Industrial Agriculture, an Extraction Industry Like Fossil Fuels, a Growing Driver of Climate Change.

On his farm in southwestern Iowa, Seth Watkins plants several different crops and raises cattle.

"I can see the impact of the changing climate," Seth
 Watkins said. "I know, in the immediate, I've got to
manage the issue. In the long term, it means doing
 something to slow down the problem."

He controls erosion and water pollution by leaving some land permanently covered in native grass. He grazes his cattle on pasture, and he sows cover crops to hold the fertile soil in place during the harsh Midwestern winters.

Watkins' farm is a patchwork of diversity—and his fields mark it as an outlier.

His practices don't sound radical, but Watkins is a bit of a renegade. He's among a small contingent of farmers in the region who are holding out against a decades-long trend of consolidation and expansion in American agriculture.

Watkins does this in part because he farms with climate change in mind.

Read the story from Inside Climate News by Georgina Gustin - “Industrial Agriculture, an Extraction Industry Like Fossil Fuels, a Growing Driver of Climate Change.”