Gale Livingstone, the owner of Deep Roots Farm in rural Maryland, is among the many farmers across North America who are using regenerative agriculture practices to boost soil health and reduce carbon emissions.
Although their fall harvest has ended, some vital plantings are still growing on her 53-acre farm, which was once part of a tobacco farm. Four species of cover crops are being used to improve the soil quality at Deep Roots. The practices show promising results and could help trap up to 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the US annually.
Regenerative farming practices attract the interest of companies that have made net-zero pledges and are seeking to reduce their carbon footprints. The US Department of Agriculture also supports these practices and recently announced a $3 billion program focused on “climate-smart” commodity production.
However, there are concerns about the effectiveness of soil carbon markets. Skeptics argue that carbon markets could help climate polluters who purchase offsets avoid cutting their own firms’ emissions or that the carbon stored in soils may not remain there permanently.
Nonetheless, the Soil Inventory Project, directed by the Ecdysis Foundation, is developing a national soil health map. PepsiCo and Mars, among other agribusiness firms, are committed to boosting regenerative practices and raising farm incomes with strategies, including carbon removals.
