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San Francisco Chronicle
FILE – Water runs out of a drain under an agricultural field, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Sabina, Ohio.
Joshua A. Bickel/APKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — In Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city.
It’s a problem that has long littered the landscape in Kampala, the capital, where buveera are woven into the fabric of daily life. They show up in layers of excavated dirt roads and clog waterways. But now, they can be found in remote areas of farmland, too. Some of the debris includes the thick plastic bags used for planting coffee seeds in nurseries.
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Some farmers are complaining, said Wilson Watira, head of a cultural board for the coffee-growing Bamasaba people. “They are concerned – those farmers who know the effects of buveera on the land,” he said.
Around the world, plastics find their way into farm fields. Climate change makes agricultural plastic, already a necessity for many crops, even more unavoidable for some farmers. Meanwhile, research continues to show that itty-bitty microplastics alter ecosystems and end up in human bodies. Scientists, farmers and consumers all worry about how that’s affecting human health, and many seek solutions. But industry experts say it’s difficult to know where plastic ends up or get rid of it completely, even with the best intentions of reuse and recycling programs.
According to a 2021 report on plastics in agriculture by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, soils are one of the main receptors of agricultural plastics. Some studies have estimated that soils are more polluted by microplastics than the oceans.
“These things are being released at such a huge, huge scale that it’s going to require major engineering solutions,” said Sarah Zack, an Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Great Lakes Contaminant Specialist who communicates about microplastics to the public.
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Why researchers want to study plastics in farm fieldsMicro-particles of plastic that come from items like clothes, medications and beauty products sometimes appear in fertilizer made from the solid byproducts of wastewater treatment — called biosolids — which can also be smelly and toxic to nearby residents depending on the treatment process used. Some seeds are coated in plastic polymers designed to strategically disintegrate at the right time of the season, used in containers to hold pesticides or stretched over fields to lock in moisture.
But the agriculture industry itself only accounts for a little over 3% of all plastics used globally. About 40% of all plastics are used in packaging, including single-use plastic food and beverage containers.
Microplastics, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines as being smaller than five millimeters long, are their largest at about the size of a pencil eraser. Some are much smaller.
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Studies have already shown that microplastics can be taken up by plants on land or plankton in the ocean and subsequently eaten by animals or humans. Scientists are still studying the long-term effects of the plastic that’s been found in human organs. Early findings suggest possible links to a host of health conditions including heart disease and some cancers.
Despite “significant research gaps,” the evidence related to the land-based food chain “is certainly raising alarm,” said Lev Neretin, environment lead at the FAO, which is currently working on another technical report looking deeper into the problem of microplastic pollution in soils and crops.
A study out this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that microplastics pollution can even impact plants’ ability to photosynthesize, the process of turning light from the sun into energy. That doesn’t “justify excessive concern” but does “underscore food security risks that necessitate scientific attention,” wrote Fei Dang, one of the study’s authors.
Climate change making matters worseThe use of plastics has quadrupled over the past 30 years. Plastic is ubiquitous. And most of the world’s plastic goes to landfills, pollutes the environment or is burned. Less than 10% of plastics are recycled.
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At the same time, some farmers are becoming more reliant on plastics to shelter crops from the effects of extreme weather. They’re using tarps, hoop houses and other technology to try to control conditions for their crops. And they’re depending more on chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers to buffer against unreliable weather and more pervasive pest issues.
“Through global warming, we have less and less arable land to make crops on. But we need more crops. So therefore the demand on agricultural chemicals is increasing,” said Ole Rosgaard, president and CEO of Greif, a company that makes packaging used for industrial agriculture products like pesticides and other chemicals.
Extreme weather, fueled by climate change, also contributes to the breakdown and transport of agricultural plastics. Beating sun can wear on materials over time. And more frequent and intense rainfall events in some areas could drive more plastic particles running into fields and eventually waterways, said Maryam Salehi, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri.
Can agriculture escape the plastic problem?This past winter, leaders from around the world gathered in South Korea to produce the first legally binding global treaty on plastics pollution. They didn’t reach an agreement, but the negotiations are scheduled to resume in August.
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Neretin said the FAO produced a provisional, voluntary code of conduct on sustainable management of plastics in agriculture. But without a formal treaty in place, most countries don’t have a strong incentive to follow it.
“The mood is certainly not cheery, that’s for sure,” he said, adding global cooperation “takes time, but the problem does not disappear.”
Without political will, much of the onus falls on companies.
Rosgaard, of Greif, said that his company has worked to make their products recyclable, and that farmers have incentives to return them because they can get paid in exchange. But he added it’s sometimes hard to prevent people from just burning the plastic or letting it end up in fields or waterways.
