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California considers ‘carbon farming’ as a potential climate solution. Ardent proponents, and skeptics, abound
(Inside Climate News, 21 Jun 2022) Supporters of pending legislation see it as an important step toward meeting the state’s climate goals while using its ample farmland. But critics say natural carbon sequestration is hard to measure and verify.
On a windy July day in 2017, temperatures started climbing early in Pauma Valley, California, an unincorporated community about 50 miles northeast of San Diego. Staff at Solidarity Farms, a 10-acre cooperative, were busy that morning, preparing for a 30-degree spike in temperature.
They watched the chickens to make sure the flock had enough water and shade. Irrigation ran all day, dripping water into the sandy soil, though it evaporated just as quickly. As temperatures topped 120 degrees, Ellee Igoe, a co-owner at the farm, was shocked and overwhelmed as she tried to manage the heat, her young children, and no air conditioning. “We were trying to keep ourselves alive, let alone trying to keep everything else going,” she said.
Nearly all the chickens died. Huddled under the coop, some hens seemed to have been overwhelmed by body heat from the birds that surrounded them. A few days later, Igoe could see the impact on the crops. Vine plants, like pumpkins and cucumbers, particularly suffered, she said, because they struggled to pump water through their spindly stems and out to their leaves.
After that day, the farm changed course. Today, Solidarity Farms, which sits on a plot of land leased from the Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians, farms not only fruit and vegetables, but also carbon. Starting with funds received from the state of California in 2017, Solidarity Farms began incorporating practices that improve soil and help suck carbon out of the atmosphere, like spreading compost and reducing tilling on fields, rather than applying fertilizer or plowing.
Inside Climate News, 21 Jun 2022: California considers ‘carbon farming’ as a potential climate solution. Ardent proponents, and skeptics, abound
