We actually need a lot of similar studies. I had long since come to similar conclusions, but this is one is important because it shows us that it works for cows. That was unexpected here. The actual buildup in soil quality offsets the measured loss of carbon.
The future of modern agriculture is an integrated organic model with ample power assistance that picks up where we left of with the horse. This side trip into monoculture and massive equipment has its place but not as a continuing practice anywhere because of the danger of soil degradation.
The natural repopulation of the land has already started although it has not really been properly sorted out yet. That is what this blog is all about.
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Organic Farming Can Save Us from Global Warming, Climate Change
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2015/05/04/organic-farming-can-save-us-from-global-warming-climate-change/arming, Climate Change
Heather Callaghan, Contributor
Organic farming can reverse the agriculture ecosystem from a carbon source to a carbon sink.
Nothing in this article is meant to argue any of the nuances surrounding climate change/global warming. None. Of. The nuances.
In fact, a handful of Chinese researchers went with the current climate
change premise – and discovered pleasant results that can put many
fears aside.
If going on the basis that greenhouse gas emissions are devastating
the Earth, and that 35% of them come from agriculture; then we’re
actually creating more problems by allowing Big Biotech, GMOs and
exponential pesticide/chemical fertilizer use to spread unchecked. Based
on this premise, these methods create more carbon release.
Interestingly, organic farming turns that carbon source into a “carbon sink,” which means it absorbs more carbon than it releases.
CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS
From Science China Press:
To mitigate GHG emissions and retain soil fertility, organic agriculture might be a wise choice for decreasing the intensive use of synthetic fertilizers, protecting environments, and further improving crop yields. Recent research showed that replacing chemical fertilizer with organic manure significantly decreased the emission of GHGs. Organic farming can reverse the agriculture ecosystem from a carbon source to a carbon sink.
To explore the potential of farmlands acting as a carbon sink without yield losses, Jiang Gaoming, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Botany, conducted an experiment on a temperate eco-farm in eastern rural China. Crop residues were applied to cattle feed and the composted cattle manure was returned to cropland with a winter wheat and maize rotation. Crop yield and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were carefully calculated according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories 2006.
The end results?
This study showed that replacing chemical fertilizer with organic manure significantly decreased the emission of GHGs. Yields of wheat and corn also increased as the soil fertility was improved by the application of cattle manure.
Totally replacing chemical fertilizer with organic manure decreased GHG emissions, which reversed the agriculture ecosystem from a carbon source (+ 2.7 t CO2-eq. hm-2 yr-1) to a carbon sink (- 8.8 t CO2-eq. hm-2 yr-1).
A previous study
from China placed synthetic nitrogen fertilizer as a big culprit for
GHG. Although they acknowledge its usefulness in agriculture, they also
acknowledge the eco-side effects as well as their primary role as the
world’s biggest purveyor of N fertilizer. When the study above used
nothing but chemical fertilizer, researchers found much less yield, more GHG as well as degradation of soil quality.
They
find that making full use of crop residues as forage for cattle,
collecting and composting cattle manure, and replacing part of the
chemical fertilizer input with organic manure have been successfully
shown to be ideal choices to reduce energy waste and cut GHG emissions
without crop yield losses.
If their conclusions are correct, then this is just one more way to
solve not only the big fear induced on the globe by notions of climate
change (i.e. global warming), but also dispels myths of “not enough”
resources to feed the world. And that can also quell manufactured fears
of overpopulation.
With hope, this study dissipates insidious and malicious attempts by
psychopaths to further acceptance of unnatural depopulation plans. It’s
time to do away with psychopathic and false Malthusian theories which
pave the way for untold suffering and incredible austerity. If there were an
actual population problem, it would be remedied by raising living
standards, using better food production techniques and allowing for its
access – not by suppression (which tends to explode population). Don’t
believe the psychopaths – no one needs to be “thrown from the boat.”
[ fairly strong words here yet i fully support the sentiment. I know that the surface of the Earth can easily support 100 billion people provided they all lend a hand to operate organic gardens. This study shows us that using cattle in particular actually creates a carbon sink as well. arclein ]
The likes of Monsanto and DuPont love to use scarcity to scare people
into acquiescence, claiming that they are the hunger saviors of the
world. Not only has the opposite been shown by them in the last 20
years, but their methods are actually destroying those resources that
they bank on being so rare.
What if the world knew the truth?
Haitao Liu, J.L., Xiao Li, Yanhai Zheng, Sufei Feng, Gaoming Jiang. 2015. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions through replacement of chemical fertilizer with organic manure in a temperate farmland. Science Bulletin, 60(6), 598-606.
Science China Press
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