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The Rise of the Carbon Farmer
Farmers around the world are reigniting the less intensive agricultural practices of yesteryear—to improve soil health, raise yields, and trap carbon in the atmosphere back down in the soil.
Jacqueline Glade, the former chief scientist at the UN Environment Program, has calculated that using better farming to store 1 percent more carbon in half of the world’s agricultural soils would be enough to absorb about 31 gigatons of CO 2 a year—which would pretty much plug the gap between current planned emissions reductions and what actually needs to be slashed by 2030 to stay within 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming. And with most farmers operating on wafer-thin margins, embattled by climate change and demands for cheap food, and the victims of price shocks passed down the supply chain, the transition remains unpalatable, or simply unfeasible, for many. Money.” Currently, he argues, industrialized, intensive systems pay better—what’s needed are redirected subsidies to ensure farming and nature can coexist in a field and homogenized annual sustainability audits that reward farmers for generating “public goods” like improvements in food quality, biodiversity, and carbon stores.
Or read this on Wired
