Bright Endeavors Now (BEN) located in Tanzania, East Africa was started by Biology professor Dr. Regina Herbert, PhD and her husband, an Electrical Engineer, Ricardo R. Herbert, MUP, MBA.
The BEN program provides an environment where budding engineers, designers, scientists and doctors are introduced to concepts in the sciences, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), through engaging, developmentally-appropriate activities.
Here’s a story from our friends at Kiss the Ground about regenerative southwest wheat farmer Yadi Wang at Oatman Flats Ranch home of Regenerate AZ 2023. He is working on a seemingly impossible mission to transform a degraded oat farm into the first large-scale, regenerative farm in one of the hottest and driest climates in the country, Arizona.
[IMAGE: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1615053835734-7752878e939e] Credit: Unsplash
Regulatory initiatives have developed carbon trading prospects to combat carbon emissions, providing specific industries with an “allowance” for each tonne of carbon dioxide they emit annually, known as carbon credits. This initial allocation of carbon credits can be free of charge, and businesses are presented with more opportunities to buy or sell carbon credits. Companies with reduced carbon emissions can sell their excess carbon credits to participants who have increased emissions— forming the carbon market.
A feature on global issues by Maryville University notes that emissions of greenhouse gases must be halved by 2030 to avoid a climate catastrophe. However, global economies representing 90% of all such emissions have yet to commit to cutting carbon outputs at sufficient rates to meet this goal. Through the formation of the carbon market, businesses and organizations may be more incentivized to cut down on carbon emissions through the use of carbon offsets. These voluntary schemes come from groups that already have active carbon reduction plans, aiding buyers to work toward carbon neutrality by reducing emissions elsewhere.
As more governments, businesses, and organizations join the carbon market, individuals and smaller organizations can find it difficult to purchase emission-reducing carbon credits. Furthermore, the voluntary carbon market often lacks transparency and quality control, so there is a greater need for more accountability to open up new markets. As shared in a review on blockchain solutions by One Earth, blockchain technology has become a means to improve the integrity and accessibility of carbon markets. Because it’s a publicly available record and a third-party intermediary is absent, it can avoid ambiguity over ownership and double counting emissions reductions while reducing administrative costs across the system.
These unique processes can streamline and accelerate the carbon market digitally, allowing organizations and individuals to meet their carbon footprint reduction goals much sooner. Furthermore, the global economy may become more efficient and effective in supporting climate action as funding is distributed more transparently.
Many are aware that agriculture, especially animal agriculture, greatly contributes to carbon emissions. However, the development of soil carbon capture systems and farming practices such as regenerative agriculture has significantly reduced agricultural emissions, even lowering existing carbon emission levels through soil carbon sequestration. Our post “How microBIOMETER® Changed the Farming Practice of a Syntropic Farmer” shares how regenerative agriculture is kept up sustainably: soil maintenance is regularly monitored through soil microbial count and the use of natural soil supplements, promoting soil development to capture carbon effectively. These methods prevent soil desertification and provide a great opportunity for farmers to turn climate-friendly agricultural practices into carbon credits.
Companies like NORI establish carbon markets in support of regenerative agricultural practices that perform as carbon removal solutions. A third-party validator measures land management practices and crop data to assess the impact of a farmer’s regenerative practices, providing credibility and transparency to how much carbon can be removed per contribution. Through the reliability of the blockchain system, the carbon market is sure to flourish, granting more people the freedom to make a positive environmental impact.
Written by Sophia Logan for microbiometer.com
Source: Ben Taylor-Davies Twitter
Ben Taylor-Davies, also known as Regen Ben, is a farmer and bioagri-ecologist working from Herefordshire in the UK. His farm is based in Ross-on-Wye and has been focused on environmental improvements for the past 22 years. His work includes creating 12km of new hedges with 6m of pollen and nectar or ground bird nesting margins around every field as well as working on river meadow restoration.
Following a Nuffield scholarship in 2016 and the opportunity to travel the world (USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, South Africa, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, Singapore and Australia), Ben was intrigued by the regenerative agriculture movement which very much complimented the environmental work he was doing back on his own farm. When discussing these soil health focused farming methods with clients as an agronomist, it struck a chord with many of them too; the future of agriculture and real farm sustainability.
Ben came across microBIOMETER® in 2019 and found it an incredibly useful tool in benchmarking clients farms in order to start monitoring change in what they were doing. The real time results offered by microBIOMETER® provides Ben with full control over how, where and when he takes readings. Ben uses his microBIOMETER® readings in conjunction with the What3words app which allows him to accurately repeat measurements in subsequent years in order to build a picture of successes and failures.
Sometimes the wisdom we need to build a great future is buried in the past. Regenerative agriculture isn’t an entirely new concept, it’s actually more of a return to the wisdom of farmers from days gone by. What’s old is new again and its popularity is spreading around the globe like a prairie fire.
While regenerative agriculture gives a well-earned nod to the past, its relationship with science and technology allows it to effectively transform the way we currently grow food. microBIOMETER®, with their customers all around the world, are leading the way with technology that shows farmers when their soil health practices are working and when they are not.
“I believe biological agriculture is the way to regenerate and create more resilient soil that will supply nutrients and higher immunity to the plants. This is why microBIOMETER® has become an invaluable asset to my soil management efforts.” ~ Marcelo Chiappetta of Chiapeta Empresa Agricola in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Creating healthy soil may take the wisdom of generations of farmers, but microBIOMETER® supplies the knowledge farmers need to best manage potential outcomes.
Katharhy G. is an agroecosystem and ethnoscience researcher who traveled to Ecuador to investigate the relationship between microbial biomass and crop health, as well as to study the local indigenous agriculture practices.
He visited 28 different farms growing 15 different crops. 14 of these farms are practicing conventional farming, while the other 14 farms are practicing indigenous regenerative farming. Most sites are not receiving irrigation. He tested the soil with microBIOMETER® and ranked the crop health as poor (1), average (2), good (3), excellent (4).
As the graph shows, microbial biomass correlated with crop health under all these different conditions. Samples with microbial biomass lower than 225 were all poor (1) and samples above 400 were all excellent.
The take home lesson is that to improve your plant health and yield, increase your microbial biomass by feeding your microbes with organic amendments.
If you have microBIOMETER® research data you’d like to share with us, please contact us. We would love to share it with our readers!
Contact:. ka*******@***il.com
