The North American Smart Climate Agriculture Alliance, created by Solutions From The Land, will bring together farmers, ranchers and foresters to collaborate with industry experts. The focus will be on sustainability, resilience to climate change, reducing greenhouse gasses and reviewing the latest scientific evidence of climate change.

“Whether you believe in climate change or not we need to adapt to these things that are unprecedented,” said Ernie Shea, president of Solutions From The Land.

Those challenges come in the form of shorter harvesting windows, shorter planting windows, storms and precipitation that causes damage to machinery and crops, not to mention three-year California drought, which will cost the state an estimated 2.2 billion and 17,000 jobs.

“All of these things farmers worry about because they have to figure out how to adapt,” said Shea. “What is science telling us? We did a review of science-based studies that confirmed more of this is coming. So what are we going to do about it?”

The Alliance produced a report that suggests 50 adaptations including drip irrigation for drought protection, the gasification of walnuts, and solar power.

For Maddox Farms in Riverdale, California, solar has been cost effective, efficient and--bonus--contributes to the Central Valley’s desperate need for cleaner air. Solar powers 80 percent of Stephen Maddox Jr.'s dairy.

“We are always open to adapting new technologies that make sense and are win-win for us,” said Maddox. “We all (farmers) want to be better stewards of the land and air.”

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