"Bring out your dread!"

Prof. Tim Flannery may have puzzled some by appearing in his new book Here On Earth to have become relaxed and comfortable about Global Warming. But he is simply performing a therapeutic ritual we call Defusing The Dread. Denialists think they are being rational when in fact all the evidence indicates that they are deeply traumatised by fear of Climate Change- which their minds are reacting to as if to a death, the death of the future. Denial is their way of dealing with the dread of the future. The shrill tone and emotional violence of the Denialists' manner of debate gives the hint as to their stability. Tim knows that he will not reach these people by scary statistics and high anxiety. He is stepping away from pessimism and adopting an optimistic tone. But he hasn't abandoned his belief in the urgency of action on Climate Change.

PM’s Carbon Farming Initiative

The Federal Government conservatively predicts that farmers and landholders could make $500 million in 10 years under the new Carbon Farming Initiative released during the election campaign. Julia Giilard opened the door wider to farmers looking to earn carbon credits when she added “international markets” to the options facing farmers. This means carbon credits earned on-farm in Australia will be sold on the Mandatory Market where prices are always higher than in the Voluntary Market – the only market available to us until now.
The Carbon Farming Initiative covers more than seven potential revenue streams for farmers: reforestation, projects that avoid or reduce emissions from livestock, fertiliser use and manure management, savannah burning, legacy waste in landfill, and deforestation, as well as soil carbon and biochar.
Low hanging fruit for farmers is the avoided or reduced emissions from fertiliser. When it is applied, an amount of the Nitrogen in conventional fertilizer oxidizes and escapes as Nitrous Oxide. It has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 300 times that of CO2. This is good news for farmers changing their fertilizer practices to reduce or eliminate N2O emissions. For every tonne of N2O avoided, you multiply the price of carbon (CO2-e) by the GWP (300). A methodology for this offset us currently before the Expert Panel for berification. We are confident of its success because it doesn’t have the same challenges for scientists around measurement and verification.
There is also likely to be a tradable unit for avoided methane emissions from waste management systems which divert organic matter from landfill where is emits methane. The aim is to encourage on-farm composting to recycle the green wastes.
Meanwhile the Government has joined a Global Research Alliance to ‘fast track’ soil carbon work. The Carbon Coalition has applied to become a Project Partner.

The $45.6 million cost of the Carbon Farming Initiative is already included in the Budget, through the Renewable Energy Future Fund.

$500m between 100,000 growers over 10 years

They described it as 'conservative", but this estimate of the income Australian farmers is as conservative as Tony Abbott!!! The Federal Government conservatively predicts that farmers and landholders could make $500 million in 10 years under the new Carbon Farming Initiative released during the election campaign. Julia Giilard opened the door wider to farmers looking to earn carbon credits when she added “international markets” to the options facing farmers. This means carbon credits earned on-farm in Australia will be sold on the Mandatory Market where prices are always higher than in the Voluntary Market – the only market available to us until now.
The Carbon Farming Initiative covers more than seven potential revenue streams for farmers: reforestation, projects that avoid or reduce emissions from livestock, fertiliser use and manure management, savannah burning, legacy waste in landfill, and deforestation, as well as soil carbon and biochar.
Low hanging fruit for farmers is the avoided or reduced emissions from fertiliser. When it is applied, an amount of the Nitrogen in conventional fertilizer oxidizes and escapes as Nitrous Oxide. It has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 300 times that of CO2. This is good news for farmers changing their fertilizer practices to reduce or eliminate N2O emissions. For every tonne of N2O avoided, you multiply the price of carbon (CO2-e) by the GWP (300). A methodology for this offset us currently before the Expert Panel for berification. We are confident of its success because it doesn’t have the same challenges for scientists around measurement and verification.
There is also likely to be a tradable unit for avoided methane emissions from waste management systems which divert organic matter from landfill where is emits methane. The aim is to encourage on-farm composting to recycle the green wastes.
Meanwhile the Government has joined a Global Research Alliance to ‘fast track’ soil carbon work. The Carbon Coalition has applied to become a Project Partner.

