~~Profit from Soil Health
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https://www.newsdakota.com/2023/01/04/worlds-first-agri-focused-satellite-launches/
(NewsDakota.com/NAFB) – The first of seven satellites for agriculture launched into space Tuesday by SpaceX. Built by Dragonfly Aerospace, the satellite is part of the Transporter-6 mission for customer EOS Data Analytics.
The remaining six satellites of the constellation will be deployed over the next three years. The EOS Data Analytics project is the world’s first agriculture-focused satellite constellation providing the industry with high-quality data to support efficient and sustainable practices. Images obtained from Dragonfly’s EOS SAT-1 will deliver information for harvest monitoring, application mapping, seasonal planning and assessments that analyze information such as soil moisture, yield prediction and biomass levels.
The data will support growers with reducing carbon dioxide emissions and help them to develop sustainable agricultural methods. The company says the information will have important environmental benefits for the planet and help prevent natural habitats from being diminished for crop growth and maintain biodiversity.
Soil could be “the next frontier” for carbon innovation and an integral part of meeting the U.S. goal of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Cover crops will play a large role in those efforts, says Jake Mowrer, Texas AgriLife associate professor and Extension specialist.
Mowrer, speaking at the December Texas Plant Protection Association annual meeting in Bryan, referred to President Biden’s carbon goal, which includes “cutting edge technology” that will help famers meet this goal.
Mowrer referred to a Biden Administration statement explaining the carbon policy. “The United Sates can reduce emissions from forest and agriculture and enhance carbon sinks through a range of programs and measures, including nature-based solutions for ecosystems ranging from our forests, agriculture soils, and our rivers and coasts,” Mowrer said.
No-till and adding carbon to the soil reduces greenhouse gas emissions. “We can see a two-ton increase in carbon sequestration with no-till versus conventional tillage, depending on soil, year, crop, and rainfall.” Mowrer explained.
Cover crops offer additional advantages. “Cover crops add a lot of temporary carbon, not long term. And it fluctuates with time, so when you sample is important,” he said.
Cover also keeps living roots on the soil year-round, increases soil organic matter, and enhances micro-nutrient populations.
Mowrer said farmers should consider a systems approach to get the most out of cover crops. “Planting covers for one purpose only is not the best way to approach the practice. Cobbling together several smaller benefits and summing them up in the on-farm calculus helps a farmer realize the profit potential in cover cropping.
“Carbon alone probably won’t do it. But when you reduce herbicide costs, phosphorus and/or nitrogen costs, conserve water, moderately boost yields, smooth out extreme ups and downs each year, among other advantages, the benefits become more consistently dependable. It requires a systems way of thinking.”
Adding legumes to the cover crop mix also aids fertility and prevents leaching.
See, Caveats on cap-and-trade carbon markets
Mowrer said cover crops can be beneficial in black soils that tend to tie up phosphorus. “Cover crops improve phosphorus acquisition.”
With non-legume cover crop options, plants act as “a catch crop to scavenge nutrients,” Mowrer said. “They also prevent nitrate leaching, reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, and redistribute immobile nitrogen and phosphorus.”
With legume or non-legume cover crops, producers can reduce fertilizer costs.
https://www.cargill.com/2022/cargill-regenconnecttm-expands-program-eligibility-to-15-states
Program offers growers a simple, flexible, transparent way to access the carbon marketplace through adoption of regenerative agriculture practices
MINNEAPOLIS (May 10, 2022) – Enrollment opens this month for Cargill RegenConnectTM, a voluntary market-based regenerative agriculture program offering producers a simple, flexible, and transparent way to access the growing carbon marketplace. For the 2022-23 crop season Cargill has expanded grower eligibility to 15 states including: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
“In our first year, Cargill has received a tremendous response from growers about RegenConnect,” said Nathan Fries, program lead for Cargill RegenConnect. “It is our goal to deliver a best-in-class program that is economically viable for farmers and improves their profitability through the tools, resources and market access they need to make the shift to regenerative agriculture.”
Cargill will once again offer one-crop-year contracts to producer customers in eligible states to sequester carbon through implementation of new or expanded regenerative agriculture practices such as cover crops, no-till or reduced-till. Eligible acres must have a primary crop of corn, soy or wheat. Farmers can choose the practices that are best suited to their operation’s unique growing conditions. For the 2022-23 enrollment, Cargill will offer a market competitive price of $25 per metric ton of carbon sequestered per acre.
Carbon sequestration achieved through RegenConnect will contribute to Cargill’s scope 3 climate commitment and also can help the company’s downstream customers achieve their voluntary carbon reduction goals. Cargill aims to have 10 million acres enrolled in sustainable and regenerative farming programs by 2030.
How to Enroll for 2022-23 Season
Farmers looking to unlock the profit potential of their farm through adoption of regenerative agriculture practices can enroll in the 2022-23 RegenConnect program starting mid-May by visiting www.cargillregenconnect.com or by connecting with their Cargill relationship manager. To support farmers during the upcoming enrollment period, Cargill has expanded its team of conservation agronomists to offer technical support in successfully implementing regenerative soil health best practices. Cargill has also added support to its grain origination team, dedicated to providing farmers with an unparalleled enrollment experience.
