Studies show that using cover crops in combination with other soil management practices can really increase the soil biomass and soil carbon. It's good for the crop system, farm operation, carbon sequestration and management. Ian Howell, a resource conservationist with the Alameda County Resource Conservation District will explain why the techniques can reduce and remove the carbon emissions associated with agriculture. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/carbon-farming-with-ian-howell/
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/carbon-farming-with-ian-howell/
Howell: Carbon farming, in a nutshell, it's nothing new. This is really just a new way to talk about good agricultural management practices. And in most cases, farmers and ranchers, they want to be good stewards to their land because that's their livelihood.
Ethan: That’s Ian Howell, a resource conservationist with the Alameda County Resource Conservation District. He works with farmers to integrate carbon farming techniques like cover crops, compost, and sustainable grazing practices that can reduce and remove the carbon emissions associated with agriculture.
Howell: There've been a number of studies that show that using cover crops in combination with other soil management practices can really increase the soil biomass and soil carbon. So it's good for the crop system, it's good for the farm operation. It can also be very good for carbon sequestration and management.
Ethan: But Howell says farmers will need more technical and financial assistance to make carbon farming more widespread.
Howell: Where there's a lot of room for opportunity is in large scale agricultural operations. Farmers and ranchers are busy people. They're running a business and while many of them may have aspirational ideas about how they'd like to improve their land, having the time and resources to do all of them, that's up in the air.
Ethan: To learn more about the science behind carbon farming and how farmers can put it into action, visit climatebreak.org. I'm Ethan Elkind and this was Climate Break.