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©2008 Rodale Institute
Regenerative Organic Farming:A Solution to Global Warming
Tim J. LaSalle, Ph.D., CEOPaul Hepperly, Ph.D., Director o Research and Fulbright ScholarRodale Institute
 
 
Introduction
Agriculture is an undervalued and underestimated climate change tool that could be one o the most powerul strategies in the fght against global warming. Nearly 30 years o Rodale Institute soil carbon data show conclusively that improved global terrestrial stewardship--specifcally including regenerative organic agricultural practices--can be the most eective currently available strategy or mitigating CO2 emissions.
Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial® (FST) is the longest-running side-by-side comparison o organicand conventional arming systems in the U.S. and one o the oldest trials in the world. It has documentedthe benets o an integrated systems approach to arming using regenerative organic practices. Theseinclude cover crops, composting and crop rotation to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by pulling it romthe air and storing it in the soil as carbon. Results rom these practices—corroborated at other researchcenters that include University o Caliornia at Davis, University o Illinois, Iowa State University and USDABeltsville, Maryland, research acility—reiterate the vast, untapped potential o organic agricultural prac-tices to solve global warming.Agricultural carbon sequestration has the potential to substantially mitigate global warming impacts. Whenusing biologically based regenerative practices, this dramatic benet can be accomplished with no de-crease in yields or armer prots. Even though climate and soil type aect sequestration capacities, thesemultiple research eorts veriy that practical organic agriculture, i practiced on the planet’s 3.5 billiontillable acres, could sequester nearly 40 percent o current CO2 emissions.Rodale Institute advocates a rapid, nationwide transition rom today’s prevailing, petroleum-based arm-ing methods to more advanced “post-modern“ systems incorporating best practices based on replicatedresearch. We call this approach regenerative organic agriculture to signiy its ocus on renewing resourcesthrough complementary biological systems which eed and improve the soil as well as avoiding harmulsynthetic inputs. This is the ull meaning o our preerred arming style in this discussion.
The problem with modern agriculture
Modern arming practices are one o the largest contributors to global warming.
Current arming practices are not sustainable or a number o reasons. Some Midwestern soils that in the1950s were composed o up to 20 percent carbon are now between 1- and 2-percent carbon. This carbonloss contributes to: soil erosion, by degrading soil structure; increasing vulnerability to drought, by greatlyreducing the level o water-holding carbon in the soil; and the loss o soil’s native nutrient value.In addition, prevailing arming practices break down soil carbon into carbon dioxide that is released intothe atmosphere, greatly contributing to global warming. Surprising analysis o the nation’s oldest continu-ous cropping test plots in Illinois showed that, contrary to long-held belies, nitrogen ertilization does notbuild up soil organic matter. New data rom U.S. government research show that with agriculture usingchemical ertilizers and herbicides, the U.S. ood system contributes nearly 20 percent o the nation’scarbon dioxide emissions. On a global scale, gures rom the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) say that agricultural land use contributes 12 per cent o global greenhouse gas emissions.Other negative eects o the modern-arming paradigm include: nutrient overload in our waterways romthe use o synthetic nitrogen, loss o energy reserves due to the abundant use o petrol-based chemicals(which put an increasing nancial burden on armers as oil prices rise), degradation o our soils (due tomono-cropping that requires use o synthetic ertilizer or ertility) and animal health and welare concerns.
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The soil solution: solving global warming…and more
Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial (FST) was the frst study that proved regenerative organic agricul- tural practices store or sequester carbon in the soil by removing it rom the air, thereby signifcantly revers- ing the impact o global warming.Regenerative organic arming methods can transorm agriculture rom part o the global warming problem to a major part o the solution, by changing how we arm. Farmers can transition to new practices relatively quickly and inexpensively using low-cost tools.
Carbon dioxide levels are minimized in summer when lush vegetation promotes a sponging action, andare maximized in winter when plants go dormant. However, the greenhouse gas sponging ability o the soilitsel may make more o a dierence than what’s growing on the land. On a global scale, soils hold morethan twice as much carbon (an estimated 1.74 trillion U.S. tons) as does terrestrial vegetation (672 billionU.S. tons). Data rom Rodale Institute and other studies indicate that regenerative and organic practicescan dramatically alter the carbon storage o arable lands, building soil “humic” substances (also known assoil organic matter) that remain as stable carbon compounds or many years.The key to greater, more stable carbon sequestration lies in the handling o soil organic matter (SOM). Be-cause SOM is primarily carbon, increases in these levels will be directly correlated with carbon sequestra-tion. While prevailing arming practices using synthetic inputs typically deplete SOM, regenerative armingpractices, including the integration o crop and animal production, build it.Beore orests and grasslands were converted to eld agriculture, SOM generally composed 6 to 10 percento the soil volume, well over the 1- to 3-percent levels typical o today’s agricultural eld systems. Buildingsoil organic matter by better nurturing our agricultural lands can capture the excess atmospheric carbondioxide and begin returning this lost carbon to the soil. Forests and rangelands hold a greater capacity orcarbon sequestration than the aboveground biomass measurements oten used in equating their values.Organically managed soils can convert carbon rom a greenhouse gas into a ood-producing asset. Soilsthat are rich in carbon conserve water and support healthier plants that are more resistant to droughtstress, pests and diseases. Our studies o organic systems have shown an increase o almost 30 percent in-soil carbon over 27 years. The petroleum-based system showed no signicant increase in soil carbon in thesame time period and some studies have shown that these systems, in act, may lose carbon.Researchers are feshing out the mechanisms bywhich this soil carbon sequestration takes place. Oneo the most signicant ndings is the high correlationbetween increased soil carbon levels and very highamounts o mycorrhizal ungi. These ungi help slowdown the decay o organic matter. Beginning with ourFarming Systems Trial, collaborative studies by theUSDA’s Agriculture Research Service (ARS) led byDavid Douds, Ph.D., show that the biological supportsystem o mycorrhizal ungi are more prevalent anddiverse in organically managed systems than in soilsthat depend on synthetic ertilizers and pesticides.These ungi work to conserve organic matter by aggre-gating organic matter with clay and minerals. In soilaggregates, carbon is more resistant to degradationthan in ree orm and thus more likely to be con-served. These ndings demonstrate that mycorrhizalungi produce a potent glue-like substance calledglomalin that stimulates increased aggregation o soil
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Mycorrhizal ungi structures enhance the ability o  plant roots to access soil moisture and nutrients, produce stable compounds to sequester carbon di-oxide as soil carbon , and slow decay o soil organiccompounds.
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