Carbon farming is a term used to describe agricultural activity that is undertaken with an express desire to improve the levels of carbon in the atmosphere. Some approaches to carbon farming focus on reducing the output of carbon from agricultural activities. The term is also used to refer to agricultural activities conducted with the express intention of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to mitigate against climate change. Carbon is captured in the cells of living plants. At this stage, it can either be turned into another manufactured product, such as biofuel or biomass. This can be used by other processes or, in the case of charcoal, can be “sequestered” and plowed into the ground locking up the captured carbon. A range of land management, agricultural, and agroforestry techniques can be deployed with the intention of managing carbon.
The Carbon Cycle in Agriculture
Within the carbon cycle, there are a great many transactions taking place that exchange carbon...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bates, A. (2010). The biochar solution: Carbon farming and climate change. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.
Bruges, J., & Friese-Greene, D. (2010). The biochar debate: Charcoal’s potential to reverse climate change and build soil fertility. White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Carbon Credits Act. (2011). Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act, C2011A00101 No. 101, 2011. http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Series/C2011A00101/Amendments. Accessed 28 Sept 2018.
Ladygina, N., & Rineau, F. (2013). Biochar and soil biota. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Lal, R. (2004). Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security. Science, 304(5677), 1623–1627.
Lehmann, J., & Joseph, S. (2009). Biochar for environmental management: Science and technology. London: Earthscan.
Pretty, J., Farage, P., & Ball, A. (2005). Economic constraints to the adoption of carbon farming. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 85, 541–547.
Renwick, A., Ball, A. S., & Pretty, J. N. (2002). Economic, biological and policy constraints on the adoption of carbon farming in temperate regions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 360(1797), 1721–1740.
Stokes, C., & Howden, M. (2010). Adapting agriculture to climate change: Preparing Australian agriculture, forestry and fisheries for the future. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.
Taylor, P. (2010). The biochar revolution: Transforming agriculture & environment. Mount Evelyn: Global Publishing Group.
Tenenbaum, D. J. (2009). Biochar: Carbon mitigation from the ground up. Environmental Health Perspectives, 117(2), A70–A73.
van Oosterzee, P. (2012). The integration of biodiversity and climate change: A contextual assessment of the carbon farming initiative. Ecological Management & Restoration, 13(3), 238–244.
Wollenberg, E., Tapio-Bistrom, M.-L., Grieg-Gran, M., & Nihart, A. (2012). Climate change mitigation and agriculture. London: Earthscan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Harper, G. (2019). Carbon Farming. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_473
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_473
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1178-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1179-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities