Farming in Alaska is increasingly possible

Tribal areas in Louisiana are suffering from massive land loss due to flooding, which has taken away a lot of food sources and livelihood. In response, the First People's Conservation Council has been created, which includes tribe members, government representatives and nonprofit representatives in order to develop solutions.

More than 30-meters below the busy London streets, there is an eco-farm called Growing Underground that's part innovative agri-tech project and part sci-fi inspired netherworld. Created to provide increased food security and combat the environmental degradation caused by mass agriculture, this self-contained, zero-emissions, fully functioning farm provides an exciting opportunity as the world's population grows and food demands increase.

Grasslands are important players in carbon sequestration. In the U.S. and Kenya some farmers are switching to regenerative grazing. For some this entails concentrating herds of cows and resting paddocks for long periods of time, and for others it means reseeding native grasses. This all forms part of a larger global network to restore grasslands.

Healthy soil promotes plant growth and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. To help the declining citrus industry in Florida, Locus Agricultural Solutions developed a combination of microbes to promote plant growth. The microbial additive, Rhizolizer, while originally intended to combat citrus greening, also provides benefits in terms of carbon absorption.

As the agriculture industry faces crop and profit loss due to catastrophic weather events, many farmers and ranchers are being catalysts for conversations with politicians, scientists, and environmental groups about how to combat the effects of climate change. Throughout the United States, key stakeholders in the food supply chain have formed working groups to discuss climate change and how their industry can work together to improve soil health and sequester carbon. While there are some who are not supportive of these efforts, there is a growing consensus around the importance of having these discussions.

From small farms to the larger, agriculture industry, changes are being made to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas being emitted into the air. With methane emissions considered one of the top worst greenhouse gasses – and agriculture a major contributor to it – the industry is looking toward new practices, like cover crops and new diets for cows. Responses are happening on many levels, but in order to make sustainable change, farmers and researchers must collaboratively work together.

Because the upfront costs of transitioning a farm to be certified organic can be burdensome to farmers amidst a growing demand for organic food, large companies like Kashi and Land O'Lakes are creating a number of initiatives to help ease the process. Techniques include no-interest advances for expensive initial supplies, fair trade premiums that go to local community work, and soil health initiatives for suppliers. The companies even implement a complex data tracking system to gather information on yield and profitability, which can then be used to inform future sustainable practice transitions.

One tactic for combatting climate change has to do with soil health. Soil can withdraw and store carbon from the atmosphere—at a higher rate when covered by manure—and also supports long-term soil sustainability and saves farmers money. Because agriculture already consumes much of the world's surface, proponents of carbon farming envision a world where large swathes of land act as a carbon sink. Potential drawbacks and things left to explore include how to produce compost without creating more energy than it saves and how to use cows effectively when they also contribute much of the carbon in the atmosphere.

Mongolia’s nomadic, pastoral families are banding together to strengthen their resilience in the face of climate change. With their economic livelihoods dependent on livestock production, they feel the effects of warming temperatures more than many. By combining their resources and communally managing their pastures, they’ve been able to be less vulnerable to severe weather.

The rapid development of emerging economies across Asia and Africa is lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty - but there is much debate as to how to best structure this growth. If these economies evolve in the same way as in the West - with unchecked, excessive resource consumption and heavy pollution - the planet may be on the fast track to disaster. Earthrise explores how these nations can grow sustainably using improved, eco-conscious technologies like renewable energy and eco-friendly farming practices.