The $45.6 million cost of the Carbon Farming Initiative is already included in the Budget, through the Renewable Energy Future Fund.

YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED

YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUESTED

At The 4th Annual Carbon Farming Conference
Dubbo NSW, 27-28 October 2010

CONGRATULATIONS!

With your support
we won the promise of
Soil Carbon Credits,
Methane Carbon Credits, and
Nitrous Oxide Carbon Credits

The Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative promises to fast track preparations to trade on international markets. Good News, but we need to keep up the pressure.

Register today for the Carbon Farming Conference & Expo to show your support and enjoy the only gathering dedicated to reconstructing the health of soils, farm landscapes and rural communities by safe, ethical trading in soil carbon and other on-farm emissions reductions.

REGISTER ONLINE AT WWW.CARBONFARMINGCONFERENCE.COM.AU
OR CALL 02 6374 0329

CONFERENCE PROGRAM DAY 1

GOOD NEWS FOR FARMERS

The Carbon Farming Initiative will reward farmers with several possible new revenue streams: reforestation, reducing emissions from livestock, fertiliser use, and deforestation, as well as soil carbon and biochar.

9.00am – Welcome to Country. Welcome to City – Mayor Allan Smith

9.10am - The Government’s New Carbon Farming Initiative –When do we start? – Maya Stuart-Fox, Director, Emerging Policy , Land Division of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

9.40am – Six Configured Units Ready To Roll – Methodologies for Farm Carbon Trading Units - Ken Bellamy, Prime Carbon has invested heavily in building Kyoto-aligned trading protocols

10.10am – Making It Happen - Landcare’s Role In The Carbon Farming Initiative – Brett de Hayr, National Landcare Facilitator explains how Landcare will help farmers learn about the Carbon Farming Initiative

10.40am – Panel Discussion – Q&A on the Governments Carbon Farming Initiative, Methodologies, Time frames.

11.00am - Morning Tea

MEASUREMENT: SOIL CARBON FAST-TRACKED

The Government promised that it would ‘fast track’ research to overcome the barriers to trading soil carbon when it announced the latest $46.5m for Carbon Farming. What strides has Science made in 12 months.?

11.30am - How Will The Soil Carbon Research Program Assist Trading? - Dr Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land & Water reports on the progress on the program we helped fund (by lobbying) to the tune of $20m.

12.00pm - Must We Wait for Science? - Professor Annette Cowie, National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research explores an interim proposal and explains an opportunity to be part of the next round of soil carbon research.

12.30pm - A Single Soil Carbon Score For A Property? - Professor Alex McBratney, University of Sydney – The Race is on to find the cost effective, reliable measurement method.

1.00pm – Soil Scientists Super Summit - Andrea Koch, United States Study Centre is organising a meeting of eminent scientists to discuss soil carbon

1.10pm – Lunch

CARBON COCKIES LEAD THE WAY

Farmers have led innovation in land management. These innovations are judged by the criterion “It works for me” and are spread by observation across the boundary fence.

2.00pm – From the Amazon’s Terra Preta to Australian Soils - Biochar’s Future Options - Patrice Newell, Farmer, Activist, Author, reports on her visit to the birthplace of biochar.

2.20pm – Carbon Cockies drive innovation - Simon Proust (MC) presents Carbon Catchment Highlights: Central West and Northern Rivers - A Carbon Cockie One Year On: Matt Barton - - Farmer Teaching Farmer: Little River LandCare

3.20pm Afternoon Tea

KEEPING THE MONEY IN THE REGIONS

Regional-based businesses will be able to buy offsets from local farmers. Farmers, in turn, may be able to purchase soil amendments from regional-based businesses, such as composts, inoculants, stimulants, chars and coal-based soil carbon promoters.

