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Why Soil?

Let's start with the main character of this whole story, soil. There are only five pools where carbon is stored on planet earth: the atmosphere, biosphere, ocean, fossil and the soil pool. As you probably know, this cycle is far from balanced. Thankfully, the answer is literally right under our feet. The easiest and most cost-effective way to store excess carbon is by putting it into our soil. Through photosynthesis, carbon gets sequestered into the soil and with regenerative agricultural practices, it stays there for good.

A short video explaining the importance of soil, narrated by Michael Pollan.

Carbon - let's turn the bad into good.

Today’s industrialised food system subsidizes practices that degrade soil, release carbon, deplete nutrients, and mistreat animals and resources. Between agriculture, deforestation, food processing, storage, manufacturing, and waste, the food system accounts for one-third of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe).

The ZFPA Restore Fund - money pooled and raised by restaurants and food businesses; gives farmers, ranchers, and those practicing regenerative agriculture not only the food sovereignty they need to help mend a disconnected food system, but through simply applying more holistic and regenerative farming principles, farmers can also help us solve climate change via the method of soil carbon sequestration.

If we systematically kill soil with chemicals and plowing (extractive/conventional agriculture), it will emit shit tons of carbon and continue to lose nutrients. But if we compost, plant cover crops, and incorporate grazers (renewable), the amount of microbial life in soil increases, draws down tons of carbon, and produces better food.

So carbon farming restores soil carbon which naturally pulls tons of carbon out of the atmosphere, brings soil back to life, and replenishes nutrients! Renewable farming practices allow us to work with nature, instead of against it.

If billions of hectares are changed, enough "bad" atmospheric carbon would become "good" healthy soil carbon to actually help solve the climate crisis.