You may not realize it, but agriculture is a major contributor to climate change. Reducing agricultural emissions will be no small task. It means we have to focus on improving soil health so it will retain more CO2, cut back on commercial fertilizers and pesticides, reduce consumption and food waste, and tackle methane emissions. To meet necessary reductions we need widespread regenerative agriculture.
John Doerr, author of the highly acclaimed Time and Scale Action Plan for Solving Our Climate Crisis, explains, “Regenerative agriculture is a coordinated set of farming and grazing practices that enhance the soil’s ability to retain carbon. It rebuilds organic matter and restores soil diversity … the regenerative movement limits traditional plowing and tilling.” No-till practices implant seeds with limited soil disruption. Roots grow deeper, tapping more nutrients and water. Cover crops, crop rotation and managed grazing mean better and less fertilizer and pesticides and less water are required, and more carbon is sequestered in the soil.
Most regenerative practices are not new. They were the norm until modern soil-depleting, fossil-fuel-dependent practices promising high yields at any cost took hold in corporate agriculture. These now-conventional practices may have led to cheaper food, but they deplete soil of vital nutrients, microorganisms and reduce our soil’s ability to hold carbon, and they require more water. Small farms like the one I grew up on have gradually disappeared. On our dairy farm we used little, if any, fertilizer or pesticides. Manure was regularly spread over fields. Cow pastures and crops like alfalfa, clover and oats were rotated and fertilized naturally and gradually. Not only do these practices sequester carbon, they reduce methane.
Regenerative agriculture aims for resilience and sustainability. Here in New Mexico there is considerable interest in regenerative practices, and many of our small growers use some of these techniques. Last month, on Regenerative Agriculture Day, some 80 New Mexicans met by Zoom to share their efforts. Both state and federal agencies and most importantly local growers are on board. The New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group — NM Healthy Soil — sponsored the event, which highlighted techniques like composting and soil inoculants and healthy additives that improve soil health and sequester carbon.
A recent study, New Mexico Farm & Food Economy, commissioned by the group details the problem we face. Much agriculture in New Mexico is commodity farming with increasingly higher expenses due to pressures for higher production, which means an increase in the use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers that cost our farmers over $10 billion a year. As a result, the study shows, 70% of our farmers operate at a loss. NM Healthy Soil points out, “These practices negatively affect human and environmental health in farming communities and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and soil degradation.” In contrast, they add, “Regenerative processes give farmers a chance to cut their dependence on these costly additives.”
The problem is larger farms can’t just switch overnight. There are a lot of upfront costs. But the Biden administration is trying to steer farm aid and lending to carbon-emission reductions on farms. Build Back Better, if it ever passes, has millions for carbon sequestration and sustainable practices and will pay farmers to sequester carbon in soil. This support will be essential for the wide-scale transition needed to meet climate goals.
California, generally ahead of the pack, has $219 million in its current budget for climate-smart resilient farm practices and $130 million for food waste and composting. “If the government supports the farmers who are getting good results, everyone else will follow,” says California rancher Loren Poncia, whose ranch is now carbon positive.
Can larger farms, vineyards and ranches here make the switch? With the onset of a megadrought cycle there may be even more incentive for adaptive measures. Our farmers, ranchers and vineyards can reach out to Isabelle Jenniches of NM Healthy Soil. She says there is help available including, “state and federal soil health and conservation programs, e.g., the New Mexico Healthy Soil Program and USDA/NRCS conservation programs. There are also some non-profit lending programs.” Isabelle told me some extension offices can help, and there is a lot available online. Isabelle is an amazing resource. If you are thinking of making the switch or need information, contact her at nmhealthysoil.org.
And we can all help by educating our state and federal legislators and by supporting our local growers and farmers markets.
Published on March 7, 2022, in the Albuquerque Journal.
© Judith Polich. All Rights Reserved. May be republished with author’s written consent and proper attribution.