How to Reduce Pollution with Better Farming

Looking after planet Earth starts with looking after earth itself – making sure the soil underneath our feet that nurtures the crops we grow is healthy and free from contamination. As fears over the state of the Earth escalate, more and more people are waking up to the reality that our soil is contaminated and that something must be done about.

Encouragingly, China recently committed to tackling an extensive soil remediation project, which could see one of the world’s most pollutant countries curb the level of contaminants in its soil significantly. For more information on how such bioremediation can be undertaken, this post, 5 Incredible Ways to Clean Soil, offers much interesting insight on the topic.

However, just having clean soil might not be enough. Proponents of permaculture have proposed that sequestering carbon in soil – to use both as an energy source and as a deterrent for climate change – could actually reverse the harmful effects of human behaviour on our planet over the last centuries.

Could Soil Sequestration Reverse Atmospheric CO2 Build-up?

Peter Bane, author of the ecological tome The Permaculture Handbook, has claimed that proper manipulation of carbon levels in our soil could actually reverse CO2 build-up in the Earth’s atmosphere. His evidence? The fact that famed soil farmer Joel Salatin, the face of Polyface Farms, has increased levels of carbon in his soil by 6.5%.

More conservative (and perhaps level-headed) estimates (specifically, from founder of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Centre soil science professor at Ohio State University, Rattan Lal) claim that reversing the process through carbon sequestration is probably not possible, but a 10% reduction in the current emission levels could be achievable.

Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists has posited that the land sector could contribute around 50% of the reforms needed to ensure the Earth’s temperature stays under the two-degree rise that has been declared necessary. Carbon sequestration, along with controlled agricultural emissions and a cutback on deforestation and forest degradation, would make up the vital contribution from this sector.

A No-Brainer

Whoever you believe, it’s clear that acting now to change the way we farm our soil would definitely have a positive impact upon the Earth’s environment. If we maximised levels of carbon in the soil, we would alleviate our reliance upon fossil fuels marginally, discourage the use of chemicals and pesticides, helping prevents floods while increasing the land’s ability to retain water and also enhance biodiversity in some areas.

Oh, and we could also reduce emissions while we’re doing it, by returning the carbon from whence it came – the Earth. Any way you look at it, current farming methods could be improved – and the benefits for our environment could be incredible. Better farming needs to happen… and it needs to happen now.

However, improved farming techniques are just one of many solutions. To read about another incredible option, see this article: An Innovative Approach to Neutralising Carbon Fuel Emissions.