Title: Carbon Farming: From the Oil Age to the Soil Age
1Carbon Farming From the Oil Age to the Soil Age
2Grazing Tall
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4Carbon 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.
5What 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?
6Soil organic matter sustains agriculture, which
sustains civilization__________Soil organic
matter generates and regulates every ecosystem
service that sustains life on earth.
7Topsoil 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.
8Carbon-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.
9Getting 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.
10How does carbon get into the soil?
11Stable 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.
12Carbon 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.
13Rate 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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15 The Microbial Bridge to Humus.
- Fungi
- Bacteria
- Algae
- Protozoa
- Nematodes
- Micro-arthropods
- Earthworms
- Insects
- Small vertebrates
Images Dr. Elaine Ingham, Soil Foodweb, Inc.
16All 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.
17Ecosystem 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
18The 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
19Mega-herd Impact and The Importance of Litter
20The Global Carbon Cycle
21Current 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.
22Building 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.
23Strategies to Reduce Atmospheric CO2
IPCC Emissions Reductions Warning Label!
24IPCC 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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27Keeling Curve
Carbon Farming
Graphic Peter Donovan
28Burning 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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30The 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.)
31- 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.
32The CFA Carbon Farming Toolbox 34 strategies
for increasing soil health and organic matter.
33Allan Savory and Holistic Management
- How does carbon cycle
- in seasonally dry
- environments?
34Grass, Soil, Ungulates, Predators have all
co-evolved.
35- 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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37Multiply 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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40Keyline Soilbuilding P.A. Yeomans and Family
411968
1953
1958
1971
1974
2005
2004
1994
42Keyline Soil Development Graze, subsoil, water,
recover, repeat.
43A healthy future is built on deep, high-carbon,
covered topsoil.
44Re-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.
45Where 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.
46Proposal 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?
47Filling 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.
48Please Join Us
- www.carbonfarmersofamerica.com
- www.soilcarboncoalition.org