Douglas Marett’s Post

🌍🌱 Harnessing Agriculture for Carbon Sequestration 🌱🌍 We're facing a dual carbon crisis: Excess CO2 in the atmosphere and depleted carbon in our soils. Since the industrial age, atmospheric CO2 levels have surged, driven largely by fossil fuel use and agriculture, contributing over a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. But there's a silver lining. Agriculture can transform from a carbon source to a carbon sink. The IPCC highlights that enhancing soil carbon sequestration could remove more CO2 than the entire EU's annual emissions! Some strategies include: No-till farming: Minimising soil disturbance, preserving soil carbon. Cover crops: Enhance soil structure and carbon content. Agroforestry: Integrates trees into farming, boosting carbon capture and offering additional benefits like windbreaks. Livestock: Integrating livestock into cropping rotations can help increase soil carbon levels. Despite the challenges, particularly in accurately and cost-effectively measuring soil carbon, the potential is vast. By embracing different practices, farmers can make a significant contribution to climate change mitigation while enhancing soil health and productivity. #SustainableAgriculture #CarbonSequestration #ClimateAction #SoilHealth https://lnkd.in/eWP2SzQ8

This fascinating article, with case study on ongoing research, providing an in-depth account of #carbonsequestration - the capture of #carbon into #soil - is well worth a read. #agriculture contributes significantly to #greenhousegasemissions but #sustainable soil management, to increase the storage rate of soil organic carbon, can provide opportunities to offset these #emissions. Read the article by Teagasc: Agriculture and Food Development Authority (who is also a consortium member on the Soft-Grip project with TWI Hellas) via the link below. #environmental #netzero #collaboratetoinnovate #TWIIN

It's really interesting how farming is a key battleground in the fight to prevent climate catastrophe - something that would be especially bad for farmers. There are many examples of farmers and ranchers committing to regenerative farming practices and reaping the environmental benefits of enriched soil, restored water supply and improved resilience to boyh drought and heavy rain. My first exposure to regenerative ag was when I watched talks by Walter Jehne, Didi Pershouse and Takota Coen at the 2021 Living Soils Symposium. https://lnkd.in/gn_JG89x These speakers opened my eyes to the future of farming. These are techniques and systems that will save small farming operations and also benefit industrial farms. Wind and solar energy presents another opportunity for farmers to generate additional income and release them from finical struggles. However, many farmers are actively opposing renewable energy and fighting to prevent their neighbours from receiving badly needed income. Across the US and Alberta communities and elected officials are introducing bans that won't stop renewable energy, but will ensure billions in investment, jobs, and local tax revenues go to other places. Farmers stand to benefit the most by tackling climate change. It is in their best interest to accept new sources of revenue, stop the increasing frequency and severity of droughts, storms, wildfires and soil depletion. The question is what will it take for them to accept the threat posed by burning fossil fuels and adapt to a rapidly changing future? #farming #ranching #agriculture #agrivoltaics #regenerative #soil https://lnkd.in/guZ68cPM

Interesting reading today 🤔 , Policymakers may be too enthusiastic when soil organic carbon truly becomes the ultimate tool for emissions reductions (Or like immediately introducing a "carbon" tax in a country like Türkiye, relatively related this). However, this works very differently for farmers and stakeholders. For the farmers, they will start to worry about climate change "the moment" they can see its impact on them livelihood. When they see "forest fires affecting their harvests", "long periodic droughts" and "extreme heat", they will have reasons that something needs to change about traditional practices. https://lnkd.in/d-QZYwdw #Climatechange #Agriculture #Soil #Mitigation

