Carbon is a “hot topic” in an age of Climate Change (pun intended). That is playing out in unique ways in the agricultural sector. On the negative side, fossil carbon emissions are driving the extreme climate events that are adding to the already significant economic risks of farming. But on the positive side plants have a carbon-related “super power.” Photosynthesis allows them to use solar energy to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. That enables at least four carbon-related categories of value creation for the farm economy:1. The normal Carbon Cycle (carbon that made your lunch…)2. Carbon Substitution (carbon that made your container…), and3. Carbon Sequestration (carbon that is taken out of the loop…)4. Fuels with reduced “Carbon Intensity” (carbon that drove your car/truck…)1) The Normal Carbon Cycle – carbon that made your lunch.When the carbon captured and stored by crops in food or feed is metabolized, it is released back into the atmosphere
Carbon is a "hot topic" today, but plants can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and that enables four carbon related categories of value creation for farms