Copenhagen, carbon and cows

With agreement at the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen for agriculture to be included in emission reduction targets thought to be imminent, carbon stewardship could be the new currency for sustainable agriculture.

After 60 years in the wilderness, organic farmers feel their hour has finally come. Soil Association Director Patrick Holden said: “Paying farmers to be carbon stewards with carbon stewardship payments may herald a new dawn by recognising the potential of organic farming to help address climate change.”

Mixed farming, using grassland in rotation to build fertility for arable crops, provides the best means of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and replenishing the soil carbon bank, claims a briefing paper published by the Soil Association today.

On climate change and human health grounds we need to eat less meat, but the focus for reduction must be on intensively produced white meat (chicken and pork) and grain-fed beef, while we eat proportionately more grass-reared beef, lamb and mutton. This new Soil Association research challenges the current orthodoxy by insisting that cows and sheep will play a central role in the carbon-friendly farming systems of the 21st Century, by making it possible to return atmospheric carbon to the soil while at the same time converting grass into food.