If We Really Want to Sequester More Carbon, Agriculture Can’t Be Made the Enemy, Says Microbial Input Startup Locus

by Lauren Manning (Ag Funder News) ... Carbon sequestration is a phrase that’s becoming commonplace in the media, in food policy circles, and more recently around the dinner table. Put simply, Zorner says, carbon sequestration describes the process that plants use to absorb carbon from the air through photosynthesis, convert it to sugars that are used to create plant structural materials. Roughly 30% of the sugars are secreted into the soil surrounding to feed the plant microbiome. The microbiome surrounding the plant is just as important to the plant’s health and vitality as the human microbiome is to gut health.

As the microbes turn over or produce secretions, their bodies and secretions accumulate as organic matter and that contributes to a significant portion of organic matter in soil. The more organic matter in the soil, the healthier it will be. Healthy soil often resembles cottage cheese in texture, while degraded soil often feels dry and sandy.

Conventional farming practices like tilling disrupt this process, turning over the first foot of soil in most cases. This destroys microbial communities and releases carbon back into the atmosphere.

“We’d be better off if we didn’t disturb the soil,” Zorner says. “My view is that the way we are farming today is different than the way we farmed 50 years ago. People are beginning to appreciate that regenerative practices are important not only for carbon sequestration but for water conservation and minimizing soil erosion, too.”

Locus Ag recently released data showing that its microbial soil amendment product Rhizolizer helps treated plots pull up 121% more carbon into the soil than non-treated plots within a year, which is the largest impact any soil carbon tool as had to date according to the startup. The product also increases yields by as much as 43% for 25 crops.

The organic-certified product enhances the soil microbiome, maximizing root growth and foliar canopy, improving nutrient uptake and ultimately supercharging photosynthesis.

It also hopes to provide farmers with a new source of income down the road by helping them get paid to sequester more carbon in the carbon credit market through a program called CarbonNOW.

A similar initiative is popping up in the livestock world. The Western Sustainability Exchange partnered with a number of stakeholders to help farmers who adopt rotational grazing management practices find a way to sell carbon credits. Rotational grazing – also referred to as mob grazing, management intensive grazing, and holistic grazing – involves limiting cattle’s access to pasture so that they graze an area more uniformly while allowing recently grazed areas to rest.

“The way our product works is by making the microbiome more complete. Think about grass-fed cattle and all the manure that they deposit back onto the grass full of bacteria and microbes,” Zorner explains. “This feeds the plants and as the plants increase chlorophyll density, you increase photosynthesis, which increases fibrous root mass, which allows it to pump even more carbon into the soil and feed a lot more microbes. If you have more microbes in the soil, you have more carbon sequestration.”

Grass performs better and grows more consistently when it’s mowed compared to being left idle, he adds, often resulting in a weedy mess that stops growing at a certain point.

Biologics are a controversial and hotly debated new category of inputs among farmers. As Zorner notes, some refer to the new category of inputs as “inconsistent at best, snake oil at worst.” When approaching growers, he often begins by asking how many of them are serious skeptics about biologics potential.

In general, farmers have come under increasing scrutiny in the debate about reducing climate change. As the IPCC report highlights and Zorner underscores, however, farmers are one of our first lines of defense in the battle to put more carbon back in the ground.

“Agriculture is not the enemy here. Growers are stewards of the land. What drives them first is profitability, but they also want to be environmentally sustainable. So let’s understand the biology, how these processes work and give them tools to help them be even better stewards,” Zorner says. “What usually ends up happening in the process is that more sustainability means better yields, and better yields means more profit.” READ MORE

(Licensed dietician and nutritionist Diana)Rodgers believes that public authorities are missing the real villain. “Red meat is now under the spotlight as the worst thing we could possibly eat for our health and for the climate,” she says. “It’s completely being scapegoated for what processed food has done to our health and what monoculture, big food ag, chemical ag have done to our environment.” READ MORE