Cover crops and other regenerative agriculture practices are still pigeonholed as conservation practices, not as good farming practices. But if farmers want crop insurance, they have to play by the rules.
What exactly does soil have to do with climate change? In the atmosphere, too much carbon overheats the climate. But in the ground, carbon is useful.
In the U.S., industrial farming practices like monocropping and routine tillage have led to the massive erosion of topsoil, where most of the carbon is stored. There is movement away from industrial agriculture toward regenerative farming methods, as evinced by the “4 per 1000” initiative launched by the French in the wake of the Paris Climate Conference in 2015, which promotes an increase by 0.4 percent a year in soil carbon content that would “halt the increase in the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere related to human activities.”
Muddy, coastal marshes are “sleeping giants” that could fight climate change, scientists say. Researchers studied the carbon locked away in cores of wetland mud from around the world. They say that the preservation of coastal wetlands is critical for mitigating global warming.
Los esfuerzos por reducir los gases de efecto invernadero no traen resultados; se impone la aplicación de sistemas que capturen el carbono del aire, como la ganadería regenerativa.
General Mills, ADM, Cargill, McDonald’s, and The Nature Conservancy are among 10 companies and nonprofit organizations that are forming a national market by 2022 to incentivize the adoption of farming practices that build soil carbon and improve water conservation.
The Marin Carbon Project has been advocating for carbon sequestration in agricultural soils since 2008. They started with the question: Can we increase the capture of carbon in the agricultural lands here in Marin County? The team decided to analyze soil carbon levels and plant productivity across 22 different farms, some of which had carbon-rich compost with manure added to the soil.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, approved by the General Assembly on 1 March, will run from 2021 to 2030 and emphasize scaling-up of restoration work to address the severe degradation of landscapes, including wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, worldwide. It will likely boost landscape restoration work to the top of national agendas, building on a public demand for action on issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and the resulting impacts on economies and livelihoods.
The recognition highlights outstanding practices advancing the transition towards agroecology from the global South. Out of 77 nominations from 44 countries, 15 receive recognitions, including practices from across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Soil quality is a growing focus in the sustainability space, and for good reason: Fertile soil naturally stabilizes the climate and ensures resilient supply chains. But a third of the planet’s land is severely degraded, and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24 billion tons a year, according to a 2017 United Nations-backed study. So, a small but growing group of companies — some directly in agriculture or ranching, others indirectly via sourcing — are investing in healthy soil initiatives.