Trapping Carbon In The Soil

Jamie in Chile

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Soil contains a certain amount of carbon and depending on how you farm you can either release it (causing climate change) or trap it (reducing climate change).

Often when we talk about reducing climate change, we talk about things like vegan food and electric cars and solar panels that only reduce CO2 in a relative sense. They still cause climate change actually, but just not as much as the alternatives. But trapping carbon in the soil really is reducing climate change. It is removing CO2 from the air rather than emitting less of it.

In theory, you might be able to have carbon neutral or even carbon negative food. Some small farmers are doing it and it is starting to become a fashionable topic having previously been very neglected.

This will hopefully get into the mainstream political and cultural debate in the next few years. It would be nice as well to get to the point when most of us would have some local option to buy such food, if we wanted to. If anyone has every bought food from such a farm or has any other experience, please share!

Eventually, over the coming decades, it would be nice if it ends up feasible to do this for most of the world´s food.

Here is 1 UK based article and 2 US based podcasts if anyone has any further interest.

The regenerative revolution in food (5-10 min read)

Season 2, Episode 3: Healing the Soil, Heal — A Matter of Degrees Podcast (37 min)

Soil: The Dirty Climate Solution | How to Save a Planet (64 min)

Leah Penniman features in both the podcasts and in at least one of them (I think it was the first one) also has some interesting reflections on the relationships between race and land and food and farm.
 
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