Sequesting carbon

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Befuddled by the clip. Financial responsibility, or moral/ environmental ?
clip to illustrate how utterly futile carbon sequestering projects currently are.

I think through how to try and do my bit, balancing it against my own interests....
meanwhile, somewhere in Asia, using 50 year + nuts and bolts tech, a load of semi-skilled machinery operators are scalping the surface of the earth for dirty fossil fuels at the fastest rate they possibly can.
Just look at the slickness of the operation.....
(and remember this is chicken feed compared to Western operations....)

We buy, every feckin one of us, the cheapo products they're building their economy on.
Each and every one of us.

There is no hope whatsoever of reining this behaviour, unless I wholly misunderstand human phycology
 

delilah

Member
You can't count it twice.
Surely if you sell carbon credits you can't then use that in your own calculations as well. A trap to beware of.

sorry, perhaps 'two sides of the same coin' wasn't the phrase I was after. What I am saying is that net zero is a trap, and we can't go down the line of selling carbon credits without being drawn into the whole net zero thing, which makes carbon credits a trap too. In shorthand, it's all bollox.
 

delilah

Member
Does anyone else think we need a moratorium on carbon credits ? As said up thread, it is as fundamental and wide ranging, with as much potential for unintended consequences, as GE. If GE is subject to a national debate then should selling carbon credits not be ?
 

delilah

Member
Firstly what's GE?

Secondly do you think anyone cares what farmers think about carbon credits?

Gene editing.
Well, our elected representatives care about GE, hence they are debating it in parliament. I am suggesting that carbon trading is equally in need of scrutiny, at the moment it appears to be taking off in a legislative vacuum.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
even if your farming following regenerative practices doesn’t mean you have excess carbon to sell surely? What were your carbon tool kit results?

yes it does, we are storing and sequestering carbon - and we are selling it now

its not just about carbon though as that’s simply a race to the bottom
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
It's only Monday and that gets prize for honest answer of the week lol.
Red Tractor was going to make you money. A penny extra on your milk was going to make you money. There's a long list of where farmers needed protecting from themselves.

well gentle farming asks me for no money - it sells what I have and takes a cut


if it sells nothing it costs nothings, the market determines the value


wonder if RT and the NFU would be prepared to work on the same basis ?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Am I right in saying that this currently happens in a legislative vacuum ? Are there any rules other than those agreed between buyer and seller ?

happy buyers and happy sellers is all a market needs

not sure there is need for legislation, let the markets decide
 

delilah

Member
not sure there is need for legislation, let the market s decide

Would you apply the same argument to GE ? Hormones in beef ?

If you are selling carbon credits then you are committing your business to the NFU target of net zero, yes ?
You can't, presumably, sell credits without knowing you have them to spare, which means knowing which side of the line you are with regards zero ?
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Would you apply the same argument to GE ? Hormones in beef ?

If you are selling carbon credits then you are committing your business to the NFU target of net zero, yes ?
You can't, presumably, sell credits without knowing you have them to spare, which means knowing which side of the line you are with regards zero ?


no - a debate needs to be had about. new technologies like GE that could have wider consequences

Most farms are carbon negative as long as you start the accounting process at the right point and apply consistently, especially those that do not cultivate soil

for example the C footprint of synthetic N is not mine, its Yara’s the producer or are we saying YARA (Europe biggest gas buyer) has no carbon footprint? 🤣🤣🤣

if you push the footprint of synthetic N onto my business (ridiculously !) then to be consistent i can push it on to my customers .......

what doesn’t happen is we let all the carbon footprint get pushed onto farmers and then not pushed onto consumers............ we can rely upon our leadership to make sure of this cant we .........

meanwhile thousands of acres are pulling C from our atmosphere and locking it away in soils im not releasing that through oxidation but turning it into SOM .......... what other industry is doing this ? we are in a unique position
 
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delilah

Member
no - a debate needs to be had about. new technologies like GE that could have wider consequences

My point really. Can we say that an individual farmer selling carbon credits is going to have no wider consequences, on the industry as a whole, on the environment, on society ? I don't think we can because we haven't had the debate.

Most farms are carbon negative as long as you start the accounting process at the right point and apply consistently, especially those that do not cultivate soil

Agreed. On that basis the NFU can scrap their net zero by 2040 thing, because we are already there.
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
no - a debate needs to be had about. new technologies like GE that could have wider consequences

Most farms are carbon negative as long as you start the accounting process at the right point and apply consistently, especially those that do not cultivate soil

for example the C footprint of synthetic N is not mine, its Yara’s the producer or are we saying YARA (Europe biggest gas buyer) has no carbon footprint? 🤣🤣🤣

if you push the footprint of synthetic N onto my business (ridiculously !) then to be consistent i can push it on to my customers .......

what doesn’t happen is we let all the carbon footprint get pushed onto farmers and then not pushed onto consumers............ we can rely upon or leadership to make sure of this cant we .........

meanwhile thousands of acres are pulling C from out atmosphere and im not releasing that through oxidation bit turning it into SOM
This is the thing though isn't it? Any allocation of responsibilty needs to be fair. Yara have to take some of the blame for the N they produce but they shouldn't take all of it. Equally farmers can't absolve themselves of all responsibility because we COULD use only organic N, but ultimately the consumer has to shoulder the blame because it's them that's demanding the product. But again, they could for instance choose organic for whatever reason. But I suppose I've ended up arguing for a carbon tax that would be applied like VAT is currently but with it on food at the end of the chain. Oops.

And of course this is a waaaay bigger subject than merely food. The fossil fuel companies are being blamed for everything too but they are simply meeting a demand.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 29 16.3%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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