Farmers are Capitalizing on Carbon Sequestration: How Much is Your Carbon-Rich Soil Worth?

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Author: Brian Barth

Carbon farming—a catch-all phrase to describe the cultivation techniques that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere (where it causes global warming) and convert it into carbon-based compounds in the soil that aid plant growth—has long been touted as a way to enlist farmers in the fight against climate change. Thanks to the growing market for carbon sequestration, farmers could soon stand to profit from such good deeds.

Environmentally-minded farmers are well aware that building up soil carbon is one key to achieving high yields without chemical inputs. It’s through the expansion of global carbon markets, however, where polluting corporations purchase “carbon credits” to offset their carbon emissions, that farmers are starting to get paid for adopting these practices.

When these polluters purchase carbon credits, the money goes to another company, organization, or project that has prevented an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases (GHGs) from entering the atmosphere (which can include a farmer). The transaction is mitigated by a broker, called a carbon registry. In the past, wind farms, solar panel facilities, and reforestation projects were among the most common recipients of carbon credits, but farm-based carbon credits are becoming more widely available. Notably, Australia, Alberta, Kenya, and California now have active programs to reward on-farm carbon sequestration.

Measuring the actual amount of carbon sequestered in soil and plants is a costly and inexact science, which is one reason that farm-based approaches haven’t been widely accepted by carbon credit programs yet. (It’s much easier to quantify reduced carbon emissions with things like solar power.) Rather than measuring the carbon sequestered on each farm, carbon credit programs rely on the average carbon sequestration ability of particular practices (like adding organic matter to the soil, planting cover crops, and reducing soil disturbance) that have been tested over time and scientifically verified. The bottom line is that farmers aren’t expected to calculate their own soil carbon levels—it’ll be inferred by the credit-granting organization based on their farming practices.

To help farmers get an idea of their current climate impacts and prospects for earning carbon credits, however, the USDA now has a free web-based tool called COMET-Farm, which provides an approximate carbon footprint based on user-supplied data and allows farmers to apply different land management scenarios to see which has the greatest carbon sequestering ability.

So how much might a farmer make for their soil carbon? Not much, at least not yet.

Here is how it works: Land-based carbon sequestration is measured in metric tons per hectare (2.5 acres); one metric ton earns one carbon credit, making the math easy. In California—the only state in the US with a full-fledged cap-and-trade program—the current value of a carbon credit is around $12 to $13. (Farmers in other states, by the way, are eligible to earn credits through the California carbon market.) Alberta, which has the most robust carbon market in Canada and rewards several agricultural practices with carbon credits, raised the price of carbon credits from $15 to $20 on January 1, 2016; in 2017, the price will go up to $30 per credit.

KEEP READING ON MODERN FARMER

New Label Soon for Grass-Fed Milk and Yogurt

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Author: Dr. Mercola

The secret is out: grass-fed dairy products are not only rich, creamy and reminiscent of the way dairy products used to be, but they’re also better for your health, the environment and the cows providing the milk.

As a result, demand for grass-fed dairy products is growing at an impressive rate. Organic, grass-fed yogurt, for instance, is experiencing 82 percent dollar growth, which is more than three times the growth of yogurt that does not contain the grass-fed label, according to Organic Valley dairy.1

Their “Grassmilk” brand is the top-selling grass-fed dairy brand in the U.S., and it’s had double-digit growth since its 2012 debut. Organic Valley stated that their Grassmilk goes beyond the pasturing standards for ruminants required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Organic Program.

To be clear, there’s a lot of confusion about the term “grass-fed,” and in many cases, it’s an abused term like the word “natural.” Organic Valley and other U.S. grass-fed dairy producers are teaming up to change this, and the first steps have been laid for a new industry-wide grass-fed label for dairy.

New Industry Standard for Grass-Fed Labeling

The American Grassfed Association (AGA) hosted a stakeholder meeting to start the ball rolling on a new industry-wide grass-fed dairy standard. AGA explained:2

“Rapid growth of the grassfed dairy segment and the consequent proliferation of grass- and pasture-based claims pose a challenge for producers, retailers, and consumers in the dairy industry.

AGA convened the meeting to discuss mutual concerns about practices, standards, protection of legitimate claims, and avoidance of consumer confusion about grass-based products.”

