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A Little Earth Day Optimism

The complexity of reducing the CO2 pumped into the atmosphere can feel overwhelming and even hopeless. While we must continue engaging in the many initiatives to make this happen, it is nice to read an optimistic story that could help us improve our future.

That dose of optimism is the Jessica Rawnsley story “The Rise of the Carbon Farmer” in Wired.  She describes the revival of Regenerative Agriculture that keeps carbon in the soil rather than the atmosphere. It even improves soil health and improves yields.

By some counts, a third of the excess CO2 in the atmosphere started life in the soil, having been released not by burning fossil fuels but by changing how the planet’s land is used.

He (Patrick Holden) is one of a growing number of farmers shaking off conventional methods and harnessing practices to rebuild soil health and fertility—cover crops, minimal tilling, managed grazing, diverse crop rotations. It is a reverse revolution in some ways, taking farming back to what it once was.