Seth Itzkan & Karl Thidemann, Cofounders of Soil4Climate Inc, give testimony to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture hearing on the Healthy Soils Act - "An Act to promote healthy soils and agricultural innovation within the Commonwealth," May 14, 2019. - https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S438. Includes Karl Thidemann reciting his poem, "Climate Farming." 

​YouTube video is available here. 

Climate Farming
by Karl Thidemann

So, what's the future?
Is there no hope?
Healing the land
Can help us cope
And grow better food
With less flooding, too
Put carbon in soil
Is what we must do

Draw down the heat
Slow the sea rise
Let birds and bees
Thrive in the skies
Good farming is how
We deal with this mess
Now the climate's fixed
What's next to address?

#HealthySoilsAct

This page is reposted here: https://www.soil4climate.org/news/soil-advocate-presents-pro-meat-message-at-vegan-and-vegetarian-event

Annotated Peer-Reviewed Citations for Grazing as a Means of Building Soil Carbon and Mitigating Global Warming
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Texas A&M study finds 1.2 tons of carbon per acre per year (1.2 tC/ac/yr) drawdown via properly-managed grazing, and that the drawdown potential of North American pasturelands is 800 million tons (megatonnes) of carbon per year (800 MtC/yr).
Teague, W. R., Apfelbaum, S., Lal, R., Kreuter, U. P., Rowntree, J., Davies, C. A., R. Conser, M. Rasmussen, J. Hatfield, T. Wang, F. Wang, Byck, P. (2016). The role of ruminants in reducing agriculture's carbon footprint in North America. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 71(2), 156-164. doi:10.2489/jswc.71.2.156 http://www.jswconline.org/content/71/2/156.full.pdf+html

University of Georgia study finds 3 tons of carbon per acre per year (3 tC/ac/yr) drawdown following a conversion from row cropping to regenerative grazing.
Machmuller, M. B., Kramer, M. G., Cyle, T. K., Hill, N., Hancock, D., & Thompson, A. (2015). Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter. Nature Communications, 6, 6995. doi:10.1038/ncomms7995 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7995

Michigan State University study finds 1.5 tons of carbon per acre per year (1.5 tC/ac/yr) drawdown via proper grazing methods, and shows in a lifecycle analysis that this more than compensates for a cow’s enteric emission of methane.
Stanley, P. L., Rowntree, J. E., Beede, D. K., DeLonge, M. S., & Hamm, M. W. (2018). Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems. Agricultural Systems, 162, 249-258. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.02.003
​

From: Seth Itzkan <seth.itzkan@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Feb 28, 2019 at 10:33 AM
Subject: Soil4Climate
To: <GretaThunbergMedia@gmail.com>

Hi Greta,

I can't imagine that you will actually see this email, but on the chance that whoever sorts your thousands of emails for you, chooses to pass this on, I would be most delighted by your reply and to continue the discussion at your convenience. I am the codirector and cofounder of a global environmental organization incorporated in the United States called Soil4Climate. We advocate for soil restoration as a climate solution. This is essential because it is now understood that just cutting back or even completely ceasing CO2 emissions will not lessen the climate catastrophe that is already barreling down upon us. We are going to need to complement emissions cessation with "drawdown," - carbon sequestration - and the largest and most reliable "sink" for this drawdown is in soil. It is also true, that the largest areas for this carbon "sink" are in grasslands and that these grasslands must be managed with grazing - done properly. This requires animals to be part of the food system, but, in a way quite different than that meat factory model that is legitimately frowned upon. Being "vegan," however, is not the answer. The answer is in supporting small-holder, regenerative ranches, where soil carbon increases can be verified and where the return to fecundity is plainly apparent. Below is the post I made on your FB page. I hope you will read it and I welcome discussion with you on this topic as you see fit. Thank you for your time and consideration and for your courageous efforts on behalf of our climate.

