Carbon farming: organic farmers store more and cost less

Food for thought in our earlier rhetorical question about why organic producers, certifiers and regulators are not touting the benefits of organic farming in relation to carbon sequestration: At least someone is trying. And it appears that the scientific proof, via a Rodale study, has been around since 2003:

 

“Queensland’s peak conservation group, Queensland Conservation (QCC) has aligned with Australia’s largest organic representative body, Biological Farmers of Australia, to re-instate claims organic farm methods can contribute to lowering Australia’s greenhouse emissions by locking up more carbon in soil.

They also say organic production will become more competitive as oil and fertiliser prices climb.

As part of its Climate Change Campaign, Queensland Conservation has referred to an extensive thirty year scientific trial by the Rodale Institute in the US which found that organic practices can remove around 7845kg of carbon from the air for each hectare farmed per annum by sequestering it in the soil.

The study found that “if all 175 million hectares of cropland in America were converted to organic practices, it would be the equivalent of taking 217 million cars off the road – or, more than a third of the world’s automobiles”.”

Why aren’t more people talking about this aspect of organics?

 

Read the entire article at http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/carbon-farming-organic-farmers-store-more-and-cost-less/86390.aspx

Visit the Rodale Institute website at http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/