-carbon our way out of climate crisis.

Cutting the primary emissions as quickly as possible is *always* the key.

Experience with dodgy carbon removal and offset projects have taught us that, I hope.

Again, I like Regen ag as a final, small, complementary climate solution in the food & ag sector.

But the primary focus might be on cutting emissions — and that means focusing on forests, diets, crop biofuels, food waste, livestock, rice, and fertilizers first.