The goals of the meeting included determining potential for agreement for standards for grass-fed dairy products, assessing options for protecting the integrity of grass-based dairy products and establishing a unified standard and market integrity. According to AGA, discussions centered on he following:

  • Animal health and nutrition
  • Transparency of practices and claims
  • Holistic land and soil management
  • Support and validation for producers
  • Building a certified organic standard while providing a bridge with non-organic grass-fed claims

Don Davis, chair of AGA’s standards and certification committee, stated:

“We feel this meeting was an important first step to develop a clear and definable industry standard that will encourage producers to develop grassfed dairy programs and also to provide assurance to consumers when they see the term “grassfed” on a carton of milk or other dairy products.”

USDA Revoked Their Grass-Fed Standard in January 2016

In 2007, the USDA released voluntary standards for a grass-fed claim on meat. It suggested grass-fed animals eat nothing but grass and stored grasses, and have access to pasture during the growing season.

The standards were far from perfect; for instance, they allowed animals to be confined for certain periods of time and did not restrict the use of antibiotics and hormones in the animals.

Nonetheless, many viewed it as a step in the right direction that would provide increased transparency into how meat is raised and allow consumers to make more informed choices when buying their food.

In January 2016, however, the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service announced that it withdrew the grass-fed standard, citing a lack of authority to define the claim. Those using the USDA’s grass-fed standard were given 30 days to convert it to a private grass-fed standard or develop a new grass-fed standard.

Is More Confusion Coming to Grass-Fed Meat Packaging?

Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), is among those who believe the withdrawal will only add more confusion to food labeling. He stated in a NSAC press release:3

“Rather than bringing consistency and common sense to our food marketing system, USDA seems to be throwing in the towel … This is terrible public policy that will create a multitude of non-uniform labels, which will open the door to more confusion and subterfuge in the marketplace.

It is an affront to consumers, who have the right to know how their food is raised, and to the farmers whose innovation and hard work created the trusted grass fed label standard.

NSAC and our member organizations believe this reversal is a detriment to a fair and transparent food system and we urge the USDA to come up with an alternative solution quickly.”

KEEP READING ON MERCOLA

Posicionamiento de organizaciones civiles y académicas asistentes e interesadas en la presentación de la “Iniciativa 4 por 1000: los suelos para la seguridad alimentaria y el clima”, efectuada el 18 de abril de 2016 en SAGARPA

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[ English | Español ]

REPRESENTANTES DE SAGARPA Y EMBAJADA DE FRANCIA EN MÉXICO

Mtro. José Eduardo Calzada Rovirosa, Titular SAGARPA
Ing. Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Titular SEMARNAT
Sra. Maryse Bossiere, Embajadora de Francia en México
Dra. María Amparo Ramírez Arroyo, Titular INECC
Mtra. Mely Romero, Subsecretaria de Desarrollo Rural, SAGARPA
Mtro. Raúl Urteaga, Coordinador General de Asuntos Internacionales, SAGARPA
Mtra. Roxana Aguirre, Directora General de Desarrollo de Capacidades y Extensionismo Rural, SAGARPA

PRESENTES

Por este medio, integrantes y representantes de organizaciones civiles y de la comunidad científica mexicana que participamos en la actividad antes citada, nos congratulamos por el anuncio realizado el pasado 18 de abril de la Iniciativa 4×1000 promovida por el gobierno de Francia y suscrita por el gobierno mexicano en diciembre pasado en la COP21 sobre cambio climático realizada en París. En este espacio pudimos apreciar la trascendencia de este asunto, la grave situación de degradación de los suelos en México y algunas investigaciones y experiencias comunitarias que se han desarrollado para la regeneración y secuestro de carbono en el suelo.

Consideramos que este tema es fundamental para defender la supervivencia y la soberanía alimentaria, por lo que es imprescindible impulsar y coordinar cuanto antes, acciones y políticas públicas transparentes y alineadas que impulsen la producción agroecológica en el país, garantizando todos y cada uno de los derechos fundamentales de las y los pequeños productores, asegurando la devolución del carbono al suelo, incrementando su fertilidad, restaurando los campos mexicanos y contribuyendo a una alimentación sana, inocua y de calidad. Estas acciones deben partir de la utilización revisada y fortalecida de iniciativas ya existentes, desarrollo normativo e institucional, compromisos institucionales adquiridos, avances en conocimiento ya disponibles y no convertirse en otro impulso temporal que no trasciende ni genera las transformaciones necesarias para revertir el círculo vicioso en el que ya giramos.

