Posted February 10, 2014
 
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack recently announced the creation of seven regional “climate hubs” for risk adaptation and mitigation of climate change, according to the USDA news release available here.
 
The “climate hubs” will address risks such as fire, invasive pests, floods, and droughts on a regional basis, “aiming to translate science and research into information to farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners on ways to adapt and adjust their resource management.”
 
“For generations, America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners have innovated and adapted to challenges.  Today, they face a new and more complex threat in the form of a changing and shifting climate, which impacts both our nation’s forests and our farmers’ bottom line,” said Vilsack.
 
The hubs will provide outreach information to producers “on ways to mitigate risks; public education about the risks climate change poses to agriculture, ranchlands and forests; regional climate risk and vulnerability assessments; and centers of climate forecast data and information.”  They will also link universities, nongovernmental organizations, federal agencies, Native Nations, state departments of environment and agriculture research centers, and farm groups working on climate change risk adaptation and mitigation.
 
CNN and USA Today also reported on the story here and here.

 

For more information on climate change, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
 
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