U.S. carbon farming takes root - but do the economics add up?

The Viet Nam Farmers Union rolled out a train-the-trainer program focused on encouraging rice farmers in Vietnam to take up more sustainable practices. This style of training helps farmers overcome any hesitation towards trying new methods by allowing them to learn from their peers and see the success of demonstration plots.

Female farmers in India are leading the transition to natural farming. They improve soil and plant health by using indigenous seeds and not using chemicals or pesticides. The practice increases yields and decreases costs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition are helping coffee farmers in Malawi adopt agroforestry practices by teaching them new techniques, helping them improve coffee quality, and showing them how to attract international markets. This way, the farmers earn more for their products and benefit the environment with their work.

A St. Louis-based company, Impossible Sensing, is creating sensors that can be attached to the back of a planter to help farmers understand factors like nutrient level and soil health. It’s a form of precision agriculture, which essentially follows the notion that having more precise data leads to more efficient and sustainable farms.

Farmers around the world are implementing agroecology practices to make their farms more resilient to climate change while promoting climate justice to strengthen farming communities. Agroecology follows 13 principles that include ecological practices, like using organic fertilizers, and political and social values, like embracing land rights.

After they were socially, economically, and politically forced from their agricultural land, the people who have used regenerative farming principles for millennia are reimplementing the practice in their communities. This allows them to improve soil health and reconnect with the land.

Kendrick Ransome uses ancestral farming techniques like low-till farming and conservation tilling to improve soil health and sequester more carbon on his farm. He founded Freedom Org to teach youth these practices and help other Black farmers do the same after decades of racist lending policies have dwindled their numbers.

Agricultural microbial technology can be used to create different soil applications like fertilizers and fungicides. These products can improve soil health and reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by the industry.

The perennial wheat alternative Kernza can improve soil and water health because it will return yearly with less tilling and fertilizer than wheat, and it captures carbon and water pollutants.

Biochar, charcoal made by heating organic biomass like forest debris, can be used as an amendment to improve soil health and sequester carbon. The charcoal is incredibly porous, so it holds nutrients, water, and carbon.