Review of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action White Paper on Building a Scientific Roadmap to a Carbon-Negative Agricultural System (2024) / Chapter Skim
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2 Committee Review of a Draft White Paper on Building a Scientific Roadmap to a Carbon-Negative Agricultural System
2 Committee Review of a Draft White Paper on Building a Scientific Roadmap to a Carbon-Negative Agricultural System
Pages 4-14
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From page 4... ...
Financial incentives that are likely to influence adopting practices that sequester carbon or reduce GHG emissions is an important topic, but the paper can place the detailed analysis of the monitoring, reporting, and verification challenges of soil carbon markets as out of scope for its analysis. The authors might reference literature as the basis of assumptions about adoption, or 4
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From page 5... ...
The tone, level of technical detail, and nature of the treatment varies significantly by chapter, sometimes presenting a scholarly review and documentation of GHG mitigation issues and sometimes advancing practical recommendations of specific procedures to mitigate net emissions. The articulation of the scientific roadmap or priorities is vague in places, so a revision with a common chapter structure would be beneficial.
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From page 6... ...
In particular, the chapter on soil carbon sequestration outlines the approach to equilibrium and saturation characteristics but otherwise offers no acknowledgment in the introduction, goal statement, and final summary that these contributions will not persist forever. A better treatment of the time dimension of the document's goal would improve its content.
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From page 7... ...
Across the chapters, substantial challenges are not mentioned -- such as incentive design, measurement and monitoring, additionality, permanence, leakage, uncertainty, transactions costs, stimulating adoption, and the nonstationary context introduced by climate change. It might strengthen the white paper's case if the social cost of carbon were introduced as a measure of social damages that motivate efforts to control net GHG emissions by providing incentives that reward farmers for using some emissions-reducing practices, whether through markets, subsidies, or other incentives.
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From page 8... ...
. The white paper also cites several publications that give overly rosy assessments of soil carbon sequestration potential.
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From page 9... ...
Increased crop residues would then potentially lead to greater soil carbon sequestration. However, closing yield gaps may not necessarily always increase inputs of carbon to the soil in proportion to the increased crop yield or reduce net GHG emissions by any other means.
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From page 10... ...
The chapter would also be strengthened by including information on reducing uncertainty in measuring, monitoring, and modeling soil organic carbon accrual. The chapter might emphasize interdisciplinary approaches in soil carbon management research.
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From page 11... ...
Furthermore, the trend toward insect-based feeds, although in early stages now, is not considered. However, it could have a positive impact in terms of low GHG emissions and being able to consume food and feeds that are currently wasted and contribute to methane production.
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From page 12... ...
The feasibility of moving wastes back to more distant fields also raises issues of transport costs, as uncertain, varying year-to-year waste supplies may compromise the potential of a continuous compost operation. Chapter 7 might be reorganized to address basic mechanisms, such as 1)
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From page 13... ...
Assumptions on the extent of adoption on crop land and grazing lands are especially tenuous, given the heterogeneity in farm sizes and management extent and low-input nature of most western grazing agriculture. The soil carbon assumptions for crops and pasture/range are not very credible.
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From page 14... ...
Carbon Markets. https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/ USDA-General-Assessment-of-the-Role-of-Agriculture-and-Forestry-in-US-Carbon-Markets.pdf (accessed 06/01/2024)
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