Es evidente que la grave crisis climática que se vive en el planeta y, en particular, en un país tan vulnerable como México, requiere respuestas urgentes, comprometidas y coherentes, que sean coordinadas entre gobiernos, sociedad civil, científicos y sobre todo entre las y los agricultores. Es tiempo de trabajar coordinadamente impulsando las iniciativas exitosas que se han desarrollado desde el campo para preservar sus suelos y semillas, y que han demostrado efectividad para resolver sus principales problemáticas.

De acuerdo con Olivier de Schutter ex relator de Naciones Unidas para el derecho a la alimentación, el 10% más rico de los agricultores recibió el 80% de las transferencias del Ingreso Objetivo en 2005, mientras que el 10% de las y los productores en mayor situación de pobreza recibió únicamente el 0,1%[1]. Es alarmante que en un país donde el 80% de las y los agricultores poseen menos de 5 hectáreas, los apoyos al campo se concentren en los más ricos, cuando la pequeña agricultura es la que abastece el 40% de los alimentos que consumimos y puede contribuir a una producción sana y regenerativa, a través de prácticas agroecológicas.

Ante este escenario, el gobierno mexicano ha mostrado una completa incoherencia y falta de coordinación entre los acuerdos firmados a nivel internacional para combatir el cambio climático y la política interna que favorece y promueve un modelo agroindustrial basado en el uso de agrotóxicos y transgénicos que progresivamente dañan la salud de las personas y deterioran gravemente los ecosistemas, sobre todo los suelos y el agua, indispensables para vivir.

A fin de dar continuidad al compromiso que el gobierno mexicano ha asumido, solicitamos al C. Secretario de SAGARPA, en su papel de titular de la instancia ejecutora, convocar junto con las áreas pertinentes tanto de SAGARPA como de otras dependencias públicas que debieron haber participado en el evento al haber encabezado la firma del acuerdo en París, como CONAFOR, INECC, CONAGUA y Presidencia de la República, a una reunión de trabajo con las organizaciones civiles y grupos académicos interesados en incidir y monitorear las acciones correspondientes que den continuidad al evento y aseguren el cumplimiento del acuerdo firmado 4×1000. Lo anterior, solicitamos se haga a través de la elaboración colectiva de una hoja de ruta que deberá contener las metas a alcanzarse en los próximos cuatro años, detallando un diagnóstico sobre la situación actual de los suelos y la producción agrícola en México, recuperando las investigaciones que se han desarrollado en nuestro país, así como el plan de trabajo con actividades, responsables, fechas, recursos económicos y humanos, indicadores y formas de verificación del cumplimiento, con objeto de avanzar hacia prácticas agroecológicas que permitan restituir el carbón en la tierra.

En ese sentido, solicitamos a SAGARPA que presente opciones de fechas para el encuentro que establecerá los mecanismos de coordinación y trabajo, integrando a las comunidades científica, campesina, indígena y social que están apoyando y/o desarrollando prácticas agroecológicas que no permiten el uso de organismos genéticamente modificados ni sustancias tóxicas que dañan la salud humana y ecosistémica; y a las y los representantes de todas las dependencias públicas que están ejecutando políticas públicas relacionadas y que impactan positiva o negativamente al 4×1000. Entre éstas, será imprescindible la participación, además de las Direcciones corresponsables de la SAGARPA del sector agrícola y ganadero, la Dirección de productividad de SHCP, SEDATU, SEDESOL, SEMARNAT, CONABIO, INECC, COFEPRIS, SE, SENER, CONAFOR, CONANP, CDI, INMUJERES, Banca de Desarrollo, y demás entidades públicas con mandato relacionado con el desarrollo rural. Asimismo, se requiere de la presencia de grupos académicos como la Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS) y de la Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo (UACH) y otros grupos de sociedad civil que sumen a la estrategia, generando una plataforma sólida que dé seguimiento a las acciones encaminadas regenerar los suelos, crucial para evitar una crisis aún mayor que la que actualmente ya padecemos.

