Carbon Footprint

Opportunities are increasing for farmers and land managers to earn revenues from storing carbon in soils or vegetation, or by reducing baseline GHG emissions from crop and livestock production.

Carbon farming is a type of agriculture that involves practices and techniques designed to increase the amount of carbon sequestered in the soil. This can be achieved through a variety of means, such as planting cover crops, using organic fertilizers, reducing tillage, and using conservation tillage practices. Carbon farming has several potential benefits, including improved soil health, increased crop yields, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, carbon farming can help farmers meet the growing demand for sustainably-produced food. By sequestering carbon in the soil, farmers can help mitigate the effects of climate change and contribute to the development of a more sustainable agricultural system. Overall, carbon farming represents a promising approach to improving the environmental sustainability of agriculture.

This summary was written by OpenAI's ChatGPT - If you can do better then please join the page and edit!

This page is to share useful perspectives, resources and connections to help farmers navigate this rapidly developing area.

Give your comments below, or connect your organisation, initiative or resource.

Related Organisations

Content below is from across the PEP community and is not necessarily endorsed by Stewards or by PEP

Topic Comments

Discussion

14/10/2022 - 14:07

Read Farmers Weekly article on Carbon Farming here - https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/land-preparation/soils/will-soil-carbon-be-the-next-big-crop-for-growers

1
25/10/2022 - 13:23

Great new article from Mike on 6 soil carbon schemes for farmers to consider - published 25/10/22 - https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/business-management/agricultural-transition/the-carbon-trading-conundrum-risk-or-revenue-generator

0
07/12/2023 - 14:44

Can anyone explain why the standard UK calculation adopted for estimating above ground carbon return from crop includes 'harvest index' and 'above ground residue retained after harvest'? Is harvest index always based on "grain" yield (thus for flax harvest index is given as 0.38 while above ground residue retained is 0.2 while for most crops the two are similar). This seems odd since the harvested component of the flax is the stem and root.

1

Connected Content

Net Zero

In 2015, the UK pledged to be Net Zero by 2050, with the NFU striving for the more ambitious target of 2040. Net Zero is achieved when the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted is balanced with those removed from the atmosphere. This helps to combat climate change and reduce global warming.

Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative farming looks to optimise the use of the ecological system and environment, in order to benefit from the natural ecosystem services that they provide.

Carbon Calculators

The number of tools and calculators available can be daunting. None are necessarily right or wrong, the appropriate tool for you depends on the question you are asking.

Carbon Metrics

Carbon Metrics is a consultancy firm offering detailed analysis of agricultural carbon audits to help service sector businesses identify where on farm mitigation is both environmentally and commercially sustainable in order to help reduce the environmental impacts or greenhouse gases from farming enterprises

Soil Carbon

There is a lot of interest in soil carbon currently, due to the opportunity to store and sequester carbon in soil. It is also vital for soil health, forming part of soil organic matter.

Natural Capital

Natural capital refers to the stock of natural resources and ecosystems that provide essential benefits and services to agriculture. In the context of farming, natural capital encompasses the fertile soil, clean water, biodiversity, pollinators, and healthy ecosystems that play a crucial role in sustaining crop and livestock production. These natural assets are the foundation of agricultural sustainability, productivity, and resilience.

Trinity AgTech

Trusted software which elevates farmers to the heart to the food and farming ecosystem

Countryside COP 10-14 October 2022

Ahead of COP27 in Egypt, Countryside COP will once again be held in October to allow the rural community to come together and showcase the opportunities available and the contribution already being made to reach Net Zero. 

Agrecalc

Farm carbon calculator to lower emissions and increase productivity

Forestry Commission

The Forestry Commission increases the value of woodlands to society and the environment.  It is a non-ministerial government department.

N2 Applied

N2 Applied has developed a technology that enables local production of fertiliser using only livestock slurry, air and electricity, – dramatically reducing harmful emissions and improving yield at the same time. The technology adds nitrogen from the air into slurry, which increases the nitrogen content. The reaction prevents the loss of ammonia and eliminates methane emissions, making it a real solution helping to achieve climate target commitments on an industrial scale.