3.50pm – A Regional Trading Model – Helping Big Emitters Spread The Wealth In Rural Communities – Louisa Kiely, Orana Regional Development Committee

4.10pm – Carbon Footprints Could Lead to Local Win-Win - Robert Bower, TwinN Mabiotec explains how soil carbon missed an opportunity to supply offsets to his company when it decided to go carbon neutral.

4.40pm - Markets Could Look Like This: Market-Based Instrument Pilot – Dr Jason Crean, NSW DI&I reports on the project simulating a trading environment for farmers.


5.00pm WINE AND CHEESE TASTING IN THE MAIN HALL



7.00pm Conference Awards Dinner

Networking Dinner

MC: Michael Kiely On Climate Change:

“Fear Makes Me Say Funny Things”

2010 Carbon Cocky Awards

Climate Change Songwriting & Poetry Competition

Can you write a song or bush ballad about Climate Change? Bring it along.


CONFERENCE PROGRAM DAY 2

While Food Security is focussed on growing enough food to feed the world, Food Integrity describes the nutrient density of the food. Healthy soil is the beginning of the virtuous circle – soil, food, people.

HEALTHY SOILS, HEALTHY FOOD, HEALTHY PEOPLE

9.00am - Health Starts In The Soil - Dr Carole Hungerford, Farmer/ Medical Practitioner/Author explains how many modern ailments can be explained by the decline in soil health and its impact on nutrition.

9.30am - “Miracle Cure Led Me To Soil Health” - Rhonda Daly, YLAD Living Soils explains how a health issue taught her the power of soil to deliver wellbeing.

9.50am - Beyond Organic: Certified Soil Rich Foods - Ian Golding, Beyond Organics has developed a method for measuring the nutrient value of soils and the food grown in them.

10.20am – Introducing Healthy Soils Australia - Tom Nicholas, Chairman explains

10.30am Morning Tea

SOIL HEALTH + OFFSETS

Low hanging fruit among offsets for farmers is the avoided or reduced emissions from fertiliser. When it is applied, an amount of the Nitrogen in conventional fertilizer oxidizes and escapes as Nitrous Oxide. It has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 300 times that of CO2. This is good news for farmers changing their fertilizer practices. For every tonne of N2O avoided, you multiply the price of carbon (CO2-e) by the GWP (300).

11.00am - Low Cost/No Odour On Farm Composting - Gerry Gillespie, NSW DECCW Compost can create odor and take a great deal of turning to reach its point of peak effectiveness. But a new on-farm system eliminates both problems. Spray inoculant over the compost and it turns itself,

11.20am – Compost’s Promise of Soil Carbon - Darren Fahey, Waste Management Association of Australia.

11.40pm Coal Ash As Fertiliser - Dr Jane Aitken, Conneq Infrastructure Services - Coal or fly ash is available in vast quantities because power stations have mountains of by-product after coal is burned, most of which is buried in landfill. Scientists are testing different combinations to make controlled release fertiliser.



12.50pm – Cheap char? Chailings – Processed Coal Tailings - Adele Calandra GSSEnvironmental. Chailings is charcoal made from coal mine tailings. Farmers have proved for themselves that production can be boosted by the application of raw coal dust. Chailings are processed for greater effectiveness.

1.10pm Lunch

2.00pm - INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER: Make Your Own Fertiliser As You Till - Gary Lewis, BioAgtive Canada Exhaust fume burial is a novel approach to disposing of emissions by processing them into a fertiliser and wrapping them around the seed.

2.20pm - Australia’s Own Exhaust Burial Technology - Daniel Linkleter, Riverina farmer

2.40pm – INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER: Trigger Technologies: Affordable Broadacre Biology - Jim Watson, Best Environmental Technology, Canada reports that soil biology stimulants or ‘triggers’ work by ‘waking up’ native microbes rather than by delivering the microbes to the soil. This means the stimulant can be delivered in a spray pass with herbicides.

ENERGY FARMING OPTIONS

To be a Carbon Farmer is to manage Carbon Cycles – in soils, in vegetation, in animals and in biomass, wind and energy.

