WEEKLY NEWS ROUND UP
Welcome to our Weekly News Round Up of interesting articles in the sustainability space!?
Happy New Year! ?? Here are our top 5 news pieces for this week with key takeaways:
1. Transforming fertilizer production: Genesis Fertilizers’ low-carbon vision for Western Canada
- Western #Canada’s farming sector, the backbone of its #economy, is at a crossroads. Volatile #fertilizer prices, heavy reliance on imports, and the urgent need for #sustainable practices pose significant challenges for farmers striving to maintain profitable and #environmentally responsible operations ??
-
Genesis Fertilizers LP
– a farmer-driven initiative – has taken a step to reshape the future of agriculture. Their mission: proposing to construct Canada’s first #lowcarbon nitrogen fertilizer facility, designed to stabilise supply, lower net operational costs for farmers, and reduce the carbon footprint of #fertilizer production ??
- This multi-billion dollar proposed facility is more than an infrastructure investment. It represents a groundbreaking vision for #agricultural sustainability, integrating advanced carbon capture technology and innovative production methods ??
- Through strategic partnerships with global technology leaders including
DL E&C Co., Ltd
,
thyssenkrupp Uhde
,
蒂森克虏伯
Fertilizer Technology,
Stamicarbon
, and
CARBONCO
Genesis Fertilizers is turning an idea into a reality – empowering #farmers and setting a new standard for the industry ????
- At every stage of the proposed facility, Genesis Fertilizers has made #sustainability a cornerstone of its vision. By prioritising environmentally responsible practices, the facility will not only reduce its #carbonfootprint but also empower farmers to embrace sustainable agriculture ??
2. From nuts to kelp: The 'carbon-negative' foods that help reverse climate change
- Eating low-carbon foods helps reduce #emissions, but some foods actually suck up carbon from the atmosphere, leaving the #climate in a better place. There are a few food products and production practices that do this. In fact, it's already possible to make your entire diet carbon negative, although in today's world, it would require substantial changes to how most people eat ??
- Kelp - As #kelp and other macroalgae grow, they take in CO2. Parts of the kelp break off and move down to the deep ocean floor where some of that carbon gets stored. These removals are relatively small per kg of kelp, so for kelp-based foods to be #carbonnegative, the supply chain has to be very carbon efficient, with minimal transport, packaging and processing ??
- Bacterial Products - Methane-oxidising #bacteria are a group of bacteria found in several different environments which consume methane to get energy. This is very useful because methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with each kg causing 30 times more warming than CO2 over a 100-year timescale. Products from these bacteria – such as protein powders or meat-replacers – are highly likely to be carbon-negative, although there are none in the shops today. However, in 2023, Finnish Solar Foods launched an ice cream in #Singapore which includes a protein made from a different type of bacteria, showing that a market for a bacterial food products could exist ??
- Blueberries and celery - In wetted peatlands, organic carbon can accumulate faster than it decomposes. A few products can be grown on wetted peatlands, including #blueberries, #cranberries and #celery. Foods grown like this therefore have the potential to be carbon negative, if their supply chains are also made very carbon efficient ??
- Nuts, olives and citrus - Planting #trees on cropland stores carbon. Over the last 20 years the global area of tree nuts has doubled, and much of this expansion has occurred on croplands. Even accounting for the full supply chain, the typical nut product you will buy in the shops today removes around 1.3kg of CO2 per kg ??
- Regeneratively farmed food - Many regenerative practices, such as not tilling the soil or planting hedgerows, can increase the amount of carbon stored in soil or in vegetation. For example, British #regenerativefarming firm Wildfarmed reports removals of 1.5kg of CO2 for each kg of wheat produced by the growers it works with ??
3. New ￡1m fund to reward farmers for slashing emissions
- A new ￡1m #fund which aims to enable supply chains to financially reward farmers for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is now open for applications ??
- Farmers can earn ￡60 per tonne of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) reduced annually, with half of payments provided upfront to help fund their #transitions ??
- Those who have #emissions that are below average will be eligible for maintenance payments ???
- Developed by
Soil Association Exchange
, the 'Market Exchange' programme will operate as an insetting fund without any sales of carbon credits. Instead, it will pool funds from a range of companies with shared supply chains to pay farmers to reduce emissions ??
- Soil Association Exchange chief executive,
Joseph Gridley
said it represented a major step forward in aligning farming activities with #climate goals. He said: "Exchange Market is about creating real, measurable change within farming systems while empowering farmers to make decisions that work for them. This carbon insetting programme demonstrates that delivering true environmental outcomes can go hand in hand with financial resilience when farmers and businesses collaborate to build a sustainable future for food and farming.” ??
- Support to develop the scheme has been given by
Lloyds Banking Group
who helped to convene retailers and landowners including the
Co-op
,
Lidl GB
,
特易购公司
and the
Church Commissioners for England
to contribute to the fund. The programme has also been co-developed with technical experts at
Finance Earth
??
4. Tesco urges Government to deliver clear plan to support farming transition
-
特易购公司
has called on the Government to deliver a clear plan to support #British farming in the transition to #netzero amid ongoing turmoil in the sector ????
- In a speech at the Oxford Farming Conference on Friday, the supermarket’s chief commercial officer
Ashwin Prasad
said the industry needs a clear vision for #sustainable agriculture, including greater investment and policy certainty ??
- It comes after Environment Secretary Steve Reed told the conference on Thursday that the primary purpose of #farming is food production as he outlined measures to boost profits, restore nature and diversify incomes ??
- “The challenge of moving our food and farming systems towards net zero and ensuring food security at the same time is huge, and we all need to work together to take it on”- Michael Lee, Harper Adams University ???
- Mr Prasad said: “As the biggest customer of UK #agriculture, we know providing our customers with healthy, affordable and sustainable food wouldn’t be possible without the expertise and dedication of our farmers across the country. But to continue to thrive in the future, the industry needs more certainty and support. Many of the solutions we need exist today, but government and the food industry need to make sure we have the right incentives in place so that UK agriculture can reach its potential as a driver of both #sustainability and economic growth.” ??
- The supermarket outlined a series of recommendations to Government for a clear sustainable #farming plan, based off its research with Harper Adams University ??
5. Heinz beans and spaghetti hoops go green
- Heinz beans and spaghetti hoops are going green after food giant Kraft Heinz won Government backing for a high-tech ￡7.2m #heatpump project at its Wigan factory ??
- Heinz is using the latest #funding to change the way it heats the water it uses to blanch beans and to boil spaghetti hoops. Instead of burning #fossilfuels to heat the water, it will instead install heat pumps that will reuse waste heat from other parts of the factory. Heinz says the move will help cut emissions and cut its bills, allowing it to invest more in other areas ??
- The company has secured ￡2.5m from the government’s Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which supports businesses booking to use technology to cut #carbonemissions. It has backed that up with almost ￡5m of its own money ??
- This is the latest bid by Heinz to cut carbon emissions at the Wigan plant. Last year Heinz announced it wanted to build a ￡40m green-powered #hydrogen plant there that could generate more than half of the gas it uses ??
- In total the Government is supporting 25 emissions-cutting projects across England, Wales and Northern Ireland with ￡51.9m in #funding through its Plan for Change to drive economic growth ??
ATOME in the press ??
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