Editor’s note: This commentary is by Stephen Leslie, co-owner of Cedar Mountain Farm and Cobb Hill Cheese in Hartland. He is the author of “The New Horse-Powered Farm” and “Horse-Powered Farming for the 21st Century,” both from Chelsea Green Publishing.
Farmers everywhere are on the frontline of climate change. I began farming in the Upper Valley in 1996. As a dairy and vegetable farmer, I have seen my crops and livestock subject to the increasing stressors of a changing climate. We experience more extreme droughts and precipitation events and less predictable growing seasons. New insect and plant diseases are proliferating in our region.
We can salute the current Legislature for bringing forward climate initiatives such as the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) and Vermont Green Deal and applaud the lieutenant governor for placing the climate crisis front and center of his newly announced campaign — but we must point out that their focus on transportation and energy efficiency is short-sighted. For a rural state like Vermont, land management represents a huge opportunity to mitigate and heal the environmental crisis. The agricultural and forestry sectors are crucial to the solutions and must be included in any comprehensive legislation addressing climate change.
We can improve farm income and help save the planet by leveraging the state to pay incentives to land managers who use “best practices” to sequester carbon, protect air and water quality, reduce pesticide use, and transition from fossil fuels.
The dairy sector occupies the majority of agricultural land in the state of Vermont and is by far the most important sector in economic terms. The working landscape is also a major asset of the tourism sector — which is the leading economic driver of our state’s economy. Dairy farmers should be given viable options to diversify, reduce the number of cows and grow crops such as hemp, medicinal and culinary herbs, and commodity foods such as grain and legumes for humans instead of livestock. The aim of all these incentives should be to reestablish a regional food system. Consumers should be able to buy a full-diet of food grown within 100 miles of where they live — no more California lettuce coming to us on jet planes — but rather healthy organic and bio-regionally produced food — eaten with the seasons.
Even if we were to halt all greenhouse gas emissions today the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will continue to rise for centuries because of how much has already been absorbed by the oceans. As we slow down emissions the oceans will release CO2 in a process of equilibration. We must halt emissions but of equal importance is the restoration of our soil reserves worldwide. The most prevalent greenhouse gas is water vapor. There is a fixed amount of water on this planet.
Through 10,000 years of soil degradation we have desertified half of the planet’s terrestrial surface and hugely diminished the soil’s capacity to hold water. The only way to safely draw down and cool the planet is to rebuild the soil carbon sponge. Building the sponge not only sequesters 3-10 tons of carbon per acre, it also naturally cools the environment by stabilizing the earth’s hydrologic systems by which she has maintained a livable habitat for increasingly complex life forms for 130 years. Building the sponge creates resilience for our food systems and also mitigates the damage of flooding and drought. It is the single most important task we can undertake to save humanity and all other species from the ravages of abrupt climate disruption.
The USDA, land grant colleges, and NGOs should promote the concept of the soil carbon sponge as a pivotal component to drawdown and restoration of the Earth’s natural cooling hydrologic capacities. Teaching the theory and practice of these concepts to all land managers is crucial.
The very best way to sequester carbon and establish food security is to promote regenerative farming practices among every society around the globe. If every individual human being, and every village, town, municipality and city on this planet were dedicated to creating more topsoil through the promotion of small-scale sustainable agriculture we could sequester all the carbon we need to cool and heal the environment, provide meaningful employment and feed all the Earth’s people.
Agriculture has been part and parcel of the destruction of the natural world — but it doesn’t have to be so. Vermonters can lead the way by embracing regenerative restorative practices. It is really important to emphasize that we aren’t just talking about farmland and wood lots. Every citizen relies on soil and so every one of us should be incentivized to become caretakers of the land — no piece of land is too small or insignificant to be worthy of reparation and restoration. We need full citizen participation to create food security and restore bio-diversity.
Key leverage points for a just transition in agriculture:
— Reward farmers for ecological services. This isn’t only cleaner air, water, and carbon sequestration in soil — the production of nutrient dense food is an ecological service.
— Establish price parity for farm products to ensure that every farmer and farmworker can earn a living wage.
— Institute regional supply management of farm products to keep pricing fair and to prevent industry from forcing out small producers.
— Divert funds that the state currently pays to subsidize tourism to build worker-owned milk bottling plants, artisanal value-added creameries, distilleries, hemp processing, community food processing centers, and more enterprises tied to the local food, fiber, and forest harvests.
— Institute land reform for resettling of climate refugees (many of whom are farmers) and to ensure young farmers have access to arable land.
— Establish cooperative markets and food marketing hubs.
— Establish biofuel farms to supply regional needs for transitioning tractors off of gas and diesel. Biofuel farms will serve as energy hubs for each region to supply regional farms with fuel for converted tractors. Only biofuels that can be grown to balance out as carbon neutral will be used.
— Create incentives for electric tractors. Create incentives for electric tractors to be shared between farms.
— Promote draft animal technology. Draft animal power can play a significant role again on farms, in the forest, and in local transport of goods and services.