3.00pm - Growing Fuel Crops - John Larkin, Demand Farming explains how growing energy crops can fit into a farmer’s business.

3.20pm – Afternoon Tea

3.50pm – On-Farm Solar Opportunities: Risks and Returns – Dr Iain McGregor, Solar Choice reveals the opportunities for generating additional revenue while generating energy.

4.10pm – Water Dynamics: Reading The Landscape – Paul Newell, Landsmanship, introduces a revolutionary approach to farm planning.

4.30pm – Carbon Farming Australia: The Industry Association – Michael Kiely



CARBON FARMERS ASSOCIATION

For 5 years the Carbon Coalition has campaigned for the rights of farmers to grow and trade soil carbon safely and ethically. In that time Government has shifted its position away from a very negative, damaging attitude – farmers were to pay for all animal and fertiliser-based emissions with no access to soil carbon credits – to a very positive outcome where soil carbon offsets are government and opposition policy and reductions in methane and nitrogen emissions are to be rewarded rather than enforced. We are close to success but many obstacles remain in the way and need a dedicated voice keeping Government honest in delivering the promise. The Carbon Coalition has been entirely funded by the Convenors and a small group of benfactors. The time has come for it to become a registered association. The Carbon Farmers’ Association offers the following benefits for members: 1. Advocacy for members’ access to carbon markets through a range of offsets, including soil carbon, methane, nitrogen emissions and others. 2. Advice on contracts, risks and likely returns. 3. Education and training to maximise the business opportunities and assist in risk management in trading. 4. An On-line Library offering access to deep resources of information on carbon farming. 5. Regular newsletter – The Carbon Farmer – to Conferences alert members to opportunities. 6. Discounts on and seminars. 7. Discounts on Books and magazines. 8. Ethical trading services – Soil Carbon Baselining, Aggregation, Sub-Aggregation of Small Holdings and Brokerage, with fees invested in Assocation services, and retiring credits on first transaction to avoid exploitative on-selling. 9. Networking with like-minded people in a community of common purpose. 10. If scientists like Tim Flannery, the Wentworth Group, Professor Rattan Lal and even the CSIRO’s Michael Battaglia are to be believed, sequestration in soil and vegetation on a grand scale is essential to avoiding the worst effects of Global Warming as we transition to new energy sources for baseload supply. If this is so, farmers have more leverage in this commodity market than any other and can be price-makers rather than price takers, their usual role. And your membership fee could be the best investment you could make in a future that does not look like a scene from Mad Max.

The Carbon Farmers’ Association will be launched formally at the Carbon Farming Conference. To register interest or for more information please call

02 6374 0329. Or 0417 280 540.
Email Louisa@carboncoalition.com.au

Have mercy on the scientists

Reliable scientific data on soil carbon is hard to find. When the old Australian Greenhouse Office collected data for the national inventory of Greenhouse Gases, it could find little that was more recent than the 1980s. In the 30 years that separated those feeding data into the National Carbon Accounting Scheme from those who generated the data, there had been a major shift towards conservation land management. More than 50% of West Australia’s croppers had switched to no-till, for instance. So the scientific models were loaded up with out-of-date data and the myth that Australian soils are too old and degraded to sequester carbon was born. This lack of data has caused a dilemma for scientists who are asked to give their expert opinion on the matter. Not only is there very little data, The CSIRO’s recent survey of the available data found, according to the Report of the Inquiry into Soil Carbon Sequestration in Victoria. that most of the data comes from overseas, little of it is the result of long term trials, and the influence of climate and soil type is so great that it masks the results of land management. (This last observation nullifies measurement of man-made changes to soil carbon entirely.) For all these reasons there is little ‘sound science’ that scientists can refer to when their political masters ask for their advice on soil carbon. This creates a dilemma for the scientist: either admit ignorance or feign knowledge. The way out is to say something like this: “There is no sound scientific evidence that proves that Australian soils can sequester significant amounts of carbon.” (This appears to say that the prospects for soil carbon sequestration are limited when in fact it is saying there is no such research.)

