Beyond the carbon buzz - by Ariel Patton - Topsoil

Over the past several years, there has been an overwhelming emphasis on one little element in agriculture – carbon. More specifically, storing carbon in soils through agricultural practices to combat climate change and provide a host of other benefits. While carbon sequestration is an exciting starting point, it captures one small slice of how agriculture interacts with the environment – the living, breathing, complex ecosystem made up of land, water, air, billions of organisms and human communities. For the past 12,000 years since humans started farming, agriculture has been one of the most significant ways that humans shape the environment. In the past 200 years alone, the human population has experienced exponential growth that any start-up would envy, growing from 1 billion people to 8 billion people. To enable this population rocket ship, the demands on agriculture have also had explosive growth. Beyond simply feeding 8 billion people, we rely on agriculture for other products lik

Over the past several years, there has been an overwhelming emphasis on one little element in agriculture – carbon. More specifically, storing carbon in soils through agricultural practices to combat climate change and provide a host of other benefits. While carbon sequestration is an exciting starting point, it captures one small slice of how agriculture interacts with the environment – the living, breathing, complex ecosystem made up of land, water, air, billions of organisms and human communities. For the past 12,000 years since humans started farming, agriculture has been one of the most s