Atentamente,

ANEC México
Álvaro Urreta, Coordinador de PROMESAN
Andrea Rodríguez Osuna, Abogada Senior Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente – AIDA
Dra. Christina Siebe, UNAM
Cooperativa de Consumo Zacahuizco
El Poder del Consumidor
Fernando Bejarano, Red de Acción sobre Plaguicidas y Alternativas en México
Fian México
Dr. Fernando Paz, Programa Mexicano del Carbono
Fundación Filobatrista para el desarrollo de la participación comunitaria AC
Fundar, Centro de Análisis e Investigación
Dr. Gonzalo Chapela, Coordinador de políticas públicas de la Red Mexicana contra la Desertificación RIOD – México
Greenpeace México
Dr. Héctor Robles, Miembro de la campaña Valor al Campesino
Dra. Helena Cotler, UNAM
Henry Miller, El Maíz Más Pequeño AC
Dr. Jorge Etchevers, Colegio de Postgraduados
Dr. Luis Zambrano, UNAM
Organic Consumers Association México
Red Mexicana por la Agricultura Familiar y Campesina
Regeneration International
Semillas de Vida AC
Dra. Silke Cram, UNAM
The Hunger Project México
Vía Orgánica AC
Yosu Rodríguez, Investigador Asociado, Centro Geo

***

[1] Informe del Relator Especial sobre el derecho a la alimentación, Olivier De Schutter, enero de 2012. P.7 https://www.srfood.org/images/stories/pdf/officialreports/20120306_mexico_es.pdf

 

LEE MÁS ARTÍCULOS EN ESPAÑOL

Interview: Researcher, Author Eric Toensmeier Explores Practical, Effective Carbon Farming Strategies

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While this interview was being prepared a story surfaced on public radio about a couple of enterprising Americans who are taking advantage of changing policy to open a factory in Cuba. Their product? Tractors! The whole idea, the story helpfully explained, was to introduce “21st century farming” to the beleaguered island. By making it easier to tear up the soil. Clearly there is some distance to go before an accurate idea of 21st century farming penetrates the mainstream. It will take people like Eric Toensmeier. His new book, The Carbon Farming Solution, carries enough heft, range and detail to clear away forests of confusion. If the notion of leaving carbon in the soil is going to take its place next to that of leaving oil in the ground, this one-volume encyclopedia on the subject is exactly the kind of deeply informed work that’s required. Reached at his home in western Massachusetts, Toensmeier was exhilarated over finishing a project years in the making, and more than happy to talk about it.

This interview appears in the May 2016 issue of Acres U.S.A.

ACRES U.S.A. Carbon farming was unknown even a few years ago, and it is still obscure for many people who are otherwise well-informed. Could you establish the basic premise for us?

ERIC TOENSMEIER. Sure. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is there because of burning fossil fuels and also because of the degradation of land. Whether it’s forests being cleared or prairie being plowed or a badly grazed pasture, when those ecosystems are degraded, carbon that was stored in soil and in biomass bonds with oxygen and heads up into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. There are practices that can bring it back. They all use photosynthesis, which takes carbon dioxide out of the air and turns it into sugars in the plant; then those sugars are converted into various other things such as lignins. Some of them end up in the plant itself, and some of them end up in the soil. Some get there quickly through root exudates, and some end up in the soil more slowly through decomposition. Some of them are off-gassed to go back up into the atmosphere. We can pull down a bunch of that excess atmospheric carbon and store it in the soil and in perennial biomass. The amount that is possible is quite hopeful and could be just about enough to do the job if it’s coupled with a drastic reduction in emissions. It’s not enough to do the job on its own.

ACRES U.S.A. If carbon storage via agriculture is essential to an overall climate strategy, how do you lay it out to a skeptic who doesn’t believe farms can play a big part?