Expert witnesses: knowledge not required

The ignorant have a right to be heard in public enquiries about soil carbon. The evidence is there in the Report of the Inquiry into Soil Carbon Sequestration in Victoria.
“…a number of experts and key agencies advised the Committee that the inquiry had encouraged them to think through many of the issues associated with soil carbon sequestration, and articulate a position on the prospects for soil carbon sequestration, for the very first time.” No wonder so much of the opinion parading as expert comment is half-baked and worthless. For example: “A report commissioned for Dairy Australia and submitted by Gipps Dairy as part of its submission to the inquiry suggested that soil carbon sequestration on dairy pastures will be hard to achieve because of the difficulty of increasing pasture production without decreasing stocking rates.” Nonsense. This claptrap deserves a place on the list of The Most Stupid Things Ever Said About Soil Carbon, alongside the Bucket Theory and The Cost of Growing Humus. Gipps Dairy sets up a pea and thimble trick when it claims that there can be three separate potential uses for one tonne of pasture produced on a dairy farm and that an estimate of the economic value of each of those uses can be made.
The inevitable conclusion: “even at a carbon price of $250 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, it is
more profitable to use one tonne of pasture to feed cows to produce milk than it is to retain the
pasture on the soil and let it decompose for the purposes of sequestering soil carbon.”
Soil carbon is not a zero-sum game. You don’t grow it by taking animals off pasture and letting it rot. The action of the animals – incorporating the uneaten grasses and manure – stimulates the microbial life, including the photosynthetic bacteria which do not depend on getting a bucket of organic matter for their growth. That is how carbon is made, and piling on the urea is how it is unmade.

Gipps data:
Table 6.1 Value of different potential uses for one tonne of pasture
Potential uses for pasture Value of uses of pasture
Produce hay bales $150
Feed cows to produce milk $260
Retain on soil and let decompose in order
to sequester soil carbon*
$21 at a carbon price of $25 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent
$206 at a carbon price of $250 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent
* This assumes that one tonne of pasture (dry weight) contains 45 per cent carbon, of which 50 per cent decomposes to create 0.23 tonnes of soil carbon. One tonne of soil carbon = 3.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The submission from Gipps Dairy also noted that the cost of fertiliser to produce one tonne of carbon has to be taken into account when calculating the costs and benefits of the scenarios outlined in the table.

Victoria - cautious, conservative and cooked

It is the best overview of the soil carbon issue we have seen. Congratulations to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee of the Victorian Parliament for The Report of the Inquiry into Soil Carbon Sequestration in Victoria. Unfortunately many of the facts it quotes are not facts and it reaches the wrong conclusion: “Due to the significant scientific and economic uncertainties associated with soil carbon sequestration, the Committee concluded that a cautious and conservative approach should be taken in establishing incentive mechanisms to encourage soil carbon sequestration in Victoria.” The world does not have the luxury of time to be cautious and conservative, as Annette Cowie told the Committee: “I think the issue of climate change is so urgent that it would be a mistake to say we have to put this off to wait for better science. I do not think we need perfect science and perfect understanding to be able to start providing incentives for landholders to build soil carbon. I think we know enough about some soil types and some land use practices that we could identify a conservative default and suggest that, ‘You will have at least that much carbon sequestered if you undertake these practices’. That is the sort of thing we need to work from at the moment and then have the science, the increasing research, undertaken in parallel so that we can firm up the models and perhaps recognise more sequestration in the future when we know more about it. Professor Annette Cowie* is Director, National Centre for Rural Greenhouse Gas Research, University of New England is a rare scientist: she knows the limitations of science and the needs of the moment. Other scientists feel the urgency as well. The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists told the Committee: “The reality is that it will be next to impossible for Australia to achieve the scale of [emissions] reductions required in sufficient time to avoid dangerous climate change unless we also remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in vegetation and soils.” Even the CSIRO understands the urgency. Dr Michael Battaglia, Theme Leader, Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, CSIRO advised that “…what [soil carbon sequestration] actually gives us is time to make those adjustments.”

