Carbon Sink Incentive Program
In June 2022, Foodshed launched San Diego’s first Carbon Sink Incentive Program. With this pilot program, Foodshed is incentivizing at the point of purchase the adoption and/or ongoing carbon farming practices in 15 soil-based farms for food production in their network. Farmers receive a higher premium payment (5% to 15%) for their produce based on their level of engagement in the program.
Foodshed believes soil health is the key to a thriving local food system, it is the infrastructure from which a myriad of co-benefits can be cultivated. Recognizing healthy soil as vital public infrastructure they've uncovered an urgent need to measure the impact of carbon farming for the sake of our own stewardship as well as to communicate effectively with local policymakers. These parallel needs have encouraged them to develop data collection and assessment tools that really work for farmers. They are currently using these tools to gather baseline data and are ready to scale up their use.
For their seasonal soil health assessments, in addition to some of the quantified results from traditional micro and macronutrients soil lab tests, Foodshed integrated Solvita (Basal Soil Respiration) test for measuring soil respiration in fresh soil samples and microBIOMETER®, as microbes are excellent predictors of soil health.
"microBIOMETER® is an invaluable tool to help us understand our soil’s biology and it’s capacity to integrate nutrients, hold water, increase biodiversity, and strengthen the microbial community."
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