Welcome to Carbon Brief’s Cropped.
We handpick and explain the most important stories at the intersection of climate, land, food and nature over the past fortnight.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s fortnightly Cropped email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Trump takes office
ENVIRONMENTAL ORDERS: In his first week in office, US president Donald Trump signed “a flurry of executive orders with implications for Earth’s climate and environment”, the Associated Press reported. Among the orders were one directing the US to withdraw once again from the Paris Agreement and another stating “that the Endangered Species Act cannot be an obstacle to energy development”. He also signed one “halting new federal leases for offshore wind projects”, citing the impacts of offshore wind projects on marine life, according to WBUR. The outlet carried an article refuting the president’s claims.
CORN CAUTION: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s nominee for head of the Department of Health and Human Services, is raising alarm in the country’s cornbelt, the Guardian reported. The outlet explained that “Kennedy has vowed to ban high fructose corn syrup and seed oils, a move that would significantly reduce demand for a host of crops”. Vox covered the shift in political alignment for Kennedy, who was once an environmental lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Vox wrote that “his migration to the far right…[is] part of a much broader shift in the environmental movement”.
FUNDING FREEZE: On Monday, the National Science Foundation abruptly cancelled grant-review panels, a move that “sparked confusion among panellists” and researchers alike, according to NPR. The outlet added that “delays in grant approval inevitably mean delays in funding research”. Later that day, a leaked memo from the Office of Management and Budget ordered a pause in all federal grant funding. It “specifically targeted many large federal energy and climate programmes in its sweeping freeze and review of grant funding”, Heatmap reported. The targeted programmes include conservation payments from the US Department of Agriculture and climate and atmospheric research under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order before it could go into effect on Tuesday, the Washington Post said.
UK’s nature decline
OFF-TARGET: A new report from the UK’s Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) found that the government “is falling short” on meeting its legally binding environmental targets, the Guardian said. The report also highlighted that “the window to stop the decline of England’s nature is swiftly closing”. Separately, the Guardian reported that UK ministers dropped a bill that would have made the country’s international commitments on climate and environment, such as those made at COP, legally binding.
OFFSETTING EXPANSION: Carbon Brief analysis found that the UK would need to plant a forest “twice the size of Greater London” to offset the emissions that would result from the proposed expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports. Operations at these airports would add 92m tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) into the atmosphere by 2050, if companies meet their flight targets, the analysis found. The environment minister backed the expansion of the airports, saying mitigation measures can offset the environmental impacts, the Times noted.
FUNDING INFRASTRUCTURE: The UK government announced a new nature-restoration fund, aimed at accelerating new infrastructure projects by allowing developers “to meet their environmental obligations faster”. The fund will cover a range of projects, such as new wind farms, railways, roads and data centres across the country. Currently, builders must comply with their environmental obligations on a project-by-project basis, but the new fund will “[pool] contributions…to fund larger interventions for nature”, the government added. However, environmental groups are concerned about this reform’s environmental impacts, saying “high carbon infrastructure such as airport expansion” could also be covered by the bill, Business Green reported.
Spotlight
Colombia’s land reform conference
At the UN biodiversity summit in October, Carbon Brief interviewed Nury Martínez, president of the Colombian farmers’ organisation Fensuagro. She is also a member of the South America coordinating committee of Vía Campesina, a global organisation representing more than 200 million peasants in 80 countries.
Martínez told Carbon Brief about the main expectations of the peasant movement for the second conference on agrarian reform and rural development, which will address farmers’ demands to access and work larger swathes of land. It will take place in Colombia during the first quarter of 2026.
This second conference will take stock of the first one, held in 2006, which delivered a set of voluntary guidelines for governance and land tenure, and will discuss a new agrarian reform.
What does the proposed agrarian reform consist of?
Land must fulfil a social function. That’s why we say that land is for those who work it – because there are large tracts of land where the owners don’t use it, or [they] have extensive livestock where a cow has four or five hectares and we have no land to produce food.
