Carbon Farming: ‘Great’ for Agrochemical Giants and Investors Like Bill Gates, But ‘Bad for Everyone Else’? • Children’s Health Defense

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President Joe Biden has referred to soil as “the next frontier for storing carbon,” and some lawmakers and business leaders have described carbon as a new “commodity crop.”

 

Combine the two — soil and carbon — and you get “carbon farming” — a practice its proponents say could help reduce carbon in the atmosphere and achieve climate-related targets.

 

DGB Group, a developer of large-scale carbon and biodiversity projects, defines carbon farming as “an agricultural method that captures atmospheric carbon, storing it in the soil, through land management practices, such as regenerative agriculture and reforestation.”

 

According to DGB Group, which is a subsidiary of a publicly held Netherlands-based holding company that acquires businesses in the energy, agricultural and animal sectors, carbon farming “helps to increase the resilience of natural systems, promote biodiversity, and mitigate the impacts of a changing climate.”

 

Some believe carbon farming also is a potential revenue stream for farmers and ranchers that’s gaining popularity among large corporations —  including Apple, BP, Cargill, Facebook, General Mills, Google, McDonald’s, Microsoft and Target — which buy carbon credits from farmers to offset their emissions.

 

But critics say there is little evidence carbon farming works as well as promised, and that it’s unclear whether the practices can be carried out over long periods and on a massive scale without undercutting food production.

 

They also argue the programs can create opportunities for “gamesmanship and greenwashing that undermine real progress on climate change,” turning the programs into “big business” for “big polluters.”

 

In an interview with The Defender, Claire Robinson, managing editor of GMWatch, said:

 

Read More: Carbon Farming: ‘Great’ for Agrochemical Giants and Investors Like Bill Gates, But ‘Bad for Everyone Else’? • Children’s Health Defense

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