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Welcome to Eat Crops Don't Breathe Crops!
This website aims to inform the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) Community of the dangers of agricultural open burning, bring together resources for small farms, increase community engagement surrounding this issue, and increase representation for small farms. Agricultural burning is a persistent issue in the Valley because it is currently the most affordable option for agricultural waste disposal. The SJV Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) has plans to phase out agricultural open burning by 2025 by providing financial incentives for alternatives to burning. Unfortunately, the funds are being disproportionately allocated to big farms and are difficult for small farms to access. This website brings together resources for small farms to easily access these incentives. We hope that an increased level of resource application to small farms and of community engagement will instill long-lasting, transformative change in the SJV by expediting and enforcing the phaseout of agricultural burning and increasing the representation of small farms.
What is Agricultural Burning?
Agricultural burning is the most common way to dispose of agricultural waste (dead crops, unsellable parts of crops, etc.) in the San Joaquin Valley.
Why is Agricultural Burning bad?
It releases lots of smoke into the air that contains toxic pollutants that are very bad are for human health and contribute to climate change.
Why is agricultural burning happening?
It is currently the most affordable option for agricultural waste disposal.
What are the alternatives?
There are lots of new technologies for clean agricultural waste disposal! Click here to learn about them.
Why are small farms having a harder time phasing out agricultural burning?
Less government funding has been allocated to small farms and the process to apply and receive this funding is very complicated and time-consuming. Small farms already have fewer resources than big farms and many do not have the time to engage in the over-complicated process. This website streamlines the application and allows small farms to take advantage of government incentives.
Big farms have a lot more financial wealth and the government has always given them more advantages, increasing the financial and resource disparity between big and small farms. If small farms are unable to access the alternative waste disposal incentives by 2025, they may face fiscal penalties, increasing the disparity. This website is one step in reducing that inequality.
Real-time fire detection map in the SJV
As a tool to monitor the phase-out plan of agricultural open burning in the SJV, we created this real-time fire detection map. Red dots are fire detected by the satellite, VIIRS Suomi-NPP Near Real-Time. We decided to use the Suomi NPP satellite since it has a VIIRS fire detection sensor onboard and its data is accessible online.
For future capabilities, we hope that this fire detection map can be further utilized and turned into an app where one can report a fire or be notified when a fire is nearby. An app like such has the potential to be an incredible resource that can help protect and empower disadvantaged communities from fire-related environmental hazards!
View satellite data here: NASA’s Fire Information and Resource Management System website.
Burn permits and fire detection map of SJV in January 2021
This is a map of agricultural open burning fires in the SJV during January 2021. We overlaid burn permit data from the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District and satellite fire detection data to produce this map. This map is also using data from the satellite, VIIRS Suomi-NPP Near Real-Time.
The blue dots are burn permits and the red dots are fires detected. As you can see, within the SJV boundary, there are fires that align almost perfectly with burn permit locations. This spatial correlation tells us that these are in fact, agricultural open burning fires.
We created this map as a tool to address the extent and magnitude of the problem. However, we should note that it is possible that the satellite can not detect smaller fires, therefore, this map might be missing data on fires that occurred in January 2021. Additionally, we can not categorize the fires outside of the SJV boundary.
View burn permit data here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/152hXJQXRqVFaGvhb_8I6_xA-Vy79i9OS/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101156873694536801296&rtpof=true&sd=true.
Crops grown in the SJV and Average Annual Agricultural Burning Emissions
The map above shows the crops grown in the SJV. It is an extremely agricultural intensive area.
The graph above shows the change in average annual emissions from the burning of the highest emitting crops. Agricultural burning emissions have increased from 2007 to 2019 mainly because of the increase in vineyard removal.
Click here to receive air quality notifications near you
What to do if There is Bad Air Quality in Your Area
Stay inside if possible
Close all windows and doors
Turn on any air filters
Wear a mask when outside
Real-time Outdoor Activity Risk (ROAR) Guidelines:
http://healthyairliving.com/media/1046/roar-schools-2017.pdf
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