Farm-level Interventions to Reduce Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Report commissioned by WWF & Tesco launched at OFC 2022 on "

NFU Achieving Net Zero

NFU published a report in 2019 outling how agriculture can be part of the solution and commiting

ADAS Natural Solutions brochure

Carbon Footprinting

Lots of initiatives are measuring and reporting the carbon or greenhouse footprint of products or activities, including crops, livestock and food.

regenagri

regenagri is an international regenerative agriculture program for securing the health of the land and the wealth of those who live on it.

AgriFood4NetZero Network+

Together, we’re creating plausible pathways, and practical, open science, to achieve Net Zero through the Agrifood system by 2050.

ADAS Natural Solutions

ADAS Natural Solutions brings together various in-house services to deliver a bespoke solutions based on the requirements of your business. Whether you are looking to increase your biodiversity or achieve net zero, our dedicated team can work with you to create, restore and manage both natural and modified ecosystems. 

Downforce Technologies

Providing accurate measurements that enable nature based solutions

WWF

WWF supports lots of work on sustainable agriculture in a partnership with Tesco.

WWF Land of Plenty

Land of Plenty is WWF's blueprint for how the agriculture and land use sectors in the UK can help fight climate change and bring nature back to life.

4 popular carbon calculators for farms compared

Farmers Weekly article by Mike Abram exploring four carbon calculators

What makes an operational farm soil carbon code? Insights from a global comparison of existing soil carbon codes using a structured analytical framework

Scientific paper in Carbon Management, Nov 2022.

Transition farming carbon jargon buster

Glossary of terms around Net Zero brought together with plain English definitions in a Farmers Weekly article supported by AHDB and Trinity AgTech  

LEAF - Carbon in a nutshell

Reducing your Carbon Footprint: Integrated approaches to reduce emissions and increase carbon sequestration

How much carbon can realistically be sequestered in arable soils and can we measure it? - GWCT Webinar

Webinar hosted by GWCT with David Powlson - watch the video below.

The opportunities of agri-carbon markets - A summary

Report by Green Alliance for WWF & Tesco exploring carbon markets. Introdu

Farm of the Future - Journey to Net Zero

Report from RASE on getting to Net Zero.

F&FF Highlight (25th May 2022)

Climate Change

Climate change threatens our ability to ensure global food security, eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development. In 2016, 31 percent of global emissions originating from human activity came from agrifood systems.

GHG costs of cropping

This Topic doesn't yet have a Stewarded summary, but connected groups, content and organisations show below. Click the 'Ask to Join' button if you would like to be a Steward for this Topic and provide a summary of current knowledge and recommend useful resources, organisations, networks and projects. "Like" this Topic if you would like to see it prioritised for providing a wikipedia style summary.

Low Carbon Agriculture Show 2023

The business event showcasing low carbon practices, technology and energy solutions for a profitable & sustainable farming future.

GHGs from cropping

An overview of the greenhouse gas costs of cropping, including an analysis of YEN data in lead up to establishing YEN Zero.  Also includes an analysis of the relationship between nitrogen fertiliser, GHG costs, yield, GHG intensity and potential indirect land use change (ILUC) consequences.  

Tilhill

Tilhill offers farmers a professional one-stop forestry service for woodland creation, management, selling woodland generated carbon units, and timber harvesting.

Low Carbon Agriculture 2023

The next Low Carbon Agriculture Show will take place on the 7 - 8 February 2023 at the National Agricultural Exhibition Centre (NAEC), Stoneleigh, to help farmers and landowners to rise to the challenge of producing more domestic, climate friendly food and energy.

Creating Canopy: the biology and practice of establishing trees and woodlands for people and nature

We need more woodland for people to enjoy, for nature, to sustain our timber security and to help reduce the impact of climate change.

Net zero: agriculture and carbon (AHDB)

Net zero is not just about emissions, it's also about balancing the amount of greenhouse gas released with the amount removed across your entire farm business.

All things carbon

You are invited to join us for this winter meeting at David Fuller-Shapcotts Sweethope Farm.

How do tillage, grazing and crop type affect soil carbon?

Healthy, well-managed soils support productive and healthy crops and pasture and allows for a profitable and resilient farming system.

Soils for Sequestration - Farm Carbon Toolkit

Improving soils by building soil organic matter is a win, win situation for everyone.

Talking Leaders: Rooted leadership

Join this online broadcast with Sean Cameron to learn about soil preservation techniques, carbon capture in agriculture, leadership and more.