Best regards,

- Seth Itzkan
Soil4Climate Inc.
www.soil4climate.org
facebook.com/groups/soil4climate

https://www.facebook.com/gretathunbergsweden/photos/a.733630957004727/767646850269804/?type=3&comment_id=668445086918269&notif_id=1551290955999502&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

Feb 27, 2019

Hi Greta Thunberg, Thank you for your courageous efforts which are so crucial today. I invite you, however, to reconsider the #vegan stance. That is a misdirection promulgated as a response to the worst aspects of animal agriculture - such as factory farms. There are entirely alternative - and essential - approaches to animal agriculture that manage animals in ways that are ethical and environmentally responsible, and, in fact, necessary for restoring soil to #drawdown atmospheric carbon and bring back fecundity to two-thirds of the landed surface of the planet. We discuss this in Soil4Climate and other groups, such as Regenerative Agriculture Group, reGenerative Grazing Group, Holistic Management Discussion Group, and EOM-Ethical Omnivore Movement. There is also the EOYM - Ethical Omnivore Youth Movement. Please familiarize yourself with these efforts to restore sanity and soil in our agricultural sector. Animal consumption is not the problem - it is land management - and this, in turns out - will be our greatest hope for carbon #drawdown. Below are just two of many papers that put this situation into proper perspective and that show the path to a regenerative future. We are happy to discuss this with you at your convenience. Thank you - Seth 

The role of ruminants in reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint in North America 
http://www.jswconline.org/content/71/2/156.full.pdf+html

Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7995

Hunter Lovins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Nov 13, 2018, discusses grasslands, soil, climate, and the positive role of Soil4Climate in helping to reverse global warming.

“When the grasslands of the world, which are the world’s second largest carbon sink, co-evolved, they did so with grazing animals. When a cow or a gazelle or any grazing animal eats grass, the roots sluff polysaccharide sugars. That feeds a biological community in the soil which mineralizes the carbon, that’s either in the root mass or in the manure or in the grass that’s being trampled into the ground, and it turns into mineral carbon in the soil. That’s why when the first pioneers went west from here, they found ten feet of thick black soil. That black is carbon, and as Karl (Thidemann) said, the world around, it’s now down to inches. We have decarbonized the soil the way in which we grow commodity crops.”

“So, in the book (A Finer Future) we describe Gabe Brown. Gabe was a go and broke corn, soybean, commodity farmer in the Dakotas. Because he was going broke, he said, ‘I’ll try something else.’ First he went to no-till. He stopped breaking the soil and inverting it. Then he planted cover crops, some of them very deep rooted. Then he brought animals on: cattle, goats, sheep. At that point - and he was measuring carbon in his soil. He went from a little over 1% soil organic matter, to in some of his pastures, over 11% soil organic matter. He’s rolling climate change backward. And this is exactly what Seth and Karl and Soil4Climate is talking about.”

“There are some articles here (picking up an article) ‘Agriculture of Hope: Climate Farmers of North America’ and then a more technical article over there that (Professor) Bill Moomaw had a hand in (Hope Below Our Feet: Soil as a Climate Solution - written with the Global Development and the Environment Institute - GDAE at Tufts University). So, I called Seth when I was writing the book. I called Seth and said, 'I’ve got some calculations, the numbers of which I don’t trust. How much carbon can we capture and put in the soil?' So, Seth called Karl, called Bill Moomaw, put together a little team and we did some back of the envelope calculations. These are rough calculations. But if you take the best evidence of folk like Gabe Brown - and there now are getting to be reams and reams of peer-reviewed, technical journals showing what farmers and ranchers have done in increasing their soil carbon, and you multiply that out over the grasslands of the world, how soon, how much could we pull down, and how soon could we get back to the preindustrial levels of carbon in the atmosphere? Back of the envelope: 30 years. Yeah. Wow! This is a big, 'Wow!' So, Tony Seba’s stuff solves half of the climate crisis. Soil4Climate solves the other half. We’ve solved it!”

Cited papers:
THE AGRICULTURE OF HOPE: CLIMATE FARMERS OF NORTH AMERICA
BY SETH ITZKAN, KARL THIDEMANN, AND STEVEN KELETI
https://permaculturemag.org/2017/09/agriculture-of-hope/

Hope Below Our Feet: Soil as a Climate Solution http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/climate/ClimatePolicyBrief4.pdf

This video of Hunter Lovins on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTgWVDIM44

​

By Steven Keleti, Karl Thidemann and Seth Itzkan

#1 – Federal: ensure that greater funding for regenerative agriculture and soil health programs is in the Farm Bill.  The Senate version has provisions to better support soil health and carbon sequestration, while the House version does not.  The provisions in the Senate version need to make it into the final version from conference committee. See, for example:

Good Soil Policy in Senate Farm Bill
June 13, 2018 Lara Bryant https://www.nrdc.org/experts/lara-bryant/good-soil-policy-senate-farm-bill

