August 2, 2025

Spotlight Stories

Spotlight 1 – An article in Nature discusses renewable energy sources that can enable arctic food sufficiency and sustainability. Check it out, here.

Spotlight 2 – Mongabay highlights a regenerative agroforestry project that aims to expand into the Sahel region of Africa. Read the story, here.

Spotlight 3 – The World Bank looks into the potential to boost global food security by fixing border bottlenecks. Take a read, here.

Industry Updates

China has released a set of guidelines to boost consumption of agricultural products, with efforts to optimize supply and stimulate demand. The guidelines specifically outline measures to elevate standards for green, organic, geographically indicated and certified products, promote quality evaluation and grading, develop new-type processed goods and innovate local specialty foods. The guidelines also focus on better aligning production, supply and marketing -- while broadening offline sales channels, with detailed arrangements for creating festival and exhibition platforms, enriching consumption scenarios, leveraging e-commerce advantages and promoting inter-regional cooperation. [link]

Michigan State University is seeking 20 Michigan farmers to participate in a new research initiative aimed at quantifying and predicting the potential for regenerative agriculture practices to enhance soil water-holding capacity, improve soil nutrient cycling and recharge aquifers. The Soil Health Advancement for Agriculture Resilience Enhancement — funded by the Agricultural Resiliency Program — brings together researchers from the Institute of Water Research and the Center for Regenerative Agriculture. Participating row crop and commercial vegetable producers will engage in a three-year, on-farm study that includes installation of a weather station and soil moisture monitors. Beginning in fall 2025, the equipment will collect continuous data on precipitation and soil moisture, which will be accessible to participating farms. Michigan Farm Bureau supported the project during the proposal and funding stages. [link]

Whole Foods Market and Mad Agriculture have announced a transformative collaboration to launch a national biodiversity highway initiative aimed at reconstructing native ecosystems across American farmland. The program will begin in and around the Lowery Creek Watershed in Wisconsin, seeking to create a connected highway of climate-resilient habitats restoring biodiversity, improving soil and water health, and strengthening the long-term resilience of the food system. As part of the initiative, Whole Foods Market has pledged up to $500,000 in matching funds to catalyze $1 million in collective investment from food system stakeholders in 2025. The program aims to cultivate a 1,000 acre biodiversity highway across American farmland and includes companies like Applegate, Bob’s Red Mill, The Campbell’s Company, New Belgium Brewing, OLIPOP, UNFI, UNFI Foundation, west~bourne, and Yogi Tea. [link]

Regenerative agriculture pioneer Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA) has launched FieldLark AI, the world’s first AI chatbot for regenerative agronomy. FieldLark is conversationally intelligent and grounded in the scientific principles that make regenerative systems work. Free to anyone interested in regenerative growing, FieldLark delivers AEA's decades of in-field experience and biological insights to growers via a browser on mobile devices or computers — anytime, anywhere. [link]

Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA) has announced a strategic investment in Grupo Papalotla, focusing on its Brazilian operations under Tropical Seeds do Brasil. The partnership aims to scale the use of hybrid pasture seeds for climate-smart livestock farming, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. Grupo Papalotla’s seeds, developed through a license with CIAT, offer traits like drought and flood tolerance. [link]

A new study by the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) has suggested that while nature-friendly farming methods improve both biodiversity and crop yields, government subsidies may be required to make it as profitable as conventional farming. The four-year study, which was carried out alongside Rothamsted Research, was undertaken across 17 farms in southern England, and explored various agroecological methods as well as the financial viability of said methods. Researchers noted that without the introduction of new financial incentives, many farmers will be deterred from adopting agroecological farming practices and systems, which could leave them locked into high input, intensive farming systems, and more exposed to the impacts of pesticide resistance, declining soil health and climate change. [link]