*Dr Cowie will be speaking at the Carbon Farming Conference & Expo, 27-28 October, 2010 in Dubbo NSW

Where is the Government's sense of urgency?

Closer inspection of PM Gillard's "Carbon Farming Initiative" reveals a slothful pace for including the main game - soil carbon. The Government says the first methodologies for units under the National Carbon Offsets Standard will be rolled out from mid-2011. These early methodologies do not include soil carbon. The only certainty is reforestation. Other early starters include: Livestock (methane); Fertiliser use and manure management (nitrous oxide); savanna burning (paying Indigeous landowners to cease firestick farming); legacy waste in landfills; and deforestation. The scary part is that these are referred to as "methodologies that are expected to be settled in the early years of the scheme". Soil carbon is relegated to a category with biochar - as needing 'further research'. This is code for 'soil carbon is mired in the quicksand of the Science of Measurement.' It is not even included in the 'early years'. We can only hope that this campaign media release was written by a party spin doctor who wasn't aware of Tony Burke's promise in March this year that "If you're able to improve the amount of carbon in the soil through sequestration, you get cash." He didn't say "You get cash sometime after 2020..." Now is the time to put maximum pressure on Science to perform - to demonstrate a sense of urgency. After 3 years of playing a straight bat and giving scientists open slather on what they present at the Carbon Farming Conference, we have decided that we will no longer listen to lists of reasons why we can't have what we want, ie. soil carbon trading. Instead only scientists who can tell us how we can get what we want will be invited to speak. We need good old fashioned "Science In The Service Of Mankind".

Carbon Farmers tell Julia: “Let’s get on with it”

“The Carbon Farmers’ Market can start tomorrow - the regions need it, the nation needs it, and the planet needs it. Let’s get on with it,” says Carbon Farmers of Australia.
“The farmers of Australia have been waiting five years to receive credits for reducing or storing carbon – and they are urging Julia Gillard to deliver the Carbon Farming Initiative she promised during the Election, says Carbon Farmers’ director Michael Kiely. The Government has already provided the framework for a voluntary carbon market, the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). The Prime Minister pledged to see a pathway built from this voluntary market to the mandatory market. A body called the Carbon Trust has been set up to oversee the market. A raft of methodologies for avoiding emissions and storing carbon in soils have been submitted for approval.
“It’s time to get on with it. The NCOS market can start tomorrow because there is no problem with measurement of nitrogenous fertiliser applied by a farmer. They need only produce delivery dockets for the super they put on in previous seasons and those for the replacement source of nutrients,” says Michael Kiely. “The need is urgent as all indicators of Climate Change are running at or above worst case scenarios.”
Under the Carbon Farming Initiative the Prime Minister has promised that farmers will be able to earn carbon offset credits by a number of methods, starting in mid-2011, including avoided emissions from fertiliser usage, which is valued at 300 times the Greenhouse Gas saving as a single tonne of CO2 saved by other means.
The Carbon Farming Initiative puts farmers on the frontline in the race to stall Global Warming long enough to enable renewable energy sources to reach critical mass to deliver base load capacity. The only option the Government has to achieve this is the sequestration of carbon in the 450 million hectares of agricultural soils. The farmers have done their part by developing techniques for growing carbon in soils. The Government has done its part by introducing the National Carbon Offset Standard.
“It’s now up to the Carbon Trust to get on with the job of assessing the methodologies we have submitted and make some decisions,” says Michael Kiely.
For more information, (02) 6374 0329

