12.03.2011

How Perennial Grasses and Organic Farming Sequester Carbon

Every day we pump more heat trapping gasses into our common atmosphere than the planet can absorb and recycle. Every day we march closer to enviromental disaster. Every day lofty speeches delivered to those of us already convinced of this reality become less listened to by our fellow humans.

It doesn't have to be this way, there are viable, practical solutions that could be adopted, that could lead us and future generations out of the desert of madness and into an oasis of sanity. Today's Global Day of Action on Climate Change seems like a good day to review one set of win-win solutions that The Mud Report has focused on often in the past.

Research suggests that a global shift to organic agriculture on the earth's 3.5 billion acres of tillable land could reduce current carbon emissions by nearly 40 per cent. A shift from seed grains to perennial grasses offers the same type of numbers. The links below lead to the results of this research and the conclusions drawn from those results by some of the world's leading scientists.

'We can only shit in our nest just so long before we start nesting our shit.' was a projection of future disaster decades ago and a visible reality now. Please take a look below and follow some of the links offered in these articles, they offer hope of a better not bitter future for our children and grandchildren.

Perennial Solution - Annual grains feed the world, but they create problems. Perennials are thrifty. Their long roots hold on to soil, water, and fertilizer, which means less pollution.
 
Climate Change and Agriculture: Biodiverse Ecological Farming Is the Answer, Not Genetic Engineering by Vandana Shiva - Biodiverse organic farms produce more food and higher incomes than industrial monocultures. Mitigating climate change, conserving biodiversity and increasing food security can thus go hand in hand.
 
Organic Farming Sequesters Atmospheric Carbon and Nutrients in Soils - The extent of carbon sequestration found and the impressive ability of organic systems to capture carbon are important results that should be used by policy makers when planning future agriculture development.

Perennial Grasses - Awesome Library