TOENSMEIER. That’s a really important question. We’re not going to stop climate change, but we can’t get it to a manageable level without farmers, and here’s why. Even if we stopped all emissions today — all deforestation, all fossil fuel burning — there’s already too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That’s partly because carbon dioxide takes a couple decades to kick in. We’re already in for a lot more warming than we can tell from what we’ve emitted. We can pull it back down, and to do that we have to stop emissions, but we also have to sequester carbon. Neither one works on its own. There’s not enough land available for reforestation to do all the sequestration we need with land leftover for agriculture. So agriculture itself has to be part of the solution. What’s cool is that almost all of these agricultural solutions weren’t invented for climate change mitigation — they were invented because they make farms work better. They make farms more resilient. They make farms more productive. They’re good ideas anyway! There are plenty of tradeoffs and drawbacks, but as far as I can see it’s quite a good news story.

KEEP READING IN ECO FARMING DAILY BY ACRES U.S.A. MAGAZINE

Dirt First

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Author: Kristin Ohlson

Rick Haney, gangly and garrulous, paces in front of a congregation of government conservationists, working the room for laughs before he gets to the hard data. The U.S. Department of Agriculture soil scientist points to an aerial photograph of research plots outside his facility in Temple , Texas. “Our drones took this shot,” he says, then shakes his head. “Kidding. We don’t have any drones.”

Forty sets of shoulders jerk in amusement. Paranoia about the federal government is acute in Texas, and Haney’s audience—field educators from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), part of a corps of around six thousand that works directly with farmers nationwide—hail from around the state. They’re used to suspicious scowls from farmers, who are as skeptical of the feds as they are of the outsiders who dwell on the downsides of agriculture. For the most part, the people in this room are both: feds and outsiders.

But what if those downsides—unsustainable farming practices—are also bad for a farmer’s bottom line? It’s the question Haney loves to raise during training sessions like this one, which the NRCS (today’s iteration of the Dust Bowl–era Soil Conservation Service) convenes around the country as part of a soil health campaign launched in 2012. Haney is a star at these events because he brings the imprimatur of science to something many innovative farmers have already discovered: despite what the million-dollar marketing campaigns of agrichemical companies say, farmers can use less fertilizer without reducing yields, saving both money and landscapes.

“Our entire agriculture industry is based on chemical inputs, but soil is not a chemistry set,” Haney explains. “It’s a biological system. We’ve treated it like a chemistry set because the chemistry is easier to measure than the soil biology.”

In nature, of course, plants grow like mad without added synthetic fertilizer, thanks to a multimillion-year-old partnership with soil microorganisms. Plants pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and create a carbon syrup. About 60 percent of this fuels the plant’s growth, with the remaining exuded through the roots to soil microorganisms, which trade mineral nutrients they’ve liberated from rocks, sand, silt, and clay—in other words, fertilizer—for their share of the carbon bounty. Haney insists that ag scientists are remiss if they don’t pay more attention to this natural partnership.

“I’ve had scientific colleagues tell me they raised 300 bushels of corn [per acre] with an application of fertilizer, and I ask how the control plots, the ones without the fertilizer, did,” Haney says. “They tell me 220 bushels of corn. How is that not the story? How is raising 220 bushels of corn without fertilizer not the story?” If the natural processes at work in even the tired soil of a test plot can produce 220 bushels of corn, he argues, the yields of farmers consciously building soil health can be much higher.

KEEP READING IN ORION MAGAZINE

Vegetables Likely To Take More Of Your Plate In 2016

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Author: Bonny Wolf

About a decade ago, food writer Michael Pollan issued a call to action: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. As 2016 opens, it looks like many American cooks and diners are heeding that call.

Vegetables have moved from the side to the center of the plate. And as another year begins, it appears that plants are the new meat.

Bon Appetit magazine named AL’s Place in San Francisco the best new restaurant of 2015. Meats at AL’s Place are listed under “sides.” The rest of the menu features vegetable-centric dishes sometimes featuring animal protein as an ingredient — pear curry, black lime yellowtail, persimmon, blistered squash. The hanger steak (with smoked salmon butter), however, is a side dish.

This and other restaurants are also using the whole vegetable. What used to go in the compost heap is now fermented, roasted or smoked and used in other dishes. The stem-to-leaf approach follows the example of nose-to-tail eating.

WastED is a project that brings together chefs, farmers, fishermen and food purveyors to “reconceive waste” in the food chain, according to the group’s website.

…

Eaters in 2016 also are likely to see more dried beans, peas and lentils on their plates. The United Nations has declared this the International Year of Pulses to raise consumer awareness of the nutritional and environmental benefits of the edible dry seeds. Chickpeas seems to be the rising star of the pulse world. They’re not just for hummus anymore.

