Ottawa unveils carbon price plan! for us in Saskatchewan with none! FU Trudeau

[Klause]

Bucket, I asked before if you or anyone else could come up with some good data on how much carbon your modern farming methods are sequestering. The trail went quiet...
You may have a case for what you propose but you need the proof. Don't beat up on the incompetent farm groups - provide them with the info they need to make the case if you've got it. I suspect that like on the grazing side the research has not yet been done sufficiently to make the case (if there even is one). There are research projects going on now on the grazing side but they had to be kickstarted by ranchers/land managers. Is anybody doing the research on the farming side or pushing for it to be done?

https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/organicfood/environment/documents/Tillageandsoilcarbonsequestration.pdf#Rbib39 https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/organicfood/environment/documents/Tillageandsoilcarbonsequestration.pdf#Rbib39


It's a bit of a myth.. or not. depending on "slant". In actuality we don't know enough.

https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/66/6/1930 https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/sssaj/abstracts/66/6/1930


0-Till is supposed to preserve 0.5T/ha/yr of C... Crop diversity another 0.2T/ha/yr.



Obviously, if the dirt is blowing, you are doing much damage... but it's not so much zero till as maximizing the amount of time *something* grows on the land... Lots of research.


The more carbon in the air, the more aggressive plants are... which means more carbon is captured and converted to sugar...

A challenge in grain production, especially here where our seasons are too short for many cover crops.

[samhill]

Oliver 88, good luck with out voting the Libs, the west does not have a voice or influence in Canada.

[malleefarmer]

Two govts in australia tried to bring in carbon tax left side of politics got close and right side of politics got talked about and planned but that was it. Both realized they would be voted out.

So now looking for other climate change solutions that are "fair and not a huge impost on bussiness" good luck with that.

[bucket]

Grassfarmer

I think there is data out there as to the amount of sequestering that takes place with today's practices....which is why there was carbon credits offered by different companies years ago and the fact that nature conservancy and groups like them parcel their land holdings and sell that value to their corporate donors....

As far as farm groups they are funded by government or checkoffs and have the responsibility to the people they represent. ...no?


As an individual many ideas I write down here have been suggested through phone calls to both government and farm groups....if they fail to advance sn idea then they are incompetent IMHO. ...


It can't keep coming back to the individual to change things otherwise I would run for premier and implement the ideas that people think have merit....

[grassfarmer]

Grassfarmer

I think there is data out there as to the amount of sequestering that takes place with today's practices....which is why there was carbon credits offered by different companies years ago and the fact that nature conservancy and groups like them parcel their land holdings and sell that value to their corporate donors....

I don't think there was much credibility attached to the whole "carbon credit" deal - seemed like it was more about easing corporate guilt or enhancing their environmental image in the eyes of their consumers. The fact that there were no carbon credits available to people taking land out of annual crop production to replace them with perennial forages indicates to me it wasn't based on science.

I don't think we know enough about how natural systems work yet and that we should be researching more. Don't know if anyone else saw the article in the last MB Co-operator about soils on organic farms. Provides some surprising results based on extensive research in the US which I won't go into here (at risk of a pointless pissing match on organic versus conventional). What they did state that is maybe more relevant to this discussion is that "On average organic crops consume 60% less energy and create 25% fewer global warming emissions and 80% fewer ozone-depleting emissions - largely due to the fact organic farmers don't use commercial nitrogen products or pesticides"
If that is true it backs my skepticism about modern conventional farming practises sequestering a lot of carbon.

[bucket]

There were also government payouts to put land back to grass for ten years....there were caveats put on that land and I believe there had to be some carbon scheme in the background written or not....

[bucket]

Notwithstanding all this ....farmers pay for supposedly cleaner burning equipment only to find fuel prices continue to climb as does fuel consumption and when factoring in the increased refinery output are we really gaining environmentally?


If the government actually gave a shit about the environment why allow elevators to close to put 10 times the power on the local roads to haul grain further. ...

It seems critical thinking skills are non existent in government. ...I am working on an essay about that very problem....

[shtferbrains]

Here's one for the grassfarmer.

http://www.beefproducer.com/beef/imminent-implosion-grassfed-beef

[grassfarmer]

Here's one for the grassfarmer.

http://www.beefproducer.com/beef/imminent-implosion-grassfed-beef

Thanks for that - made a lot of sense - or did you only read to the second paragraph and think that was the gist of the article?

[shtferbrains]

Well written all around.

Rare thing these times.

Most of what we see seams to come from Political Activist from one side or the other.