BATS - Fate in the Ballance & Environmentally Necessary to Farming

"The fate of bats is hanging in the balance.  That could have very real consequences for us" PBS NewsHour 3/17/2021

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SUMMARY:  The World Health Organization is expected to release a report on its investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus in the coming days.  Among the many theories is the unproven belief that it was passed on from bats — leading to much public fear of the mammals.  But the growing threat to bats could mean bad news for us too.  Special correspondent Catherine Rampell reports.

INDIA - The Struggle

"In India, this group helps turn wasteland into greener pastures" (Part-1) PBS NewsHour 4/19/2018

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SUMMARY:  Most rural Indian parents dream of an education and job in the city for their children, rather than a life spent farming.  But with a growing migration to cities, there is concern India might not be able to produce enough food to feed its people.  Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on one group’s effort to restore rural land and communities, in part one of a two-part look.

"India’s struggling farmers find seeds of hope in heritage crops" (Part-2) PBS NewsHour 4/23/2018

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SUMMARY:  About two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion people live on small subsistence farms, struggling to eke out a living.  Many farmers have felt left behind as crops have failed or diminished due to disease, degraded soil, and drought.  Not thousands are returning to traditional seeds that went out fashion decades ago -- an approach that's gaining attention.  Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports.

AMERICAN WATER SUPPLY - Cleaning the Heartland

"Using sensors to spoon-feed crops with extreme precision" PBS NewsHour 10/19/2016

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SUMMARY:  To profitably produce corn in on Midwestern farms, nitrogen must be added to the soil.  But the practice has an unwanted environmental impact:  water contamination.  A University of Nebraska professor thinks he may have a solution.  Special correspondent Ariana Brocious of Harvest Public Media in Nebraska reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Now:  a look at trying to clean up the water supply in the country's heartland.

For decades, American farmers have been applying nitrogen fertilizer, in some cases too generously, to crops.  Much of that fertilizer has found its way into runoff, contaminating water supplies and forcing many communities to invest heavily in water treatment plants.

From NET in Nebraska, Ariana Brocious of Harvest Public Media reports on new technologies farmers are using to reduce contamination from their fields.

It's part of our series about the Leading Edge of science and tech.

ARIANA BROCIOUS, NET Nebraska:  When University of Nebraska professor Richard Ferguson looks at a cornfield, he has no illusions.

RICHARD FERGUSON, University of Nebraska – Lincoln:  To profitably produce corn in Nebraska, we have to apply nitrogen fertilizer.  In many cases, in the past, we applied more than we really needed.

ARIANA BROCIOUS:  Ferguson wants to reduce the chance that excess nitrogen will get into the groundwater.  His high-tech approach, called Project SENSE, uses sensor technology to help farmers fertilize during the growing season as timely and precisely as possible.

RICHARD FERGUSON:  If we can make them more money by the use of sensor technology, we think that's something they would adopt.

ARIANA BROCIOUS:  Project SENSE is being put to the test in areas where groundwater nitrate levels are high.  Today, it's at the Seim family farm in Central Nebraska.

The machine's arms have sensors that gauge how much nitrogen the plants need.  A computer fires applicators to deliver fertilizer, practically feeding plants one by one.

For Anthony Seim, SENSE is another tool for his family to try.

ANTHONY SEIM, Seim Ag Technology:  I don't think there's any farmer that wakes up in the morning and says, I'm just going to go dump 1,000 gallons of fertilizer down a ditch.  Everybody's trying.  It's just that it doesn't always work.  There's a lot of things that we can't control, weather being the biggest one.

PHILANTHROPY - Howard Buffett, Feed the World

"How farmer-philanthropist Howard Buffett is planting hope in Africa" PBS NewsHour 5/2/2016

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SUMMARY:  Howard Buffett, son of billionaire Warren Buffett, has an ambitious life goal: ending world hunger.  As a farmer and philanthropist, his focus is on reviving African agriculture, which has suffered massive production failures.  In collaboration with The Atlantic, Judy Woodruff charts Buffett’s efforts to boost food security for billions.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Africa has vast agricultural potential, yet, over the past half-century, its per capita food production has declined drastically.  In fact, it’s gone from being a net food exporter to now importing much of its food.

The reasons are complex, but they include rapid population growth, political strife and weak institutions.

As part of our ongoing collaboration with The Atlantic, we profile an American farmer and philanthropist who has made it his mission to reverse the trend in Africa.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Howard Buffett is a serious farmer.  He is a conservationist, intent on finding better, more sustainable ways to grow food.

And he is a teacher, sharing what he knows with farmers in Africa, giving them tools to better feed their people.

HOWARD G. BUFFETT, Philanthropist:  This is all going to take nutrients out of the soil.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  He is also a man with a lot of money to spend on making those things happen.

It’s been described that one of your goals or your main goal is ending world hunger.

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  Well, you got to have a goal.

(LAUGHTER)

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  But we’re not going to end world hunger, but, you know, I think every step we can take in that direction is something positive.

Just slam it.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  You just slam it?

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  Hard.  There.  You got it.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So, now, what do you call this machine again?

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  8225-R John Deere.  It’s a tractor.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Howard Buffett loves his toys.

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  My mom always told me I didn’t have enough Tonka toys when I grew up, so I think I have them now.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Mom would be the late Susan Buffett, who died in 2004.  And dad, you guessed it, is Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men.

You grew up in Nebraska.  What was it like?  I mean, what do you remember about being in this family?

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  I think people think it was different because of my dad.

And the truth is, when I was growing up, my dad wasn’t well-known at all.  We grew up in a very normal environment, went to public schools, walked down to the bus stop and went to school.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  At the same time, your dad — because of your dad’s success, you were leading a pretty comfortable upbringing.

HOWARD G. BUFFETT:  Oh, we didn’t have to worry about anything.  And we were always told that, if we wanted to go to college, it would be paid for, if we wanted to go to medical school, it would be paid for, which is kind of funny, because none of the three of us actually finished college.  We all started, but we never quite made it all the way through.

I just had a hard time adjusting in college.  So I went out and I bought a bulldozer, and I started building terraces on farm ground and taking out trees and building basements.  And it was something I always wanted to do, so I went out and did it.