KEEP READING ON NPR

A pilgrimage towards a nonviolent relationship with soil

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I have just returned from a soil pilgrimage undertaken to celebrate the International Year of Soil and renew our commitment to a non-violent relationship with the earth, the soil and our society. On October 2, we started the pilgrimage from Bapu Kutir at Sevagram Ashram, Maharashtra. My fellow pilgrims were those who have contributed over half-a-century of their lives to build the organic movement — Andre Leu, president of International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) of the United States, and Will Allen, a professor and long-time organic farmer.

At Mahatma Gandhi’s hut, we took a pledge to stop the violence to the soil through chemical fertilisers and poisons and promote organic farming as ahimsa kheti. We dedicated ourselves to a transition from a violent, chemical, industrial agriculture that is destroying soil fertility and trapping farmers in debt through high-cost seeds and chemicals.

Vidarbha, for example, has emerged as the epicentre of debt-induced farmers’ suicides. It is also the region with the highest acreage of genetically modified organism (GMO) Bt cotton. Fields of non-Bt, native cotton — which is totally pest and weed-free — gives more yields than Bt cotton.

The Bt fields are being doused in pesticides because of pest outbreaks, since Bt is failing as a tool to control pests. Bt cotton fields are also being sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup, a known carcinogen to control weeds.

There is no regulation of the poisons being used. Most of the GMO cotton seed is being blended and labelled for sale as vegetable oil. We are being fed GMO cotton seed oil, even though GMOs are not allowed in food in India. And while toxic oils spread without regulation, the new food safety rules have shut down the ghani (virgin oil press) that sold healthy and safe oils like flax, groundnut, sesame and mustard.

The oilcake is being fed to our cows. Those who kill others in the name of cow protection are silent on the fight against the toxic giants who are poisoning our “gau mata”.

The pilgrimage concluded at the Agriculture College, Indore, which started as Albert Howard’s institute on organic farming that contributed to the famous Indore process of composting.

Mahatma Gandhi came to know of the Indore process when he visited London to attend the Round Table Conference. Gandhi and Howard have shown that we can have a peaceful and respectful relationship with the soil and with each other.

Howard was sent to India in 1905 by the British Empire to introduce chemical farming. When he arrived, he found the soils were fertile and there were no pests in the fields. He decided to make the Indian peasant his professor and wrote the book An Agricultural Testament, known as the bible of organic farming.

Organic farming is the original example of “Make in India”. Howard’s book helped spread the organic movement to the US through the Rodale Institute and to the UK through the Soil Association, finding its way to far corners of the world.

1000IMG_4825

The soil pilgrimage was our expression of gratitude to sources of organic farming in India — our fertile and generous land and Mother Earth that have sustained us for millennia.

Ecological and regenerative agriculture is based on recycling organic matter, and hence recycling nutrients. It is based on the Law of Return — giving nutrients back to the soil. As Howard wrote in The Soil and Health: “Taking without giving is a robbery of the soil and a banditry; a particularly mean form of banditry, because it involves the robbing of future generations which are not here to defend themselves.”

In taking care of the soil, we also produce more food on less land. Fertile soils are the sustainable answer to food and nutrition security. Organic agriculture is the only real answer to climate change.

The air pollution that has built up in the atmosphere is roughly 400 parts per million (ppm) carbon dioxide today. This is the reason for the greenhouse effect and climate chaos, including temperature rise. To cap the rise of temperature at two degrees centigrade, we need to reduce the carbon build up in the air to 350 ppm.

There is a need to reduce emissions and phase out fossil fuels, but it also requires reducing the stocks of excess carbon from the atmosphere and putting it back into the soil where it belongs. Here, organic, regenerative agriculture offers us the way out.

In the process, it also addresses food insecurity and hunger, reverses desertification, creates livelihood security by creating ecological security, and, therefore, creates the path to peace.

Above all, it allows a transition from the violent paradigm, structures and systems of capitalist patriarchy to the non-violent paradigm, structures and systems based on ahimsa, which include the well being of all.

Organic farming is the answer to drought and climate change. It is also a peace solution. If we do not respect the soil and our cultural diversity and if we do not collectively recommit ourselves to ahimsa, we can rapidly disintegrate as a civilisation.

