Episode 213: Courtney White on Carbon

How is farming tied to carbon and how does carbon keep life on earth possible? Find out on a very elemental and scientific episode of The Farm Report as host Erin Fairbanks is joined by Courtney White, the author of Grass, Soil, Hope. A former archaeologist and Sierra Club activist, White dropped out of the ‘conflict industry’ in 1997 to co-found the Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to building bridges between ranchers, conservationists, public land managers, scientists, and others around the idea of land health. On today’s show, Courtney explains what makes carbon such an essential part of the soil (and the earth) and introduces some alternative methods of farming that could help bring more carbon into our soil. The answer is biological farming – not chemical farming, and Courtney makes a clear case for out of the box thinking when it comes to our land and soil. Tune in and learn about the real issues in the ground and on the minds of sustainable agricultural thinkers everywhere. This program was brought to you by Cain Vineyard & Winery. “How carbon gets cycled is extremely important to maintaining life on this planet!” [02:45] “We want biological farming not chemical farming.” [05:16] “If we want to store more carbon we have to stop killing the fungi in the soil.” [07:36] “If you have a practice that increases plant vigor and makes plants happy, you’re storing more carbon in the soil.” [12:40] “Changes start in the margin, ideas start on the outside and move in over time…but how do you get them to speed up that journey to the center? That’s tough. We need policy changes and we have such a dysfunctional political system right now” [20:42] –Courtney White on The Farm ReportSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.