Carbon Farming: From the Oil Age to the Soil Age

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Carbon Farming From the Oil Age to the Soil Age
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Grazing Tall

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Carbon Farmers of AmericaA start-up ecosystem
service aggregator/broker based on rapid topsoil
formation by graziers

• Topsoil can be created hundreds to thousands of
  times faster than is widely understood.
• New topsoil is the only carbon sink on earth that
  can quickly sequester the excess greenhouse
  gases in our atmosphere.
• Livestock are the primary tool that makes rapid
  topsoil formation possible.
• Grassfarmers are the front line in building new
  topsoil and stabilizing our climate. They will
  need to be paid to do the job.
• We need to make alliances with environmentalists
  to make this happen.

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What if there was a single carbon sink on earth
that could rapidly

• Restore pre-industrial levels of greenhouse gases
  within decades?
• Solve the global water crisis?
• Reverse desertification?
• Restore biodiversity?
• Halt the sixth extinction event?
• Maximize global food security?
• Contribute significantly to healing the oceans?
• Create the foundation of a solar civilization?

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Soil organic matter sustains agriculture, which
sustains civilization__________Soil organic
matter generates and regulates every ecosystem
service that sustains life on earth.
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Topsoil loss in excess of topsoil formation has
been the defining characteristic of agriculture.

• Estimates of past losses of Carbon from
  terrestrial stocks
• 66-90 billion tons (Rattan Lal, Ohio State U.)
• 200 billion tons (Charles Rice, University of
  Kansas)
• Topsoil loss is as old as farming, land
  management by fire, hunting of ungulate herds and
  their predators and livestock domestication. The
  oil age has accelerated this trend. Global
  warming began with topsoil loss many thousands of
  years ago.

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Carbon-rich topsoil is the foundation of wealth
creation on earth and the Fort Knox of solar
economics. Carbon is the currency of life. The
rapid formation of carbon-rich topsoil is the
greatest priority and opportunity of our time.
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Getting Real about Food Security

• To keep up with the growth in human population,
  more food will have to be grown worldwide over
  the next 50 years than has been during the past
  10,000 years combined .
• 2008 Icelandic Soil and Climate Conference.

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How does carbon get into the soil?
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Stable SOM comes largely from Nightly Carbon
Exudates From Plant Roots.

• Chemically similar to nectar.
• Feeds organisms in the rhizosphere.
• Up-to half, and often more, of the products of
  photosynthesis are exuded into the rhizosphere.
• Carbon-rich exudates from grass roots are the
  cheapest, most efficient and most beneficial
  form of organic carbon for soil life.

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Carbon Exudates and Root Prune-off After Grazing
Photo Dr. Christine Jones
Carbon exudates from plant roots feed soil
organisms, which feed soil nutrients to plants.
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Rate of Growth and Volume of Plant Roots Per Unit
of Soil Dictate Soil Carbon Increase

• Aim for big, dense root networks growing as
  rapidly as possible.

Photo Dr. Christine Jones
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The Microbial Bridge to Humus.

• Fungi
• Bacteria
• Algae
• Protozoa
• Nematodes
• Micro-arthropods
• Earthworms
• Insects
• Small vertebrates

Images Dr. Elaine Ingham, Soil Foodweb, Inc.
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All of our hopes, plans and possibilities are
ultimately determined by the state of four
biosphere processes Solar Energy Flow
Biological Community Dynamics Water
Cycle Mineral Cycle.
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Ecosystem services are generated and regulated by
topsoil, the product of the proper functioning of
the four biosphere processes.

• Regulating Services
• Air quality regulation
• Climate regulation global
• Climate regulation regional and local
• Water regulation
• Nutrient cycling
• Erosion regulation
• Water purification, waste treatment,
  detoxification
• Ecosystem regulation of disease in humans,
  livestock and wildlife
• Pest regulation
• Pollination
• Natural Hazard Management Protection from flood
  and fire
• Cultural and Amenity Services
• Spiritual and religious values
• Aesthetic values
• Recreation and Tourism

• UN Millennium Ecosystem AssessmentEcosystem
  Services
• Food
• Crops
• Livestock
• Capture fisheries
• Aquaculture
• Wild foods
• Fiber
• Timber
• Wood
• Fuel
• Genetic resources
• Biochemicals and medicines
• New products and industry from biodiversity
• Fresh water

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The state of the biosphere processes is
determined by the state of the soil surface.
Desertification, Biodiversity Loss, The Water
Crisis, Climate Change, Disease Outbreaks, Food
Insecurity, (etc.) are all one issue.
Kachana Ranch, AU
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Mega-herd Impact and The Importance of Litter
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The Global Carbon Cycle
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Current atmospheric CO2 Level 385 Parts Per
MillionTarget lt 300 p.p.m.

• Amount of carbon to be relocated to soils
  Around 200 billion metric tons.
• Possible timeframe 10-20 years.
• Cost of creating the foundation for solar
  civilization Priceless.
• Just Kidding. The cost will be much lower than a
  single year (2005) of gross world product
  59.38 trillion.
• If we estimate an agricultural multiplier effect
  of 7, which trickles UP through the economy, the
  cost of the job turns into hundreds of trillions
  of dollars worth of economic activity.
• Using substitution analysis, lets add the full
  value of the ecosystem services thus generated.
  Beyond Priceless.
• The 21st century version of the Civilian
  Conservation Corps will be a global web of local
  topsoil formation by communities with intimate
  knowledge of the land rebuilding watersheds and
  bioregions.
• Welcome to the transition to a solar civilization.