Carbon Clinic

Get your carbon questions answered as FarmED delve into the world of soil carbon, sequestration, net zero and carbon credits.

WEBINAR: Carbon markets – a sequestration v food dilemma, or a big opportunity?

The UK’s carbon market

Understanding soil carbon

Soil carbon is a component of soil organic matter which derives from the deposition and incorporation of leaf litter, crop residues, plant material, dead roots and animal wastes. Approximately 58% of soil organic matter is carbon.

Farm Walk with Carbon Farmer of the Year Finalist, Craig Livingstone

We are delighted to be able to invite you to attend this Farm Walk to hear from the team at Lockerley Estate about how they are working to reduce farm-based emissions whilst storing more carbon into soils and non-crop biomass.

Green Finance Institute - Farming Toolkit

For Assessing Nature Market Opportunities

Carbon Stacking: What you need to know

There are lots of reasons for farmers to be interested in carbon markets, especially given the changing agricultural policy and push towards net zero as well as other potential benefits.

The Benefits of Carbon In Agriculture

From HillsGreen webinar on 3/2/2022 - In current times, carbon has become a buzzword. I

A high-level scoping review Farming, greenhouse gas emissions and carbon storage: cereals and oilseeds

AHDB Research Review No 94. 2020.  By Elizabeth Stockdale and Vera Eory This high-

About text formats
Write whatever you want here - this is the main section. You can add links, add pictures and embed videos. To paste text from elsewhere use CTRL+Shift+V to paste without formatting. Add videos by selecting 'Full HTML' below, copying the 'embed html' from the source page (eg Youtube), clicking 'Source' above and pasting where you want the video to appear.
You can upload an image here. It can be jpg, jpeg, gif or png format.
Upload requirements
File

You can upload a file here, such as a pdf report, or MS Office documents, Excel spreadsheet or Powerpoint Slides.

Upload requirements
Authors Order
Add Authors here - you can only add them if they already exist on PEP. Just start writing their name then select to add it. To add multiple authors click the 'Add another item' button below.

Please ensure that you have proof-read your content. Pages are not edited further once submitted and will go live immediately.

Configure the meta tags below.

Use tokens to avoid redundant meta data and search engine penalization. For example, a 'keyword' value of "example" will be shown on all content using this configuration, whereas using the [node:field_keywords] automatically inserts the "keywords" values from the current entity (node, term, etc).

Browse available tokens.
Basic tags

Simple meta tags.

The text to display in the title bar of a visitor's web browser when they view this page. This meta tag may also be used as the title of the page when a visitor bookmarks or favorites this page, or as the page title in a search engine result. It is common to append '[site:name]' to the end of this, so the site's name is automatically added. It is recommended that the title is no greater than 55 - 65 characters long, including spaces.
A brief and concise summary of the page's content, preferably 150 characters or less. Where as the description meta tag may be used by search engines to display a snippet about the page in search results, the abstract tag may be used to archive a summary about the page. This meta tag is no longer supported by major search engines.
Advanced

Meta tags that might not be needed by many sites.

Geo-spatial information in 'latitude; longitude' format, e.g. '50.167958; -97.133185'; see Wikipedia for details.
Geo-spatial information in 'latitude, longitude' format, e.g. '50.167958, -97.133185'; see Wikipedia for details.
Robots
A comma-separated list of keywords about the page. This meta tag is used as an indicator in Google News.
Highlight standout journalism on the web, especially for breaking news; used as an indicator in Google News. Warning: Don't abuse it, to be used a maximum of 7 times per calendar week!
This meta tag communicates with Google. There are currently two directives supported: 'nositelinkssearchbox' to not to show the sitelinks search box, and 'notranslate' to ask Google not to offer a translation of the page. Both options may be added, just separate them with a comma. See meta tags that Google understands for further details.
Used to rate content for audience appropriateness. This tag has little known influence on search engine rankings, but can be used by browsers, browser extensions, and apps. The most common options are general, mature, restricted, 14 years, safe for kids. If you follow the RTA Documentation you should enter RTA-5042-1996-1400-1577-RTA
Indicate to search engines and other page scrapers whether or not links should be followed. See the W3C specifications for further details.
Sets a cookie on the visitor's browser. Can be in either NAME=VALUE format, or a more verbose format including the path and expiration date; see the link for full details on the syntax.
Tell search engines when to index the page again. Very few search engines support this tag, it is more useful to use an XML Sitemap file.
Control when the browser's internal cache of the current page should expire. The date must to be an RFC-1123-compliant date string that is represented in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), e.g. 'Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:12:56 GMT'. Set to '0' to stop the page being cached entirely.
Open Graph

The Open Graph meta tags are used to control how Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other social networking sites interpret the site's content.

