In the context of unprecedented climate change it is increasingly crucial for industries to take proactive steps towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and their carbon footprint. In the food and beverage sector, a significant portion of emissions occur indirectly throughout the value chain (scope 3 emissions). To offset these emissions, carbon farming practices are gaining traction as an effective solution. Carbon farming involves the implementation of sustainable agricultural techniques that sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in soil, vegetation, or other organic matter. Let's explore how multinational food and beverage companies are embracing carbon farming to offset their Scope 3 emissions.

As we delve into the world of agriculture and its interaction with the climate crisis, an important perspective unfolds. Agriculture is both subject to adverse impacts of climate as well as a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This dynamic provides a platform for constructive action driven by scientific exploration, data analysis, and a commitment to a more sustainable future. The facts are striking. Between 2000 and 2020, global on-farm emissions, which are connected to the production of crops and livestock, increased by 13% and reached a total of 7.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (Gt CO2 eq). In 2019, agriculture and other land-use activities accounted for 22% of the world's total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Notably, a significant portion of these emissions comes from methane produced during enteric fermentation, manure management, and rice cultivation.

Interestingly, a 2017 study estimated that with these farm management practices in place, global croplands have the potential to store an additional 1.85 Gt CO2 each year, as much as the global transportation sector emits annually. These figures communicate that in the world of agriculture and environmental care, the soil takes centre stage. It has a big impact on three important things: making soil healthier, tackling climate challenges, and improving crop growth. By keeping an eye on the carbon in the soil, we can enhance how soil works, reduce climate effects, and cultivate better plants.

At the same moment, the world's soils contain a larger amount of carbon than the combined total of carbon in its vegetation and atmosphere. Therefore, soil plays a vital role in the carbon cycle by storing organic carbon through the decomposition of plant matter and microbial activity.

There is a significant interest in increasing carbon content in soil due to its potential for mitigating climate change. A promising approach to do this is implementing regenerative farming practices, such as zero or reduced tillage, intercropping, introducing trees (agroforestry) and cover crops, crop rotation, etc. It is important that these practices are continuously maintained in order to retain the added carbon in the soil (permanence). For sequestered carbon to be eligible for trading in carbon markets, it has to be shown that the practices have been adopted actively and are additional to the business-as-usual scenario (additionality according to Oldfield et. al., 2021). Moreover, it is also important that the implementation of regenerative agricultural practices on one field does not result in the release of carbon, e.g., through deforestation, on another field nearby (leakage).

Soil carbon monitoring is a necessary step to enable sustainable agriculture and climate mitigation because it can ascertain the status and changes in soil carbon (additionality and permanence). These benefits demonstrate the effectiveness of soil carbon monitoring as a valuable practice that should be on the agenda of policymakers and land managers. Active participation in monitoring carbon levels in soils is essential for collectively mitigating the impacts of climate change. This approach offers the benefit of enhancing soil properties and fostering the overall health, resilience, and productivity of agroecosystems.

AgroCares provides a rapid and cost-effective way to measure soil organic carbon content. It addresses the concern of potential workload over time associated with measuring organic matter for carbon. AgroCares offers an opportunity to regularly conduct carbon monitor tests, measuring and remeasuring, which leads to consistent results regarding overall carbon level changes at the farm level.  Furthermore, the peer-reviewed SoilCASTOR methodology incorporated in the Carbon Monitor Solution not only determines optimal sampling spots for rapid soil scanning but also computes carbon stocks in t/ha.

If you want to learn more about our Carbon Monitor Solution, please send us a message at info@agrocares.com or get in touch via our form.

The growth in human population has had an important impact on soil and the services and resources it can provide. The consequences of human activities on soil resources resulted in the loss of biodiversity, accelerated erosion, desertification, compaction, nutrient depletion, and loss of soil organic matter (SOM), which is primarily made up of carbon (58%). Considerable losses of soil carbon occurred around the world due to land use and changes in land cover, for instance trough deforestation, crop-grass rotations, peatlands drainage, etc., resulting in a cumulative loss of 133 Gt of carbon.

The increase of food production across the years has been mainly due to higher yields resulting from greater inputs like fertilizers, water, pesticides, and other technologies of the “green revolution”. But even if those practices led to enormous gains in food and helped improve food security, they also had greater negative impacts on the environment, putting the productivity of the future at risk. Since not so long ago, most agricultural paradigms followed that strategy of high production often to the detriment of the environment. Likewise, many environmental conservation strategies focus only in preserving the environment. Therefore, to achieve global food security and environmental sustainability, the agricultural systems must be transformed to address both.