For me, organic agriculture is the dharma that sows the seeds of peace and prosperity for all. It helps us break out of the vicious cycle of violence and degeneration, and create virtuous cycles based on non-violence and regeneration.

Just as humus in soil binds soil particles and prevents soil erosion, it also binds the society and prevents violence and social disintegration. Since humus provides food, livelihood, water and climate security, it also contributes to peace. Just as wet straw cannot be put on fire by a matchstick, communities that are secure cannot be put on fire by violent elements feeding on insecurity created by an economic model that is killing swadeshi and is only designed for global economic powers to extract what they want.

In taking care of the soil, we reclaim our humanity. Our future is inseparable from the future of the earth. It is no accident that the word human has its roots in humus — soil in Latin. And Adam, the first human in Abrahamanic traditions, is derived from Adamus, soil in Hebrew.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote: “To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.” We must never forget that ahimsa must be the basis of our relationship with the earth and each other.

The writer is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust.

The Soil Solution: Regenerative Farming

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Author: Eli Wallace

When scientists and environmentalists talk climate change, doom and gloom is often the main topic. Scientific American reported last spring that the earth was essentially at or close to the “point of no return,” in terms of carbon emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated in 2009 that unless drastic action was taken between 2015 and 2020, it would be too late to save the ice caps, let alone polar bears, coastal infrastructure and the temperate, predictable weather patterns we know and love.

So it’s not every day you hear an environmentalist declare we can actually reverse global warming. Steven Hoffman, managing director of the Boulder-based environmental marketing group Compass Natural and an avid environmentalist with ties to Regeneration International, visited the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21 Global Climate Summit) in Paris this year, where the reversal of global warming through soil regeneration was a major focus.

“People keep talking about reducing carbon emissions and getting to carbon neutral, but that’s not enough anymore,” Hoffman says. “We’re already heating, so we need to take the excess from the atmosphere. A lot of people want to make new technology that can help solve our previous technology problems.”

Hoffman says the conversation around carbon emissions usually centers on personal consumption and oil use, even though 50 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions comes from agriculture.

“Yes, we need to increase renewable energy, but that’s only half the equation. All of the carbon in the air used to be in the ground, and industrial-scale agriculture is responsible. If you ignore that, you’re missing the practical, easily applied solution that we can address immediately.”

That solution, regenerative farming, focuses on increasing organic matter in the soil, which would up the amount of carbon in the soil. “We could sequester more than 100 percent of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive organic-management practices,” reported the white paper “Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change,” published by Rodale Institute, a nonprofit agricultural research group.

“Organic farming nurtures the living soil,” Hoffman explains. “Plants draw carbon from the air to their roots, where it’s sequestered in soil and used by microbes, worms and other organisms.”

KEEP READING IN THE BOULDER COUNTY HOME & GARDEN

 

Climate Change: The Ground-level Solution

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Author: Ryan Zinn

To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
—Mahatma Gandhi

World governments and organizations recently met in Paris to address climate change at a global level. And for the first time in the history of international climate talks, agriculture was put on the table as both a cause and solution to climate change.

As humans, we’ve sent people to the moon and cracked the human genome, but we are just beginning to understand the complexities of soil. For too long, we looked at soil as merely something to hold plants up, rather than a miraculous living membrane crucial for human and ecosystem health. Soils, when healthy, produce more food, retain more water and sequester significant quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. In fact, a third of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is from oxidized organic matter of depleted topsoil on mismanaged farms and overgrazed rangelands.

Industrial agriculture is a key driver in the generation of greenhouse gases. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides kill soil life essential to building organic matter. Monocultures, land change, deforestation, waste and transportation are all part of a food system that generates significant emissions. Even if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, we would be stuck with a huge legacy load of greenhouse gases.

Fortunately regenerative organic agriculture practiced at large scale on our farms and rangelands can sequester huge amounts of excess carbon from the air and bring it back into healthy soil in the form of stable organic matter. This is how soil was formed in the first place and is one of the most significant steps we can take to reverse climate change, along with reforestation and not burning fossil fuels. The way we grow our food either degenerates soil and releases more carbon into the air, or regenerates soil that sequesters more carbon into the ground.

