Grain and animal farmers are clamouring to be recognised for the contribution that new (or renewed) cropping methods can make to burying carbon-dioxide in the soil.
Organic matter is 57 percent carbon and industrial farming practices have halved the amount of organic material in the soil. Perennial grasses and crops planted into existing stubble instead of bare soil can restore this organic matter to near natural levels. Hundreds of tonnes of carbon can be stored in every hectare of soil by simply adopting sustainable farming practices.
Visiting Australia for the Grains Industry Conference in Melbourne next week, David Miller, of the Iowa Farm Bureau said that American farmers are now earning between $US3 and $US7 per tonne for the carbon dioxide stored using such practices. The system pays around 20% of the global prie for carbon dioxide but the low price means that rigorous auditing is not required and the scheme operates on a voluntary basis without much bureaucracy.
Australian farmers are incensed that they have not been acknowledged for their contribution to reversing global warming. It is the changes to land use that has kept Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions below the generous eight percent increase over 1990 levels that was negotiated under the Kyoto protocol. Industry and the energy sector have significantly increased their carbon emissions while farmers have footed the bill.
Last week’s Green Paper released by the Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, only rubs salt into the wounds. While it exempts farmers from the carbon trading scheme until 2015 it provides taxpayer subsidies to the coal-fired electricity generators and completely exempts energy exporters.
Even Woodside Petroleum is angry about the scheme. CEO, Don Voelte, said that the industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars cleaning up its act, and is now being hit for it. “We are not dirty enough to get the compensation,†he said.
With farmers, environmentalists and petroleum producers all on the same side, the government is clearly taking a high risk gamble to keep the powerful coal lobby happy.
Because the nation’s food supply is at stake, we can only hope that the government recognises that the farmer’s close relationship with nature puts them in the prime position to steer us toward a carbon neutral future.
Giovanni posts sustainable farming stories to www.thegenerator.com.au