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Building the Solar Economy

• Parity Pricing. Production plus profit.
• Charles Wilkens. Progressive Farmers of Iowa.
  19303
• The Stegnall Amendment, 1942.
• This time around, humus production is paramount.
• The way out of the current economic crisis is our
  opportunity to build a solar civilization.

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Strategies to Reduce Atmospheric CO2
IPCC Emissions Reductions Warning Label!
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IPCC Emissions Reductions Are Not Enough.

• In 2007 the IPCC reported that instantaneous
  and "complete elimination of CO2 emissions is
  estimated to lead to a slow decrease in
  atmospheric CO2 of about 40 ppm over the 21st
  century." In other words, elimination of fossil
  fuel emissions alone has no leverage in
  decreasing dangerously high concentrations of
  greenhouse gases on a relevant schedule.
  Technology is not enough.
• Carbon Neutral and Offset initiatives are
  equivalent to complete emissions cessation and
  thus are not enough.

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Keeling Curve
Carbon Farming
Graphic Peter Donovan
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Burning Biomass

• Biomass Burning is responsible for 40 of annual
  emissions of C02. (NASA)
• Grassland burning is responsible for almost three
  times the emissions of tropical forest burning.
• Replace burning of grasslands with grazing and
  mega-herd impact and bank the carbon in the soil
  instead.
• We must be conscious of current temperature
  reductions due to global dimming from biomass
  burning and fossil fuel combustion!

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The True Scale of The Job

• Reduce annual emissions from combustion to levels
  that are matched by biological sequestration.
• Relocate about 200 billion tons of carbon from
  the atmosphere to the soils of the world by
  increasing average soil organic matter levels
  about 2 to a foot of depth on 5.1 billion
  hectares of agricultural and grazing land.
  (I.e., from 2 to 4 organic matter, assuming a
  conservative soil bulk density of 1.2 g/cm3.)

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• In the last fifty years the global regenerative
  agriculture movement has discovered dozens of
  ways to build topsoil quickly in every
  environment.
• We have the tools to do The Job today. There
  is no good reason left on earth not to begin the
  job in earnest.
• Carbon Farmers of America has synthesized all of
  these tools into a dynamic curriculum and an
  analysis and implementation process The Carbon
  Farming Toolbox.
• Almost any land manager can gain sufficient
  understanding of these tools for practical
  implementation with a few weeks of training, plus
  support through ongoing, structured study groups.

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The CFA Carbon Farming Toolbox 34 strategies
for increasing soil health and organic matter.
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Allan Savory and Holistic Management

• How does carbon cycle
• in seasonally dry
• environments?

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Grass, Soil, Ungulates, Predators have all
co-evolved.
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• The Big Idea The primary tools on earth that
  can build new topsoil are great herds of
  livestock managed in a way that simulates the
  behavior of the great wild herds in the presence
  of predators. Mega-herds are the big guns of
  biomimicry.
• We can restore any terrestrial environment,
  brittle or non-brittle. This will go far toward
  healing the oceans.

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Multiply the hoof-print at left by trillions to
get a sense of what it means to reverse
desertification.
Grazing is the single largest use of land on
earth.
Photo Dan Dagget Babbit Ranch
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Keyline Soilbuilding P.A. Yeomans and Family
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1968
1953
1958
1971
1974
2005
2004
1994
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Keyline Soil Development Graze, subsoil, water,
recover, repeat.
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A healthy future is built on deep, high-carbon,
covered topsoil.
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Re-thinking carbon pricing

• Carbon pricing needs to reflect the value of soil
  carbon. We cannot continue to undervalue carbon.
  Soil Carbon is worth many more times than carbon
  credits generated by emissions reductions or
  technological offsets.
• Nutrients and H2O contained in 1 kg of humus
  .20
• ?Rational price 200/ton of C (Rattan Lal)
• Add the value of the other ecosystem services
  generated to estimate the full value.

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Where will the money come from?

• Carbon Markets are projected to become the
  largest commodity market on earth.
• US Cap and Trade in Legislation in 2009.
  Regional Agreements (RGGI) will start up in 2009
• Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) has legs
  globally. PES development in cooperation with
  stakeholders is mandated in the current Farm
  Bill.
• 2012 Farm Bill. Human self-interest suggests
  that increasing soil carbon should be the central
  concern.

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Proposal Environmentalists, graziers and
farmers can form an historic alliance.

• We carbon farmers will refine our skills and put
  rapid topsoil formation into effect.
• Soil Carbon Monitoring is not an obstacle it is
  a key.
• Will you exercise your creativity and lobbying
  power to help us to make soil carbon the center
  of carbon markets, public lands policy and the
  2012 farm bill?

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Filling the Data Gap Holistic Research
CFA and Cornell Study. David Pimentel, lead
scientist.
Measuring Soil Carbon Increase and Ecosystem
Service Provision Under Optimized Management of
Grassland Farms and Ranches Purposes To measure
the rate and volume of increase of soil organic
carbon to four feet of depth on twenty grassland
farms and ranches over two years, quantify and
characterize changes to soil physical, chemical
and biological properties and quantify attendant
ecosystem service provision.
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Please Join Us

• www.carbonfarmersofamerica.com
• www.soilcarboncoalition.org