Back in November I attended a Carbon Farming course at Cotswolds based FarmEd. Before attending the course I hadn't heard much about carbon farming, so I was keen to find out more and see where it might fit with setting up a care farm.
The aim of carbon farming is to increase the rate and amount of carbon that is sequestered into the soil. This is done by rebuilding the soils organic matter and restoring the biodiversity of that soil, carbon is drawn down from the atmosphere. Although this topic is being seen as 'new' it is in fact, based on traditional methods of regenerative farming.
If you have a couple of hours spare I would highly recommend watching the film - Kiss the Ground as this can explain the role of regenerative farming, carbon and soil health in sustainable food production and helping to balance our climate more easily than I could.
The course was run by Glyn Mitchell, a soil food web microbiologist from The Carbon Farm Jersey Glyn is a champion of localised food and green waste composting and using his 'recipe of fungi and bacteria' to turn that waste into a fresh compost for farmers fields.
The Carbon Farm is leading regenerative agriculture in Jersey by supporting farmers with simple solutions and practices to ensure their soil is healthy such as:
- using minimal or no tillage of the soil
- reducing the synthetic inputs that are added to the soil
- ensuring the ground is covered rather than being left bare
- using a diverse cover crop
- Integrating animals through practices such as mob grazing
But why would farmers do this? The most immediate benefit is the reduction of inputs used on the land and this in turn saves money. Farmers may also be paid for looking after the health of the land and soil.
My final takeaway from the course was that 'every farmer should be a carbon farmer'.