We propose an integral and popular agrarian reform because we believe that it goes beyond access to land, [but also includes] access to the goods of nature, such as water, seeds, access to territories…[We want] to stop the hoarding [of land] in the hands of a few.
What would be the result of these agrarian reforms? Transforming the way in which food is being produced for the world?
We say strengthen peasant production because we have always produced without chemicals. We are making the transition to agroecology, to rescuing culture and ancestral knowledge. [But] you can’t do agroecology if you don’t have land, territory.
We are proposing food sovereignty because we consider food [to be] a human right. [Also] access to technical assistance, fair commercialisation and [strengthening of] local markets.
Would agrarian reform be implemented at the global level, or only in Colombia?
The second conference will be held in Colombia in the first quarter of 2026, but it is a global event, with the participation of more or less 119 countries that are part of the United Nations.
The countries supported it being in Colombia because the Colombian government is implementing the National Agrarian Reform System. Right now we are having the possibility of access to land after more than 100 years.
News and views
‘NEW PHASE’ OF BIRD FLU: Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter their flocks, contributing to a doubling in the price of US eggs since 2023, Associated Press reported. The current outbreak, which started in 2022, has led to the killing of more than 145m of chickens, turkeys and other birds, the newswire noted. The New York Times said the outbreak, which has worsened over the past weeks, has “enter[ed] a new phase”, with some cattle suffering from reinfection. The outlet pointed out that since the virus first struck cattle last year, more than 900 herds and dozens of people have been infected, with one person dying as a result.
TRACEABILITY IN BRAZIL: Brazil’s government will begin to implement a “cattle traceability” system that will be mandatory as of 2027 and must be fully operational by 2032, Infobae reported. The system will “monitor and record the history, location and trajectory of each identified animal” to meet “the health requirements of international markets”, the outlet added. Elsewhere, Reuters reported that the governor of Mato Grosso, one of the largest farming states in Brazil, is set to veto a bill that “sought to weaken protections for endangered biomes”, including the Amazon.
PACIFIC PROTECTION: The Pacific island nation of the Marshall Islands announced its first-ever marine protected area (MPA), Oceanographic Magazine reported. The marine sanctuary will cover 48,000 square kilometres of “the most pristine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean”, said National Geographic Pristine Seas, an initiative focused on ocean conservation that helped provide the scientific basis for establishing the MPA. The area will “be fully protected from fishing” and will be managed with “special emphasis on traditional knowledge and Indigenous insights”, the outlet wrote.
FIRES AND FOOD: Prospect Magazine wrote that “the insidious effects [of climate change] on global food production and security are barely mentioned” in discussions of the recent LA wildfires. It added that extreme weather’s impacts on crops “can be seen the world over”. Meanwhile, Trump issued an executive order to ignore existing regulations and deliver more water from California’s Central Valley, CalMatters reported. The outlet wrote that “Trump cited the Los Angeles fires [as justification], even though the actions he is ordering…would primarily serve farms”.
COURTING CONSERVATION: Nepal’s supreme court struck down a controversial new law that would allow infrastructure development – “such as hydropower plants, hotels and railway lines” – in protected areas, Mongabay reported. The outlet called the decision “one of the most important in Nepal’s conservation history”. Paraphrasing one judge’s arguments, Mongabay wrote: “It would be wrong to pit development and environment against each other by adhering to the belief that development can take place only when there’s damage to the environment.”
Watch, read, listen
MASS MORTALITY: The New Republic looked at the growing phenomenon of mass animal die-offs and what these events can teach scientists about resilience.
UNITED FOR A RIVER: This Scroll.in video showed how people are leading conservation of southern India’s Jatari river, which is home to unique flora and fauna species.
FARMERS’ LAWSUIT: A comment piece in Nature broke down a lawsuit filed by Swiss farmers suing their government to strengthen climate action.
OLD SOLUTION: A Grist story explored how farmers in the UK and US use the ancient practice of gleaning – collecting leftover crops after the harvest – to cut food waste.