The program’s intuitive digital platform is powered by carbon measurement firm Regrow and uses the industry leading soil carbon model, DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition). The program incorporates weather, soil management and environmental conditions that allows farmers to easily model the soil’s response to practice changes and estimate quantified carbon outcomes. In addition, enrolled farmers can track management practices for each of their fields and crops. Management practices for each field can be imported from compatible farm management systems or identified with remote sensing technology. The Regrow platform was built to ensure secure data collection and provides transparent measurement and verification options for farmers.
For more information about RegenConnect, growers can visit www.cargillregenconnect.com.
About Cargill
Cargill’s 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 156 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.
Media Contact: media@cargill.com
Time Magazine:
https://news.yahoo.com/soil-power-climate-solution-often-142403985.html
Jennifer Fergesen
October 21, 2022
Young wheat grows in parched soil on a field during very dry weather on April 27, 2020 near Luckau, Germany. Credit – Sean Gallup—Getty Images
One of the most significant carbon sinks on the planet is right below your feet. Soil, that layer of organic material and crushed-up rock that covers much of the terrestrial earth like a chocolate coating, contains about 2,500 billion metric tons of carbon. It’s the second-biggest carbon sink on the planet after the ocean, currently holding about three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. Some scientists and activists think it could do even more.
And increasingly, companies and governments agree. From Ben & Jerry’s to Unilever, companies are calling for more environmentally friendly farming practices as a way to meet net-zero goals. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year announced it would be investing $10 million to better monitor and measure soil’s carbon sequestration under its Conservation Reserve Program.
“Soil is the foundation of human civilization,” says Jeff Creque, director of rangeland and agroecosystem management at the Carbon Cycle Institute, an environmental organization based in California working to boost the carbon-sequestering power of soil and other natural carbon sinks. “We don’t have agriculture without fertile soils, and we don’t have fertile soils without carbon rich-soils.”
The Role of Soil
Carbon in soil takes two forms: organic (derived from living things) and inorganic. Inorganic carbon comes from carbon-containing rocks like limestone, marble, and chalk, which are most common in desert soils, as well as reactions between atmospheric carbon dioxide and minerals in the soil. But the majority of the carbon contained in soil is organic, and it’s this organic material that sets it apart from lifeless dirt.
Plants are the main source of organic carbon in soil and the main bridge carbon takes between the atmosphere and the earth. They absorb carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide into the carbohydrates they use for energy and to build their bodies. When plants die or shed leaves, petals, or other debris, the decomposers that live in the soil below consume them; they also eat the carbon-containing mucilage (a thick, gluey secretion) that roots exude while they’re alive.
The decomposers will re-release some of the carbon back into the atmosphere as they respirate; this carbon spends only a short amount of time in the soil. But several mechanisms can draw the carbon deeper into the soil, where it can be sequestered for years, decades, or longer. Rain, for example, can dissolve some carbon compounds and carry them deep into the groundwater. Mycorrhizal fungi, which form a symbiotic relationship with plants, carry carbon along their deep, rootlike hyphae and secrete compounds that help glue it in place.
And some carbon compounds can bind with the minerals in clay, a form of carbon sequestration that can last hundreds or even thousands of years. This chemically bonded carbon is part of soil’s stable carbon pool, together with carbon that has traveled deep enough in the soil (about 1 meter) to avoid being consumed and respirated into the atmosphere. (Carbon can also be sequestered long-term in frozen soil, as in the permafrost.)
How Farming Impacts Soil Health
All of these mechanisms are most effective in healthy, minimally disturbed soil with plenty of organic material from a thriving community of living things. Unfortunately, there’s less and less of this kind of soil left on the planet. Some of the most significant remaining swaths of soil are controlled by agriculture, which covers about 38% of the global land surface. But standard agricultural practices like tilling disrupt the downward path of carbon, exposing once-sequestered organic compounds to the air and allowing carbon to escape into the atmosphere.
That’s where regenerative agriculture, sometimes called carbon farming, comes in. This approach to agriculture focuses on restoring and maintaining soil health through a holistic set of practices, including reducing tilling, composting farm waste, and planting plots with cover crops such as clover so they continue receiving carbon when they aren’t being used for other things. In addition to absorbing more carbon, proponents say this approach can help recharge groundwater, prevent pests, and increase crop yields.
Regenerative agriculture is based on practices far older than modern industrial farming, championed in recent years by activists like Robert Rodale of the Rodale Institute and Allan Savory of The Savory Institute. Their initial acolytes tended to be small, experimental farmers and organic producers. But in the past decade, several multinational corporations have announced goals to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, including Unilever, PepsiCo, and General Mills. These commitments help corporations toward their net-zero goals, in addition to protecting their supply chains against the effects of global warming, drought, and desertification.
Using Soil as the Solution
Some corporate advocates of regenerative farming, including Ben & Jerry’s and Timberland, have formed a coalition with farmers to lobby Congress to include funds to support regenerative agriculture in the 2023 Farm Bill. This coalition, Regenerate America, argues in its policy recommendations that regenerating the soil can impact not only the climate but also rural economies, communities, and health outcomes.
