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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Chelsea Green Publishing - The Carbon Farming Solution
  • Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 14:32:08 -0400

Chelsea Green Publishing - The Carbon Farming Solution
http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution

The Carbon Farming Solution
A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices
for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security
By Eric Toensmeier <http://www.chelseagreen.com/events?person=8281>
- See more at:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution#sthash.NWY60MmS.dpuf
Available Date: February 15, 2016

Agriculture is rightly blamed as a major culprit of our climate crisis. But
in this groundbreaking new book, Eric Toensmeier argues that
agriculture—specifically, the subset of practices known as “carbon
farming”—can, and should be, a linchpin of a global climate solutions
platform.

Carbon farming is a suite of agricultural practices and crops that
sequester carbon in the soil and in aboveground biomass. Combined with a
massive reduction in fossil fuel emissions—and in concert with adaptation
strategies to our changing environment— carbon farming has the potential to
bring us back from the brink of disaster and return our atmosphere to the
“magic number” of 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Toensmeier’s
book is the first to bring together these powerful strategies in one place,
including in-depth analysis of the available research and, where research
is lacking, a discussion of what it will take to get us there.

Carbon farming can take many forms. The simplest practices involve
modifications to annual crop production. Although many of these
modifications have relatively low sequestration potential, they are widely
applicable and easily adopted, and thus have excellent potential to
mitigate climate change if practiced on a global scale. Likewise, grazing
systems such as silvopasture are easily replicable, don’t require
significant changes to human diet, and—given the amount of agricultural
land worldwide that is devoted to pasture—can be important strategies in
the carbon farming arsenal. But by far, agroforestry practices and
perennial crops present the best opportunities for sequestration. While
many of these systems are challenging to establish and manage, and would
require us to change our diets to new and largely unfamiliar perennial
crops, they also offer huge potential that has been almost entirely ignored
by climate crusaders.

Many of these carbon farming practices are already implemented globally on
a scale of millions of hectares. These are not minor or marginal efforts,
but win-win solutions that provide food, fodder, and feedstocks while
fostering community self-reliance, creating jobs, protecting biodiversity,
and repairing degraded land—all while sequestering carbon, reducing
emissions, and ultimately contributing to a climate that will remain
amenable to human civilization. Just as importantly to a livable future,
these crops and practices can contribute to broader social goals such as
women’s empowerment, food sovereignty, and climate justice.

*The Carbon Farming Solution* does not present a prescription for how
cropland should be used and is not, first and foremost, a how-to manual,
although following up on references in a given section will frequently
provide such information. Instead, The Carbon Farming Solution is—at its
root—a toolkit. It is the most complete collection of climate-friendly
crops and practices currently available. With this toolkit, farmers,
communities, and governments large and small, can successfully launch
carbon farming projects with the most appropriate crops and practices to
their climate, locale, and socioeconomic needs.

Toensmeier’s ultimate goal is to place carbon farming firmly in the center
of the climate solutions platform, alongside clean solar and wind energy.
With *The Carbon Farming Solution*, Toensmeier wants to change the
discussion, impact policy decisions, and steer mitigation funds to the
research, projects, and people around the world who envision a future where
agriculture becomes the protagonist in this fraught, urgent, and
unprecedented drama of our time. Citizens, farmers, and funders will be
inspired to use the tools presented in this important new book to transform
degraded lands around the world into productive carbon-storing landscapes.
- See more at:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution#sthash.NWY60MmS.dpuf

Eric Toensmeier

Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of *Paradise Lot* and *Perennial
Vegetables*, and the co-author of *Edible Forest Gardens*. Eric is an
appointed lecturer at Yale University, a Senior Fellow with Project
Drawdown, and an international trainer. He presents in English and Spanish
throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and the Caribbean.
Eric has studied useful perennial plants and their roles in agroforestry
systems for over two decades, and cultivates about 300 species in his urban
garden. His writing can be viewed online at perennialsolutions.org.
- See more at:
http://www.chelseagreen.com/the-carbon-farming-solution#sthash.NWY60MmS.dpuf



  • [permaculture] Chelsea Green Publishing - The Carbon Farming Solution, Lawrence London, 09/23/2015

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