Ag leaders are assessing the odds of agriculture becoming carbon neutral by midcentury.
To be designated as such, agriculture would have to make no net releases of carbon dioxide into the air – in other words, the amount you release into the atmosphere is equal to the amount you remove from it. The recent Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Summit heard experts agree row crop conservation practices and reducing methane and nitrous oxide in animal agriculture can sequester and reduce CO2.
However, putting carbon back in the soil is expensive requiring a change in practices.
This may also require incentives to overcome up-front costs to producers. Time, as always, will tell. A big advantage ag has to begin with is it isn’t fossil fuel based.
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