Two transformative UN initiatives have been officially launched in Zimbabwe, aimed at empowering the country to sustainably manage its soil and water resources. The two projects are entitled: “Capacity Development on Sustainable Soil Management in the Global South” and “National Water Roadmap towards 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.” The sustainable soil management project aims to build national capacities in developing countries for soil mapping and laboratory analysis, while promoting international technical collaboration through South-South Cooperation. The National Water Roadmaps project will support Zimbabwe in strengthening water governance through raising awareness of water’s value across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. [link]

Bayer has submitted registration applications for its novel herbicide, icafolin-methyl, in four major markets: Brazil, the U.S., Canada, and the EU. Icafolin-methyl is expected to hit the market from 2028, with Brazil earmarked for the initial launch. The product stands out as agriculture's first novel mode of action for controlling emerged weeds in over three decades. Unlike existing solutions, icafolin-methyl belongs to an entirely new chemical class, offering unique properties that facilitate lower dose rates and more targeted applications. This innovation not only complements current herbicides like glyphosate but also provides a vital new tool in the ongoing battle against increasingly resilient weeds. [link]

The environmental impact of some of the main pesticides used in viticulture and on other crops may have been ‘significantly underestimated’, a new study has found. Researchers led by Aix-Marseille University and CNRS examined nine common pesticides and found that they all exceeded the Stockholm Convention's two day half-life limit in the atmosphere, with some persisting for several weeks. The global use of pesticides has doubled since 1990, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, with this study raising concerns about the potential impact on health and the environment, according to the researchers. [link]

The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA) has published a new report urging the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission to support policies that reward stewardship and invest in innovation as part of a national strategy to create lasting, healthy outcomes for all communities, rural and urban alike. The report, entitled "Nurturing Healthy Soils for Healthy Communities," focuses on three key pillars to help agricultural producers and forest owners keep our soils healthy and our air and water clean: advancing voluntary conservation, supporting sustainable forest management and restoration, and driving agricultural innovation. FACA represents farmers, ranchers, forest owners, agribusinesses, manufacturers, the food and innovation sector, state governments, higher education associations, sportsmen and sportswomen, and environmental advocates. [link]

The Maryland Department of Agriculture has announced that 14 projects will receive grant funding totaling $590,000 through its Healthy Soils Competitive Fund. This pioneering grant program provides financial assistance to qualifying farms and organizations—both large and small—to adopt innovative conservation practices that benefit climate, soil, and water. Established in 2023, the Healthy Soils Competitive Fund provides winning applicants with up to $50,000 to support three years of enhanced soil health and agroforestry practices. Since its inception, the grant program has supported 53 projects across the state. [link]

U.S. Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced bipartisan legislation that will help bolster soil research and improve agricultural resilience and productivity in the Midwest and across the country. The Advancing Research on Agricultural Soil Health Act will allow strategic investment in technologies to measure and monitor soil carbon. This information can improve our understanding of agriculture’s potential to store emitted carbon and empower farmers and ranchers to choose the best practices available to them. Experts estimate that American farmers could store up to 220 billion pounds of carbon annually across all US croplands. However, current technology cannot accurately measure soil carbon levels, impacting our ability to track soil health improvements, correlate those improvements with on-farm benefits, and reward farmers for their contributions to environmental health and resilience. [link]

A team of researchers led by the University of Missouri is giving new purpose to an established material, biochar, a charcoal-like substance made from leftover plant waste and showing how it can address challenges facing today’s cotton growers. The Mizzou researchers turned to bagasse, a fibrous organic material left over after sugarcane is pressed for its juice. When converted into biochar and added to the soil, the product improved the soil’s ability to hold onto nutrients and moisture, giving cotton plants a better chance to grow strong and healthy. The team noted that biochar offers a solution to how cotton is typically grown in sandy soils that struggle with low organic matter, less water-holding capacity, and weaker aggregate stability, leading to a reduced ability to hold water and nutrients. [link]

In Case You Missed It…

In early July, U.S. House representatives introduced the Conservation and Regenerative Optimization Practices for Farming Act, or the CROP for Farming Act, a bipartisan proposal to strengthen conservation efforts and equip farmers with new tools to improve soil health, enhance productivity, and reduce harmful emissions through voluntary practices. See more, here.