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“We just don’t know where they end up all the time,” he said.
Some want to stop the flow of plastic and microplastic waste into ecosystems. Boluwatife Olubusoye, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Mississippi, is trying to see whether biochar, remains of organic matter and plant waste burned under controlled conditions, can filter out microplastics that run from farm fields into waterways. His early experiments have shown promise.
He said he was motivated by the feeling that there was “never any timely solution in terms of plastic waste” ending up in fields in the first place, especially in developing countries.
Even for farmers who care about plastics in soils, it can be challenging for them to do anything about it. In Uganda, owners of nursery beds cannot afford proper seedling trays, so they resort to cheaply made plastic bags used to germinate seeds, said Jacob Ogola, an independent agronomist there.
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Farmers hardest hit by climate change are least able to reduce the presence of cheap plastic waste in soils. That frustrates Innocent Piloya, an agroecology entrepreneur who grows coffee in rural Uganda with her company Ribbo Coffee.
“It’s like little farmers fighting plastic manufacturers,” she said.
Walling reported from Chicago.
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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. …
SFGATE
FILE – Water runs out of a drain under an agricultural field, Tuesday, April
9, 2024, in Sabina, Ohio. Joshua A. Bickel/APKAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — In
Uganda’s Mbale district, famous for its production of arabica coffee, a plague
of plastic bags locally known as buveera is creeping beyond the city. It …
Associated Press
The water in California’s mountain snowpack is just shy of average as spring begins, and a winter storm coming to the Sierra Nevada should offer a boost.
The statewide snowpack measured 90% of average on Friday, just ahead of the anticipated April 1 peak before the sun begins melting the snow faster than it can accumulate, sending water flowing into creeks and streams as storms taper off into the spring, said Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit.
“Ninety percent is really pretty good. I’m feeling generally positive,” Reising told reporters as snow fell at Phillips Station in the mountains in the eastern part of the state, one of more than 250 sites where measurements were taken.
The news comes as more storms are expected to dump precipitation on Northern California early next week, which prompted officials to bump up the snow survey to avoid traveling during hazardous conditions. It also comes as nearly all of California’s reservoirs are above their historic capacity after two wet winters followed a punishing drought that forced severe cutbacks in water usage in cities and on farms.
State officials said they will provide a survey update next week after the storm.
The snowpack provides about a third of the water used each year in California, which is home to 39 million people and grows much of the country’s fresh fruit and vegetables. The state has built a complex system of canals and dams to capture and store the water in reservoirs for the hot, dry months when it doesn’t rain or snow.
While the northern and central parts of the state are flush with water, Reising cautioned that Southern California, including Los Angeles, has received far less precipitation than usual. Most of Southern California is once again in moderate to extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“We know floods and droughts can happen at any time. It is the California way of life to expect that,” Reising said.
At Phillips Station, officials recorded a snow depth of 39.5 inches (100 centimeters) and a water content of 17 inches (43 centimeters), which is 70% of average for the location, he said.
The Trump administration has taken a keen interest in California’s water situation, vowing to send more water through a federally-run network to the state’s farmers and reserve less for environmental interests. He’s blasted the state for what he calls poor water management, and blamed the state’s environmental policies for water challenges during the Los Angeles wildfires, though the two weren’t connected.
This year, California’s State Water Project allocations are currently at 40% of requested supplies, similar to last year. The Project provides water to 27 million people and 750,000 acres (303,514 hectares) of farmland, and allocations vary considerably during wet and dry years.
Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, said she thinks California officials could have released more water this year and wants to see more nimble decision-making in response to rapidly changing conditions.
“We do have this mismatch between hydrology and the allocation, and what are the different physical and policy changes that need to be made to address that,” Pierre said.
Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, said the state’s major reservoirs are in good shape but California farmers will always want more water than the environment can provide.
“We should never let a good water year let us become complacent,” Gleick said. “We never have enough water to waste.” …
Action News Now
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Department of Water Resources announced
Tuesday that the wet and cold storms that moved through California during
March have allowed for another increase for the State Water Project allocation
forecast for 2025.Officials with the DWR say that the allocations has b …
Chico Enterprise-Record
California is not alone in its struggles to save its freshwater biodiversity.
Across the West, rivers and lakes have been tapped to supply water to farms
and cities—and ecosystems have paid the price. One project has been restoring
water to a Nevada lake through an unusual mechanism: environmen …
By MICHAEL PHILLIS, ALEXA ST. JOHN and MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON AP — The Environmental Protection Agency illegally canceled grants worth more than $1.5 billion focused on improving the environment in minority communities hit hard by pollution, Senate Democrats say. …