New science
- Fertiliser use has a “large and significant negative effect” on the diversity of pollinators and flowering plants in a grassland ecosystem, according to new research published in npj Biodiversity. The authors wrote that the results of the two-year study “strongly suggest that financial incentives are necessary to offset yield reductions to improve biodiversity outcomes in agricultural grasslands”.
- A study in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B detailed a new metric for assessing the impact of land-use change on species extinctions. The researchers say the maps can be used to “estimate the impact on extinctions of diverse actions that affect change in land cover, from individual dietary choices through to global protected area development”.
- New research in Nature Ecology and Evolution analysed data from 2.2m records of plant species from 1921 to 2021 and found that plant collections grown in botanical gardens have significant constraints with implications for conservation, such as limited growth. The study stresses the “urgent need” for re-evaluating biodiversity management in botanical gardens to fulfil their conservation goals.
In the diary
- 2 February: World Wetlands Day
- 3-8 February: Meeting of the standing committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) | Geneva
- 25-27 February: Resumed session of the UN biodiversity summit COP16 | Rome
Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz. Please send tips and feedback to cropped@carbonbrief.org
The post Cropped 29 January 2025: Trump takes office; UK nature ‘falling short’; Egg prices soar appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Cropped 29 January 2025: Trump takes office; UK nature ‘falling short’; Egg prices soar
An older teaching about land acknowledgement
As I have come to understand the spirit and intention of land acknowledgement, I often return to fond memories of my grandmother and her words of wisdom. She taught that the health of the places we call home comes first, because the wellbeing of the people depends on it.
In her teaching, land acknowledgement began with the land. Long before it became a paragraph read at the start of a meeting, it was a way of recognizing a homeland: its waters, its species, its seasons, and the spirit that revealed whether the place was well.
Her teaching echoes a practice found across many Indigenous Nations. Haudenosaunee gatherings, for example, have long opened with the Ohén:ton Karihwatéhkwen, the Thanksgiving Address, often translated as “the words that come before all else.” The speaker greets and gives thanks to the people, the earth, the waters, the plants, the animals, the winds, the sun, the moon and the stars. Only after everything that sustains life has been acknowledged does the gathering turn to its own business.
That order changes what an acknowledgement is for. Its purpose was to share the story of a place with neighbours and to draw them into the work of tending it. People entered the story second, as the ones responsible for what had just been named.
Understood this way, an acknowledgement does more than open a meeting. It asks us to reconsider where we stand, and what we owe the ground beneath us.
Nations among nations
In her teaching, people are one nation among many. The salmon are a nation. So are the cedars, the bison, the medicine plants, and the pollinators. Each belongs to a place, carries its own responsibilities, and offers gifts no other nation can give.
This idea of kinship runs through many Indigenous philosophies. The phrase “all my relations,” heard in ceremonies and gatherings across Turtle Island, is a reminder that family extends beyond people to the animals, plants, waters and lands that make life possible. Some Indigenous languages carry the same understanding in their grammar, speaking of many plants, animals and natural forces as living beings rather than objects.
Sovereignty, understood through this relationship, is a kind of standing more than a form of control. Each nation belongs fully to its place and carries its share of that place’s life. No nation thrives alone, and none thrives by taking over the whole.
The land is also the source of instruction. Over generations, people watched how a river valley or a stretch of prairie kept itself well: who arrived when, who fed whom, and how much could be taken before the giving stopped. In my grandmother’s telling, those observations became instructions, and those instructions helped shape law and protocol. They guided when to harvest, where to camp, how to enter a neighbour’s territory, and what was owed in return.
Indigenous legal scholars today often describe this as law that comes from the land itself, learned by watching how living systems sustain one another. A plainer name for it is knowing how to live somewhere.
The host and the guest
One of the clearest teachings in this understanding of the world is the relationship between host and guest. My grandmother invited us to recognize that relationship in the lives of plants and animals.
