We’re told that healthy soil sequesters huge amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. Scientists are finding that’s not always the case.
by Jessica Fu
01.28.2021, 1:37pm
Carbon farming is a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s climate strategy. But new research complicates common assumptions about how it can work.
In November, a group of over 150 former government officials and advisers to President Biden published a list of recommendations meant to help his administration “hit the ground running†on the climate crisis. Foremost among the suggested ag proposals was the creation of a federal “carbon bank,†which would pay producers to adopt conservation practices such as cover cropping and no-till farming on their fields.
The basic concept is that these activities help plants suck carbon from the atmosphere and direct it into soil, effectively turning farmland into a big sponge that can sop up all the heat-trapping greenhouse gases we emit. A carbon bank would incentivize farmers to adopt such practices. Down the line, the former officials suggested, the federal government could go on to sell these carbon credits to polluting companies seeking to offset their own emissions.
https://thecounter.org/soil-sequestration-carbon-farming-biden-climate-strategy/