5 reasons why the Senate farm bill is a conservation powerhouse
By Callie Eideberg / Published: June 27, 2018
http://blogs.edf.org/growingreturns/2018/06/27/5-reasons-senate-farm-bill-conservation/

Conservation for Very Erodible Row Cropland Act of 2018 (COVER Act)
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/6/bennet-introduces-bill-to-promote-soil-health-and-boost-rural-economies

#2 – State: ensure that state legislatures have Healthy Soils legislation on their dockets and/or appropriations for increased funding for state soil health programs, which many soil and water conservation districts have.  (Note: this is not yet happening, yet legislators could consider funding programs through a fee on fertilizers and/or pesticides, as over-application of fertilizers and pesticides adversely impact soil health, water quality, air quality, drought resilience and stormwater management.)  Draft legislation exists for Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Massachusetts, Kansas, Colorado, Vermont and Oregon, and there is growing interest in several other states.  California’s Healthy Soils Initiative is the strongest program thus far.  Maryland passed a Healthy Soils bill, yet needs to determine a funding source.  Oklahoma has had a small program since 2001. Hawaii funded a small study.  New York funded a study toward a Carbon Farming bill. We can help connect people who are interested.

#3 – Local: lawns are the biggest “crop” in the United States, and there is growing interest in providing incentives for regenerative agriculture and/or urban habitat on residential properties.  This comes up at meetings - “what can I do?” and "what can we do to encourage regenerative practices in residential areas?” In order to provide incentives, legislation at state level may be needed.  Bills were filed in Massachusetts the last two sessions to create a local option to allow a revenue-neutral property tax exemption to provide an incentive, but the bills did not move forward.

"There's five times more carbon is soils than there is in the atmosphere." - Dr. Thomas Goreau.

July 9, 2018 - Thetford, Vermont - Gary Rucinski, a Ph.D. physicist running for Congress in Massachusetts’ 4th District on a platform to reverse global warming, said recently that the restoration of degraded grasslands worldwide is essential to tackling climate change, because of the large quantity of atmospheric carbon that would be captured by soil. This CO2 “drawdown” can be achieved, according to Rucinski, through adoption of innovative cropping and grazing practices he referred to, respectively, as “permaculture” and “holistic range management.”

Rucinski stated, “We still have photosynthesis and biology available to us as … technologies that Mother Nature has honed over the last three and half billion years, that we can use to sequester the excess carbon load that’s in the atmosphere today and put it back into soils.”

"Primarily the opportunity is on about 15 billion acres worldwide of degraded grasslands ..."

“Primarily the opportunity is on about 15 billion acres worldwide of degraded grasslands, where if we simply reintroduce grazing herds and manage them properly, we will be building topsoil, we will be restoring wetlands, and we will be growing grass and building soil in order to allow carbon sequestration to happen naturally,” said Rucinski.

Making the case that land restoration and a revenue-neutral carbon tax, another policy goal he has advocated, both offer economic as well as environmental benefits, Rucinski said,  “We need to get ranchers generally to be aware of the fact that this is a financial win for them because they make due with fewer inputs, they get higher quality beef, and they can sell that at higher prices. So, again, just like the revenue-neutral carbon tax … getting ranchers and farmers to use permaculture and holistic range management is also a win-win-win for everybody involved.”

Rucinski’s comments came during a July 6th livestream interview by Soil4Climate cofounder, Seth Itzkan, in the Facebook group of Soil4Climate Inc.

A 2016 paper in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation showed that well-managed grazing in North America could sequester 790 million tons of atmospheric carbon each year. According to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Calculator, this is equivalent to the annual emissions of 620 million passenger vehicles, more than twice the U.S. passenger vehicle population.

Rucinski is formally Northeast Director of Citizens Climate Lobby.  His opponent in the Democratic primary is incumbent Joe Kennedy III.

A video of Rucinski’s comments quoted above (3 minutes) is at
https://tinyurl.com/yd7tx99g

A video of the full Rucinski interview (50 minutes) is at
https://tinyurl.com/ycyntgx2

Soil4Climate, a U.S.-based nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, advocates for regenerative cropping and grazing practices to improve soil fertility, increase the bionutrient density of food, restore wildlife habitat, prevent flooding, replenish dried-up lakes and rivers, and revitalize pastoral communities while sequestering atmospheric carbon.

Media contact:
Karl Thidemann
Soil4Climate
​​karl.thidemann@gmail.com