Some of the most fertile land in the world was uncovered by settlers. The underground carbon was released into the atmosphere. Wetlands were drained and forests were cleared to make way for crops. Farming contributes 10% of the climate-affecting emissions from the United States each year. Congress wants to return some of the carbon to the ground.
Massive subsidies for clean power and electric vehicles are included in the historic climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Lawmakers included more than $25 billion to expand and safeguard forests, as well as promote farming practices thought to be climate friendly. No-till agriculture and "cover crops" are plants that are grown to protect the soil. Paying and training farmers to adopt those measures will improve soil health and water and air quality according to researchers, environmental groups and the farm industry. Haley Leslie-Bole is a climate policy analyst with the World Resources Institute. It's not clear how much these practices will slow global warming.
Jonathan is a soil scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. The USDA spends money on practices that are most likely to benefit from climate change. It is difficult to measure and quantify the reductions because of the diversity of U.S. land and farming practices.
Smaller climate gains could come from other changes in farming. There is a need for more research on climate- beneficial farming practices. A really good system for tracking progress is what the USDA needs to come up with.
Farmers in the US receive payments to conserve soil and reduce pollution in their fields. More farmers will be able to get a per-acre payment for a wide range of activities expected to reduce or sequester carbon emissions as a result of the new bill.
The ability of the soil to accumulate and hold carbon depends on a complex interplay between plants, which add organic material to the soil, and the organisms that break down everything they can. It can take a long time for the impact of changes in crop types or farming techniques to emerge.
Cowpeas and vetch boost soil carbon on average by one-third of a ton perhectare, according to a 2015 meta-analysis. Cristine Morgan is the scientific director of the Soil Health Institute. She suggests grabbing a shovel and jumping on it. The shovel deepens. Net climate benefits are not certain. On the other hand, leguminous cover crops such as cowpeas and vetch add nitrogen to the soil, which can be turned into nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. Reducing emissions is possible if farmers add lessfertilizer.
No-till farming is a popular climate-friendly practice. Farmers don't plow fields to protect the top layer from erosion. They reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by using diesel. As carbon accumulates in the upper root zone, it can enrich the soil and help keep it moist.
Studies have shown that the net change in certain soils is small or zero because of the decrease in carbon in deeper layers. During the first decade, no-till fields release higher levels of nitrous oxide as microbes break down crop residues. Few U.S. farmers keep the practice going. One-third of the accumulated carbon can escape into the atmosphere due to factors such as the growth of herbicide-resistant weeds and the need to rotate crops.
Paustian is a soil scientist at Colorado State University. He suggests combining no-till and cover crops with other steps, such as planting trees on farms and revitalizing pastures, in order to regain some of the carbon lost. He says that agriculture needs to get to a new paradigm where these types of practices are the norm.
Methane is a greenhouse gas that accounts for 27% of all greenhouse emissions from U.S. agriculture. The bill instructed the agency to prioritize projects that will reduce emissions from cows and other ruminants by modifying their feed. The United Kingdom and Europe use 3-NOP to cut methane burped by dairy cattle. It hasn't been approved by the FDA because it's considered a drug.
The incentives in the bill will hopefully be emphasized by the USDA. Farmers can be helped by compounds that slow the conversion offertilizer into nitrous oxide. Farmers may be willing to listen to high prices. The USDA said yesterday it will simplify applications.
Climate advocates say farming less land and raising less livestock is the most cost-effective way to help the climate. Grassland and other carbon-rich lands should not be converted to rows of crops. The main program for protecting sensitive private land in the US is not included in the bill.
What might it all look like? It is difficult to pin down the total climate benefit. To help, the bill includes a special pot of $300 million for the USDA and partners to collect field data on carbon sequestered and emissions reduced. Alison Eagle is an Agricultural Scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund. The next set of funding can be directed by this investment.
The grants that the USDA recently funded, such as a 5-year project by Ellen Herbert, will be expanded by the new money. She wants to know if restoring wetlands or protecting adjacent land increases the amount of carbon stored. They are taking deep soil core to resolve that. Herbert compares it to trying to pound an aluminum tube through a brick.
Bruno Basso of Michigan State University and his colleagues are studying how improved fertilization strategies can reduce nitrous oxide emissions. Perennial grasses planted on less productive areas of fields from North Dakota to Mississippi are being measured. Basso says that the grasses can be used to make hay and cash for the carbon left by the roots. There is a new crop and it's called carbon.
A team led by Austin Himes, a forest ecologist at Mississippi State University, is taking stock of carbon sequestered when farmers are paid to plant trees on marginal land
The data from the three projects will be used to improve the models. The DayCent model is used by the Environmental Protection Agency. "Accounting is not glamorous, but if you don't get that right, nothing else works."
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