Regen Practices for Carbon Negative Agriculture

If Regenerative Agriculture was widely adoped, the net impact of American Agriculture could move from producing a whopping 10% of all US Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to reducing emissions by 4-6%!

A long-anticipated report from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) outlines how existing and emerging regenerative practices can change the impact agriculture has on our climate. These same practices have positive effects beyong GHG. In general, they can increase farm profitability and reduce risks; financial and climatological. The report, written by scientists at the non-partisan CAST, went through a thorough review at the National Academy of Science. It is the clearest analysis yet of regenerative agriculture's positive role in the future of our food system, ecology and economy.

Carbon, combined with the energy of sunlight, is the foundation of our food chain. The carbon cycle is interconnected and highly complex. It involves carbon being removed from the air and stored for varying lengths of time in the soil, plants or the animals that consume plants. Carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide and other gasses like methane, is also released back into the atmosphere as plants and animals grow. Increasing carbon sequestration in the soil, reducing the use of carbon-intensive inputs like fossil fuels and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, along with managing animal agriculture to reduce net enteric (from the body) emissions are the key to changing the GHG balance of agriculture.

The report identified five major opportunity areas for reducing the carbon footprint of agriculture:

• Soil carbon management

• Nitrogen fertilizer management

• Animal production and management

• Crop production systems

• Energy use and alternative sources

The figure above illustrates the effect wide adoption of regenerative practices would have on GHG emissions. We approach net neutral at 50% adoption, and become net negative at 75% adoption. I have a personal goal to see 75% of food production in this country be through regenerative ag, before I die. (I hope I don't need to live to be 150 years old!).

Billions of dollars are being invested in carbon capture research and implementation (outside of agriculture). How many of these technologies are as cost-efficient and effective as implementing the above list of regenerative ag practices? Not to mention the other benefits from these same practices, such as increased land productivity, increased biodiversity, and cleaner water from less runoff and erosion. There is also an increasing body of evidence that farmers using regenerative systems (multiple practices) are both more profitable and more resilient.

You can watch a replay of the release webinar, hosted by US Famers and Ranchers in Action and CAST (below) and download the summary and complete report at the CAST website.