🙃"They believe they can always lie to us using big vocabularies". Before now, they started conversations around climate change now they have come up with another deceit calling it "Carbon Farming"🤣 📢If you've been seeing but don't quite understand or you have never heard of "Carbon Farming", this is for you.💃 📌So, Climate change is not a scam but a reality that even ignorance can not exempt you from feeling its impacts. Whether you believe in it or not, climate change is gradually affecting almost every aspect of our lives including how we should grow our crops and rear our livestock. 📢Carbon Farming simply refers to the practices & techniques deployed on the field to reduce the escape of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as well as sequestrate excess Carbon emissions from the atmosphere into the soil. 📍If you're wondering why we suddenly feel the need to trap these gases in the soil and you're also curious about the aftermath of such practices to the soil in the nearest future, here's the answer: 📌Carbon gases from the beginning of time, existed naturally in soil and water bodies but human activities saw to the exploration of fossil fuels now used for different industrial activities which in turn started destabilising the equilibrium of the ecosystem. 📢The concept of Carbon Farming is aimed at restoring the ecosystem to what it used to be before ravaging industrialization. 📌 Examples of Carbon Farming Practices include agroforestry, wetland restoration, cover-cropping, composting, and biochar application among others. 📍Let us know in the comment section what you thought Carbon Farming was the first time you heard about it and how that has changed.😊 ------------------------------------------------- Are you coming across my post for the first time? This is not a coincidence😊. I'm Inimbom Bassey, the #Softlifefarmer who believes that #zerohunger is attainable amidst #climatecrisis and so I help farmers and agribusiness enthusiasts build #climateresilience by adapting #climatesmartagriculture practices because I aim to ensure that #agribusinesses are #profitable and the #ecosystem preserved. Kindly follow me and turn on your notification 🔔 to be prompted whenever I post. --------------------------------------------- #Agriculture #Carbonfarming #Carbonmarket #Agriculturalinnovations #Linkedinforcreators #Thoughtleadership #Carboncredit

The carbon certification framework is a unique opportunity to send a clear signal to EU farmers and to unleash the potential of carbon farming practices, in addition to foster carbon capture and sequestration, including from fermentation for example. One key pre-condition is for the scheme to cover both storage & emissions reduction. Assessing only carbon sequestration resulting from Carbon Farming actions can lead to serious calculation errors. An assessment based solely on sequestration overshadows the potential negative externalities of emission reduction practices. There is a close link between emissions and storage: the same practice can make it possible to increase carbon sequestration while increasing emissions (and vice versa), which can lead to counterproductive results. A results-based model that is robust at the #climate and #environmental levels must not separate reduction from sequestration. https://lnkd.in/eh-ihgYP

Agriculture is not only a major contributor to #climatechange, but also a potential ally in the fight against it. In his new op-ed for Forbes, Head of Leaps Juergen Eckhardt explores five innovative ways #farming can reduce #greenhousegas emissions and restore the health of the planet. Read the article and find out: 🦠 How soil can combat climate change by capturing carbon and how Andes integrates crop seeds with beneficial microbes that convert #CO2 into minerals in the soil. 🌱 Learn how #covercropping can also help farmers turn soil into a carbon sink. 🔬 Read about #alternativeproteins and the role they can play in lowering #GHGemissions from animal-based food systems and how Fork & Good, Inc. pioneers #cultivatedmeat. 🌎 Plus the latest on #sustainable #irrigation and biological #fertilizers. Read the article here: https://bit.ly/3NdiCLh

Over millennia, microbes converted some of the carbon in dead trees and plants into long-lasting forms, building rich soils around the world. But since humans started plowing and disturbing soils some 12,000 years ago, about 116 billion tons of carbon have been lost, either eroded away by wind and water or digested by microbes and respired to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2), scientists estimated in a 2017 study https://lnkd.in/gAu8WJ_H. Healthy soils, healthy planet Modern agriculture has not been kind to soils: Billions of tons of carbon have been lost to the atmosphere or eroded away. Regenerative practices can increase soil health and store carbon, slowing climate change and generating carbon credits that can be sold. But calculating the benefits is tricky.

"Improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating." SHI utilizes regenerative agricultural techniques, knowing they improve the soils our crops depend on and help fight climate change. Nature's solutions work - SHI's partner farmers prove that every day. https://lnkd.in/gHd-hjt2 #soil #agriculture #carbon #climate #globalwarming

The growing of cover crops for farmers has many benefits that are listed in the article, it is also able to be a carbon sink and when measured, which can be a useful source of alternative/additional income for farmers. It will be important to mobilise the help of farmers to support our sustainability and climate change efforts. To be able to create an ecosystem that encourages positive action will be critical to accelerating our net-zero ambitions. While there is much scepticism about carbon offsets and greenwashing, the availability of a low-cost and immutable system of monitoring and measurement can be developed and incorporated into large-scale aggregated data gathering that has a host of longer-term benefits. I am always fascinated by system building and the ability of well-designed systems to create perpetual benefits. An efficient, well-designed agriculture ecosystem that is relatable to our digital and knowledge economies will yield multifold benefits from a management, conservation, and production perspective. And most importantly, it will impact lives, secure our food source, and help more people understand the power of coordinated collaboration. #agriculture #technology #carboncredit #carbon #ecosystem #covercrops #foodsecurity #knowledgeeconomy #farming #farmingincome #GHG #emissions #netzero