Skip to main content
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
MIT
Close

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
PostJune 12, 2025

Podcast episode: Digging into climate-smart dairy with Carolyn Beans

A composite of two side-by-side images. On the left, a woman with a blue shirt smiles. On the right is the logo of the FarmHouse podcast: a flowerpot and a window, through which we can see a small building and windmill.

In this episode of the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow Carolyn Beans speaks about her recent series of articles on climate-smart dairy.

 

By Candice Wierzbowski and Stephanie Speicher

This week on the FarmHouse, a podcast by Lancaster Farming, we’re talking to Carolyn Beans, a freelance science reporter with a focus on food and agriculture.

Beans is currently an MIT Environmental Solutions Journalism Fellow. Through the fellowship, she is writing a series on climate-smart dairy that is being published in Lancaster Farming.

“The fellowship is designed to support journalists who are working on stories that explore environmental solutions specifically for local audiences,” Beans said.

The term climate-smart is a bit of a newer buzzword, but Beans said despite the new terminology, there are a lot of practical ways to implement it on farms, many of which farmers are already familiar with.

“What climate-smart means now is many of the things that a lot of dairies are already doing,” Beans said. “Things like cover-cropping counts, things like no-till farming counts. More of the newer technologies to bring down greenhouse gases also count. Things like methane digesters, or even something like a liquid-solid separator.”

The term itself can be a bit polarizing, but Beans said she saw conservation practices at all of the many dairy farms she visited throughout Pennsylvania.

“I think every single dairy farmer I spoke with had already done something to improve the sustainability of their farms,” Beans said.

Beans didn’t start out heavily involved in the agriculture industry. She always had an interest in plants, and at one point worked at a flower farm.

This led her to eventually studying biology and digging into the field of science reporting.

“Talking about food is a thing that everyone is interested in. We all eat. We all have some feelings about food,” Beans said. “So it’s a topic that allows me to cover a lot of science while just meeting people at a topic that I think they really care about.”

Check out the podcast episode at Lancaster Farming and read Beans's articles on the economics of climate-smart milk; measuring greenhouse gas emissions at dairies; dairies and carbon markets; and selling climate-smart products.

by MIT Climate
Topics
Arts & Communication
Finance & Economics
Food, Water & Agriculture

Related Posts

PostJune 16, 2025

Lack of middleman between Illinois farmers and consumers limits market for ...

MIT Climate
A man laughs while carrying a white and green box that reads "farm fresh vegetables."
PostJune 13, 2025

A journey of resilience, fueled by learning

MIT Open Learning
Hilal Mohammadzai graduated from the MIT Emerging Talent Certificate in Computer and Data Science as part of his path to pursue a career in data science.
PostJune 13, 2025

After more than a decade of successes, ESI’s work will spread out across ...

MIT News
John Fernandez, professor in the Department of Architecture and director of MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative, has led ESI since 2015.
PostJune 12, 2025

A Complete Picture of Sustainability

MIT Spectrum
Example of a modeling map.

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
MIT Climate Project
MIT
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner

 

Cancel