I’m excited to work for a company that works with farmers and partner organizations worldwide—in Ghana, Kenya, India, and Sri Lanka—to improve their livelihoods while simultaneously regenerating soil. Our team focuses on education and practices such as composting, cover cropping and mulching, that not only build up soil fertility and organic matter, increasing yields and profits for small farmers, but also aid local communities’ resiliency to heat waves and storms.

In India, the several hundred mint farmers we work with face serious challenges: a quickly growing population, soil degradation, erratic rainfall and rural poverty. Despite these challenges, Indian farmers are using local resources and know-how to return nutrients to their fields and regenerate their farms. These small steps, replicated over hundreds of farms, can act as the building block for a truly regenerative farming system.

Dr. Bronner’s also supports non-profit educational and activist organizations, including Regeneration International, Kiss The Ground, Center for Food Safety and Fair World Project, in their critical work to engage and educate farmers, consumers, companies and decision makers.

At a personal level, we can choose a “regenetarian” diet based on regenerative organic farming, and join organizations working on these issues. And by composting instead of throwing away food waste, we can improve our own soil’s health and ability to sequester carbon, and inspire friends and family to do the same.

Despite the dire reality, I have great hope. The resiliency of humans and the planet, after years of neglect, gives me faith. Facing down climate change is not only a major challenge, but a major opportunity to think differently about how we grow and eat food, how we define community, and what our hopes and aspirations are for the future. Let us not waste this opportunity.

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Ryan Zinn is Organic & Fair Trade Coordinator at Dr. Bronner’s.

Beyond Pesticides to Regeneration!

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Author: Brian Jordan

I have a confession.

Until I watched actress Kaiulani Lee kick off the Beyond Pesticides 34th National Pesticide Forum  this weekend in Portland, Maine, I had only vaguely heard of Rachel Carson, marine biologist, environmental activist and author of “The Silent Spring.”

But Lee’s keynote performance, “A Sense of Wonder,” brought Carson to life for all of us who attended this important conference. Using Carson’s own words, Lee gave voice to the struggles Carson faced—the backlash she endured from the chemical industry, and the personal sacrifices she made in order to change the conversation around how we regulate chemicals, and how as a nation we address environmental issues.

It was a lesson in where we came from and where we are today.

If Carson’s struggle in the 1950s and 1960s sounds all too familiar, it’s because we are fighting the same circular battle with today’s chemical industry and agribusiness giants—one product at a time, with a new, often worse, one always just around the corner.

This year’s Beyond Pesticides forum had something for everyone. Scientists, lawyers, lawmakers, farmers, journalists and activists came together to share notes on the state of the movement.

And they all agreed—we have a pathway to finish what Rachel Carson started.

Presenters Kristin Ohlson and Jonathan Lundgren discussed the coming shift in the way we farm. Ohlson, author of “The Soil Will Save Us,” spoke about the limitless potential of regenerative agriculture. She profiled farmers who have discovered that healthy soil isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for business. Cultivating healthy soil creates farms that are more resistant to drought, pests and other calamities. It also bolsters long-term yields and exponentially decreases water consumption. And best of all, healthy soil has the power to sequester billions of tons of planet-warming carbon.

Lundgren, a former USDA scientist, presented pesticide research that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tried to muzzle.  But the moral of Lundgren’s presentation wasn’t about pesticides. It was about regenerative agriculture.

“Pesticides are a symptom of the problem,” Lundgren said. “And the source of that problem is a chemical farming system that relies on vulnerable monocultures that destroy the soil.”

There was no shortage of activists at the conference, all of whom were looking for ways to bring about meaningful change, either locally or on a national scale. George Leventhal, a councilman from Montgomery, Md., Montgomery County, Md., which successfully passed a widespread ban  on pesticides, shared tips on how to fight the chemical companies at a local level.

There were many other speakers who provided expert advice and shared critical updates on the movement to end pesticide use. Keep checking back at the Beyond Pesticides website, where videos of the presentations will soon be posted.

Meanwhile, my take-away from the conference? The regenerative movement has officially begun. We can win the battle against Monsanto and tackle climate change at the same time. We’ve got an endgame!

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Brian Jordan is a communications assistant with the Organic Consumers Association.