The Facebook Sharing Debugger lets you preview how your content will look when it's shared to Facebook and debug any issues with your Open Graph tags.

The URL of an image which should represent the content. The image must be at least 200 x 200 pixels in size; 600 x 316 pixels is a recommended minimum size, and for best results use an image least 1200 x 630 pixels in size. Supports PNG, JPEG and GIF formats. Should not be used if og:image:url is used. Note: if multiple images are added many services (e.g. Facebook) will default to the largest image, not specifically the first one. Multiple values may be used, separated by a comma. Note: Tokens that return multiple values will be handled automatically. This will be able to extract the URL from an image field if the field is configured properly.
The URL of an video which should represent the content. For best results use a source that is at least 1200 x 630 pixels in size, but at least 600 x 316 pixels is a recommended minimum. Object types supported include video.episode, video.movie, video.other, and video.tv_show. Multiple values may be used, separated by a comma. Note: Tokens that return multiple values will be handled automatically.
A alternative version of og:image and has exactly the same requirements; only one needs to be used. Multiple values may be used, separated by a comma. Note: Tokens that return multiple values will be handled automatically. This will be able to extract the URL from an image field if the field is configured properly.
The secure URL (HTTPS) of an image which should represent the content. The image must be at least 200 x 200 pixels in size; 600 x 316 pixels is a recommended minimum size, and for best results use an image least 1200 x 630 pixels in size. Supports PNG, JPEG and GIF formats. Multiple values may be used, separated by a comma. Note: Tokens that return multiple values will be handled automatically. This will be able to extract the URL from an image field if the field is configured properly. Any URLs which start with "http://" will be converted to "https://".
The type of image referenced above. Should be either 'image/gif' for a GIF image, 'image/jpeg' for a JPG/JPEG image, or 'image/png' for a PNG image. Note: there should be one value for each image, and having more than there are images may cause problems.
The date this content was last modified, with an optional time value. Needs to be in ISO 8601 format. Can be the same as the 'Article modification date' tag.
Links an article to an author's Facebook profile, should be either URLs to the author's profile page or their Facebook profile IDs. Multiple values may be used, separated by a comma. Note: Tokens that return multiple values will be handled automatically.
The date this content was published on, with an optional time value. Needs to be in ISO 8601 format.
The date this content was last modified, with an optional time value. Needs to be in ISO 8601 format.
The date this content will expire, with an optional time value. Needs to be in ISO 8601 format.
Twitter Cards

A set of meta tags specially for controlling the summaries displayed when content is shared on Twitter.

Notes:
  • no other fields are required for a Summary card
  • Photo card requires the 'image' field
  • Media player card requires the 'title', 'description', 'media player URL', 'media player width', 'media player height' and 'image' fields,
  • Summary Card with Large Image card requires the 'Summary' field and the 'image' field,
  • Gallery Card requires all the 'Gallery Image' fields,
  • App Card requires the 'iPhone app ID' field, the 'iPad app ID' field and the 'Google Play app ID' field,
  • Product Card requires the 'description' field, the 'image' field, the 'Label 1' field, the 'Data 1' field, the 'Label 2' field and the 'Data 2' field.
A description that concisely summarizes the content of the page, as appropriate for presentation within a Tweet. Do not re-use the title text as the description, or use this field to describe the general services provided by the website. The string will be truncated, by Twitter, at the word to 200 characters.
By default Twitter tracks visitors when a tweet is embedded on a page using the official APIs. Setting this to 'on' will stop Twitter from tracking visitors.
The URL to a unique image representing the content of the page. Do not use a generic image such as your website logo, author photo, or other image that spans multiple pages. Images larger than 120x120px will be resized and cropped square based on longest dimension. Images smaller than 60x60px will not be shown. If the 'type' is set to Photo then the image must be at least 280x150px. This will be able to extract the URL from an image field if the field is configured properly.
The MIME type for the media contained in the stream URL, as defined by RFC 4337.