Asking plants to use carbon differently than they do now might be a hard pull for both science and Mother Nature.

Comment: Questions surround carbon sequestration

Answers are needed if markets are going to function properly

You might not think so, if the local coffee shop is your guide, but farmers think climate change is real. In fact, notes the December 2020 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, 58 per cent of Iowa farmers and landowners now agree that climate change is both occurring and is caused by either human activity

(File photo by Allan Dawson)

Beef sector aims for new 2030 targets

Organizations involved in Canada's National Beef Strategy have announced new goals for the beef sector for the next decade

The Canadian beef industry has new benchmarks to reach for in the next decade. The organizations involved in Canada’s National Beef Strategy — the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Canada Beef Breeds Council, Beef Cattle Research Council, Canada Beef, The National Cattle Feeders’ Association, Canadian Meat Council and Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef have announced new 2030


Soil-stored carbon is easily released due to warmer temperatures or drought, a recent discussion paper claims.

Sequestering carbon won’t solve climate change

Some farmers say they’ve already done their bit for climate change through reduced tillage, but it’s a dubious argument, according to the National Farmers Union (NFU). “We should not become confused by claims that we can somehow fix the climate crisis by pulling carbon out of the atmosphere and ‘sequestering’ it in soils,” says an

Natural vegetation on and above the slopes of the Manitoba Escarpment slows run-off, reducing erosion.

Sustainable slopes project renewed

Aproject to preserve natural cover on the steep slopes of the Manitoba Escarpment is being renewed and reconfigured with new funding. Funds will concentrate on outreach, education, and providing research management planning for landowners willing to preserve tree cover on slopes. Clearing the slopes of the Pembina Valley and Manitoba Escarpment reduces the land’s ability


Blain Hjertaas takes attendees through the carbon and hydrological cycle during a March 14 workshop on agriculture and climate change in Pipestone.

Confronting climate change through the power of plants

Carbon sequestration was front and centre as producers gathered in Pipestone to ponder how agriculture could change the conversation around climate change

Blain Hjertaas insists farmers already have the key to solving climate change. It’s growing in their fields. Ground should never be bare, the holistic management instructor argued in Pipestone March 14, part of an event dissecting agriculture’s role in climate change. Hjertaas argued that conventional annual cropping leaves gaps in early spring and in fall

AMCP land use practices such as prescribed burns are helping to maintain native grasslands, significant plant diversity and key habitat for numerous species at risk.

Community pasture benefits worth over $13 million a year, study says

From forages worth $5.67 million annually to $4.7 million in carbon sequestration services, 
the benefits from the province’s 350,000 acres of community pastures add up fast

All Manitobans gain from this province’s community pastures, according to a new study that details the broad range of social and environmental benefits derived from them, and assigns a dollar value to them too. Released last week by the Association of Manitoba Community Pastures (AMCP) the study pegs the value of ecosystem services derived from


Soil background

Better soil health could capture more carbon

A recent study says changing farming practices could capture as much carbon as the global transport sector emits

Thomson Reuters Foundation – Improving soil health in farmlands could capture extra carbon equivalent to the planet-warming emissions generated by the transport sector, one of the world’s most polluting industries, experts said Nov. 14. Soil naturally absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through a process known as sequestration which not only reduces harmful greenhouse gases but

Blain Hjertaas (l) presents on carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture March 21 in Brandon.

Carbon taxes should be like income taxes — with credits

Diverse management systems are the key to putting more carbon back into the soil, 
and possibly more money into farmers’ wallets

Blain Hjertaas says that if you tax use, you should reward storage. “I believe that if we, as a society, are going to value carbon and tax carbon as a bad behaviour… then we need to reward those who solve the problem and take the carbon from up here and put it back into the


Ontario Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal (Photo courtesy OMAFRA)

Greig: A year of farm policy decisions ahead for Ontario

Ontario’s agriculture minister stands by his decision to halt a process that was expected to open up how processing tomatoes are priced in the province. Jeff Leal’s decision, announced in August, resulted in a Dec. 21 threat from Ontario’s largest tomato processors to significantly cut back their tomato purchases from Ontario farmers in 2017. Processing

Research at the University of Alberta looks to identify how land use and grazing impact soil carbon levels.

Study shows grassland environmental contributions

The University of Alberta in partnership with Alberta Environment and Parks has undertaken 
a number of studies looking at the impacts of land use and grazing on soil carbon levels

Grasslands punch above their weight when it comes to carbon sequestration. That’s the conclusion of a researcher who started his career on an Alberta-wide study of how land use affects that province’s carbon pool. Daniel Hewins, now an assistant professor at Rhode Island College in Providence, R.I., says grasslands can and do store an enormous