sequester large amounts of carbon on
an ongoing basis,” the report states.
“In the UK, the potential sequestration
has been calculated to be
670kgC/ha/year, which, if true, would
offset all the methane emissions of
beef cattle.” They also pointed out that
the trend in conventional to move
from grass to grain-fed livestock systems means grassland that was once
used to sequester high amounts of carbon, is now being converted to low-car-bon arable land to grow grains to
support the livestock sector.
In a review written for the UN, Urs
Niggli, director of FiBL, compared the
findings of four long-running studies,
including those from Rodale and the
Soil Association, and concluded that
although the other studies did not
have numbers as high as Rodale’s, that
on average the findings showed that “a
conversion of current global agricul-
ture to organic farming would reduce
the GHG emissions of the agricultural
sector considerably and make agricul-
ture almost GHG neutral.”
“Although the studies vary and take
into account different elements, sci-
ence shows in numerous studies that
organic farming can sequester signifi-
cantly more carbon than conventional
farming,” Niggli says. “Even if we
didn’t get to Rodale’s estimated 40
percent—if were only able to sequester
10 to 20 percent of the world’s car-
bon—we would already be tremen-
dously successful in making an impact
on global warming.”
LaSalle of Rodale agrees, “No mat-
ter what, right now there is enough re-
search saying that we can mitigate a
huge amount of carbon in the soil
through organic agriculture, so let’s
get to work and start putting govern-
mental policies into effect that support
change.”
oxide is actually a much more preva-
lent GHG and 296 times more potent
than CO2. Conventional agriculture’s
overuse of fertilizers overloads the soil
with high levels of reactive nitrogen
(NH4, NO3), and part of this excess
ends up in the air as nitrous oxide
emissions. Current estimates for an-
nual emissions from agriculture range
from 2 to 4 million tons of nitrous
oxide globally.
Eliminating Excess Nitrogen from Air
and Water
Although nitrogen is not discussed
nearly as much as carbon, nitrous