Some farmers and scientists are experimenting with soil additives, called amendments, to further boost soil’s carbon-sequestering potential in conjunction with regenerative agriculture. One of the most promising amendments is rock dust. While most of the more familiar soil amendments, like compost and manure, boost the organic pathways for carbon to enter the soil, rock dust also jumpstarts the inorganic pathways.
The soil amendment currently garnering the most buzz may be rock dust, though it’s far from a new technology. “Rock dust has been applied to lands at a large scale for many years because farmers knew that ground-up rock holds important mineral nutrients for plants,” says Whendee Silver, a professor of ecosystem ecology and biogeochemistry at University of California, Berkeley. It’s been used in Europe since at least the late 19th century, when the German doctor Julius Hensel published the book “Bread From Stones” advocating for what he called “stonemeal manure” made from igneous rocks, which form through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.
Today, researchers are experimenting primarily with crushed basalt, an igneous rock rich in minerals including iron, magnesium, and calcium—similar in composition to the rock found in the famously fertile soils that surround volcanoes. Basalt is one of the most common rocks in the upper layers of the earth’s crust, and mining operations bring up huge amounts of it as they search for more profitable things underneath. “Putting that material out onto soils is a win-win as long as the material is safe,” Silver says—that is, not contaminated with heavy metals or other toxic substances.
In the presence of water, the magnesium and calcium in the basalt react with the carbon in the atmosphere and soil to form bicarbonates, which can remain dissolved in the groundwater or eventually precipitate out as a solid. This makes the carbon unavailable for decomposers, so it won’t be respirated back into the atmosphere. Basalt also contains minerals like potassium and phosphorus that are essential for plants, which can help increase crop yields—and healthy plants absorb more carbon.
Another soil amending technology is biochar, a black substance made by applying heat to plant matter in a low-oxygen environment. Creating biochar releases less carbon dioxide than burning plants or allowing them to decay, two of the usual routes to get rid of the inedible parts of crops, grass, or trees that farmers clear to plant new fields.
About 50% of the carbon in the plants remains trapped in the biochar, which can then be added to soil to boost water retention and fertility. This method has been promoted as a more technologically feasible and localized alternative to carbon capture and sequestration technology; consumers can already buy cookstoves to make their own biochar at home.
“At this point in our history, we’re looking at every possible strategy,” says Creque. “The beauty of terrestrial sequestration … is that we see this enormous raft of co-benefits that emerges with those strategies.”
—With reporting by Jennifer Junghans
This article is part of a series on key topics in the climate crisis for time.com and CO2.com, a division of TIME that helps companies reduce their impact on the planet. For more information, go to co2.com
https://www.axios.com/sponsored/content-item/ctia-how-5g-reduces-emissions-and-helps-u-s-farmers
Agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but 5G innovations can help reduce environmental impact.
Why it’s important: Reductions in GHG emissions are critical to fighting global warming, which has acute implications for food production and supply as the world’s population grows and acres of farmland decrease.
Agriculture accounted for 11% of total emissions in 2020, according to the EPA.
Okay, but: 5G-enabled farming can reduce carbon emissions by 27.8 million metric tons annually, according to Accenture.
How it’s done: 5G’s high bandwidth, low latency and support for high device density allows farmers to adopt new connected technologies that:
Precision agriculture is one 5G-enabled use case changing farming.
IoT devices and sensors can collect and communicate data from the field, so farmers know exactly what their crops need, saving resources and reducing emissions.
An example: At Swans Trail Farms, an apple orchard in Snohomish County, Wash., cutting-edge 5G technology improves efficiency, crop quality, sustainability and food security, according to farmer Nate Krause.
“We’re not going to be able to feed the world unless we can produce more food on less ground,” says Krause.
5G’s high bandwidth, low latency and edge-compute capabilities enable farmers to tap into an ecosystem of connected soil and water sensors throughout the orchard, which relay real-time water and nutrient data from 4,000 trees directly back to a smartphone, so farmers can decide whether to irrigate.
Plant health applications are also getting a boost with 5G.
Here’s how: 5G’s fast speeds allow it to process large amounts of data which can be used to understand the health of thousands of plants in the field.
EarthSense’s TerraSentia autonomous robot can scan up to 10 plants per second to determine the plant’s height, leaf-area index and other indicators of health.
What you’re missing: 5G monitoring doesn’t stop at plants. Farmers can also track and assess their livestock with the help of 5G.
In southwest England, cows at the Agricultural Engineering Precision Innovation Centre wear 5G smart collars and ear tags that track their health.
The impact: Their collars allow them to enter the milking area on their own and be fitted with custom settings for the milking machine.
Looking ahead: Innovations in the agricultural sector will continue. Tools like 5G-connected autonomous tractors and cellular-connected drones can help change and improve the way farmers work.
The takeaway: 5G paves the way for reduced GHG emissions and improved efficiency — benefitting the planet and U.S. farmers.