Win, Lose or Draw - Thank You, Tony Burke

The Government's fate hangs in the balance - either side could claim it tomorrow. Either way, it is only right that we say "Thank You, Tony Burke" for the way he managed his portfolio in our area of interest. Tony Burke is not a farmer, but he made up for that by listening and throwing himself into his portfolio with open eyes and ears. He gave us his time and eventually his money (well, he gave it to the CSIRO, actually, but the thought was there).
The outcome for farmers was the most favourable offered in any nation. Too few farmers realise this, having had their ears stuffed with denialist propaganda and disinformation. It is a better deal than we thought possible.
Tony is also a straight shooter, like Tony Windsor. He is surrounded by genuinely nice people.
Tomorrow could find Tony either a rooster or a feather duster. Whatever happens, we're happy to crow about his achievement on our behalf.

Tony Windsor PM?

The Carbon Coalition has complete confidence in Tony Windsor to decide the fate of the nation by annointing the Party to occupy the Treasury Benches for the next 3 years. Tony has been the Carbon Coalition's mentor and coach in it's lobbying efforts over the past 5 years. He is the only political leader to have taken the time to get a complete briefing on the soil carbon issue. He then asked PM Howard a question without notice on he subject which, while it did not receive a positive reply, put the issue on the radar of many observers. Tony spoke at the Carbon Farming Conference and Expo last year.* He is an honest farmer at heart, and, were it possible, his dignified manner and good-humoured response to barbs from the barbarians inside and outside Parliament and his focus on the needs of the nation for stability and good government qualify him to be the Prime Minister ahead of the two contenders that are the only choice our political system allows. Tony Windsor as PM and leader of a Government of National Unity to meet the emergency of Climate Change!

*To be staged this year at Dubbo on 27-28 October, 2010

Soil Carbon now easy to measure

Veris Technologies makes soil probes that can be dragged across a paddock taking hundreds of measurements per second. They use Near Infrared Spectroscopy which can detect what soil contains down to 60cm. The company (from Kentucky) claims it can measure to within 90% certainty - this makes trade possible. We are negotiating with Veris to have them present the technology at the 2010 carbon Farming Conference & Expo in Dubbo, 27-28 October.

Who owns Soil Carbon: grower or government?

The Carbon Coalition supports the call by a Victorian Government subcommittee for soil carbon rights to be made law. Environment and Natural Resources Committee chair John Pandazopoulos says legislation is needed to protect the rights of growers to the carbon they sequester in their soil. Currently Western Australia is the only State to have such protection enshrined in law. The need is real. Governments in Australia have set precedents for nationalizing privately owned resources: Peter Spencer’s campaign for compensation for the impact of native vegetation laws is based on establishing the fact that the Commonwealth has used the ban on clearing to meet its Kyoto obligations. The estimated value of the carbon involved has been stretched to billions. The Spencer case will succeed only if the High Court agrees with him that, while the States banned clearing, the Commonwealth was party to the action after the event. The Government gained something of value, the farmers lost something of value, and therefore compensation should be paid.
Soil scientist Professor Peter Grace advises Governments that they own the carbon in soil: “the Crown retains broad prerogative powers of reservation and resumption in respect of leasehold land…” If this is the case then the relevant state government must assign ownership of the carbon to the landholder.” This statement would need to be tested in court.
The Victorian Committee seem to believe that soil carbon can be classified as a mineral (and the law assigns ownership of minerals to governments). The scientists use the term ‘mineral soil C’; international mineral classification experts have included a new organic category. There is enough doubt to request that Governments clarify the rights of farmers.
The obvious problem for a government thinking of hijacking a farmer’s soil carbon is this: unless the government is going to enforce certain soil management practices, it is the farmer’s choice. What incentive will it take to get farmers to change?
Academics and Green activists believe farmers should be forced by law to sequester soil carbon. Peter Grace believes that the “government should also be a signatory to all contractual agreements between the landholder and the purchaser involving crown land to warrant that it will not authorise uses of the land which conflict with the maintenance of SOC stocks.”
Given the importance of the role soils can play in our response to Climate Change and the urgency, any disincentive put upon farmers would be foolish.