A host prepares the place before anyone arrives. A beaver family dams a stream, and the pond becomes a home for fish, frogs, birds and plants. A fallen tree becomes a nurse log, feeding the next generation of seedlings as it returns to the soil.
A host offers first. A flowering plant sets out nectar. A berry bush ripens fruit. These provisions come in their own season, not whenever a visitor happens to want them.
A host also makes its presence known. Birdsong, scent and the marks left along a trail tell newcomers that a place is already inhabited. The visitor does not arrive in an empty world.
The guest has responsibilities too. A guest attends to the season and to what the place can offer. A guest does not assume that everything within reach is theirs to take. A guest leaves something that helps sustain the relationship.
A bee takes nectar and carries pollen. Read through this teaching, that exchange offers an image of visiting well: receiving a gift while helping the host continue its life.
Many Indigenous harvesting protocols carry the same ethic into daily practice: ask before taking, take only what is needed, offer thanks, and leave enough for others and for the plant or animal to recover.
None of this suggests that every relationship in nature is peaceful or generous. These are ways of seeing responsibilities that people can learn to carry.
Everyone is both
No being is only a host or only a guest.
A tree makes room for other life while depending on soil, water, sunlight, fungi, and relationships beyond itself. People, too, may welcome others into their homes while remaining dependent on the larger homeland that sustains them.
The distinction between host and guest is therefore about roles, not ranks. Everyone receives. Everyone has something to give.
The question is whether the exchange sustains the place.
A visitor who takes without restraint leaves less for those who come next. A host who neglects the place has less to offer. Both have responsibilities, and neither can fulfil them alone.
This is the heart of reciprocity, a principle found across Indigenous philosophies: relationships stay healthy when gifts move in both directions. The Haudenosaunee teaching of the seventh generation extends that exchange across time, asking that decisions made today leave the place well for those not yet born.
Mutual benefit begins here, with the recognition that different beings carry different gifts and obligations.
What people carry forward
My grandmother’s teaching connects these relationships to the ways people meet their neighbours.
The host prepares a place, offers food and rest, and explains where the visitor has arrived. The guest makes themselves known, explains why they have come, listens to the terms of the visit, and brings something in return. The gift may be material. It may also be labour, knowledge, news, or a commitment to help.
Nations around the Great Lakes carried this ethic into treaty. The Dish with One Spoon, an agreement among the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and allied Nations, describes shared hunting grounds as a single dish. Everyone eats from it with one spoon, takes only what they need, leaves enough for others, and keeps the dish clean. The Two Row Wampum, between the Haudenosaunee and European newcomers, shows two vessels travelling side by side on the same river, each keeping its own ways and neither steering the other.
In this understanding, acknowledgement is more than naming the people associated with a territory. It is learning enough about a homeland to behave responsibly within it.
Whose home is this? What sustains it? What laws and agreements guide our presence? What can we receive, and what must we return?
These questions make acknowledgement a relationship rather than a recital.
They also make it diplomatic. A guest who recognizes the host’s homeland recognizes that they have entered a place with its own relationships and responsibilities. A host who welcomes the guest makes room for an encounter governed by those relationships.
Neither arrives without standing. Neither arrives without obligations.
Beginning with place
I write from the shores of the Bay of Quinte. Here, the teaching asks me to begin with the water, the shoreline, and the life they sustain. Before I describe myself, I must attend to where I am.
That does not make people or history less important. It places them within the homeland that gives them meaning. The people, their laws, their agreements, and their responsibilities all belong to the place.
In a time of longer fire seasons, troubled waters, and uncertainty about what the next season will bring, this teaching asks something difficult and useful of us: pay attention before you speak.
An acknowledgement cannot tell the story of a place if the speaker has stopped noticing it.
The land came first. Beginning there again means learning to name what sustains us, and accepting that what sustains us also asks something of us.
By Rye Karonhiowanen Barberstock
Photo by Andrik Langfield on Unsplash
The post The Land Came First appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.