{"id":2954,"date":"2020-01-31T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/?p=2954"},"modified":"2020-01-31T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T11:00:00","slug":"letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/","title":{"rendered":"Letting go of our productive farmland isn\u2019t the solution to capturing carbon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tom Gill<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than a month into the new decade, and those who dared to hope that focus on UK sustainability objectives would turn to solutions rather than a persistent environmental ear-bashing will be feeling disappointed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some eight months after releasing its Net Zero\nreport on the feasibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Committee\non Climate Change \u2014 the government\u2019s official climate change advisor \u2014 has\nreleased it\u2019s next phase: the specific policies needed to achieve those\nreductions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the CCC\u2019s earlier claims about the need\nto cut livestock protein from our diets, many of the recommendations, such as\nslashing dairy, beef and lamb consumption by 20%, were expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps surprisingly, there were some positive\nsnippets for farmers to get behind. For starters, the report says nearly two\nthirds of emissions can be cut from the land sector by 2050 without hampering\nfood production \u2014 provided farmers are given \u2018adequate financial support\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it says leaving the EU should give the government ample opportunity to meet those targets, thanks to the \u201ctransformative\u201d domestic policies to replace the CAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fundamental change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite these positives, however, the\nfrustration remains around the CCC\u2019s insistence that current farming systems\nare inherently negative for delivering environmental goods and services \u2014 and\nthat UK agriculture has to fundamentally change if it\u2019s to be sustainable.\nThere is clearly a transition required, but this needs to focus on solutions\nrather than the problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launching the report, CCC chief executive Chris\nStark said the report outlined \u201cclear advice\u201d to the government that a fifth of\nagricultural land needs to be taken needs to be taken out of \u201ctraditional\u201d\nagricultural production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its place, land management needs to focus on\nlong-term, natural carbon storage, which means growing trees, planting more\nbioenergy crops, and restoring soils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is inevitably some uncertainty about the precise ways in which that needs to be achieved,\u201d he added. \u201cThat means a really strong message to government: They have to get started on this soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frustrating messages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For those of us working in the industry, and\nparticularly for so many farmers and growers who are seeking to lead by\nregenerating their soils and driving other environmental improvements, it\u2019s a\nfrustrating message to hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve said before<\/a>, it\u2019s wrong to say that \u2018traditional\u2019 agriculture \u2014 particularly mixed farming systems \u2014 can\u2019t be regenerative, and many farm already have an important role in capturing carbon, restoring soils, increasing biodiversity and supporting our habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Livestock production in\nparticular, which the CCC seems so quick to demonise, is one of the only truly closed\nsystems, returning nutrients and organic material back to the soil where carbon\ncan be captured and preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also wrong to say that\nfarmland needs to be taken out of food production in order to be restorative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the benefits of grazing livestock, farmers across the UK are planting substantial acreages of hedgerows, habitat-boosting field strips, and restoring woodland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carbon and water storage<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Increasing biodiversity<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Restoring woodlands<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farming\u2019s future policies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not to say that there\nisn\u2019t more that agriculture, food supply chains and horticulture can do, or\nalternative food-producing systems producers might want to look into. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silvopastoral systems, where\nlivestock are grazed or crops are grown alongside productive fruit or nut\ntrees, can help meet the goals of planting more trees whilst maintaining the\nproductivity of land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile more and more food\nsupply chains are examining the benefits of adopting more mixed farming systems\nto help their businesses more sustainable both economically and\nenvironmentally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while it\u2019s important to look\nat new, alternative and innovative solutions to tackling agriculture\u2019s carbon\nfootprint, it\u2019s vital that sweeping, generalised assumptions based on global\nrather than UK emissions data aren\u2019t allowed to guide future policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Brexit on our doorstep,\nthe UK government is in a unique position to create policy that can support\nfarmers to make meaningful change \u2014 change that will not only help the\ngovernment reach its 2050 net zero targets, but also drive agricultural\nsustainability and ensure food production isn\u2019t affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve that though, it\u2019s\nvital that future policy recognises the benefits UK food production systems can\noffer, and in particular acknowledges that livestock production can play an\nimportant role in the net zero challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tom Gill Less than a month into the new decade, and those who dared to hope that focus on UK sustainability objectives would turn to solutions rather than a persistent environmental ear-bashing will be feeling disappointed. Some eight months after releasing its Net Zero report on the feasibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":3004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"abs_type":[7],"pro_group":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLetting go of our productive farmland isn\u2019t the solution to capturing carbon - Promar Italy DEV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Less than a month into the new decade, and those who dared to hope that focus on UK sustainability objectives would turn to solutions rather than a persistent environmental ear-bashing will be feeling disappointed.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letting go of our productive farmland isn\u2019t the solution to capturing carbon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Less than a month into the new decade, and those who dared to hope that focus on UK sustainability objectives would turn to solutions rather than a persistent environmental ear-bashing will be feeling disappointed.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Promar Italy DEV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-31T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2020\/09\/grass-e1590164626139.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1018\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas Gill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thomas Gill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thomas Gill\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#\/schema\/person\/a7c471d45c278daa59a67e3c58046bbf\"},\"headline\":\"Letting go of our productive farmland isn\u2019t the solution to capturing carbon\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-31T11:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-31T11:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\"},\"wordCount\":727,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/it\/letting-go-of-our-productive-farmland-isnt-the-solution-to-capturing-carbon\/\",\"name\":\"Letting go of our productive farmland isn\u2019t the solution to capturing carbon - 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