ActionAid
Eric Holt-Gimenez and Annie Shattuck. Smallholder Solutions to Hunger, Poverty and Climate Change. 2009.
EarthSave International
Noam Mohr. A New Global Warming Strategy: How Environmentalists Are Overlooking Vegetarianism as the Most Effective Tool Against Climate Change in Our Lifetimes. August 2005.
Environmental Working Group
Kari Hamerschlag. California’s Climate Change Policy Leaves Agriculture in the Dust: Major Missed Opportunities for Synergies in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. September 2009.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Climate Change Talks Should Include Farmers: Agriculture in Developing Countries Could Play Crucial Role in Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions. April 2009.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Wendy Mann, Leslie Lipper, Timm Tennigkeit, Nancy McCarthy, Giacomo Branca, and Keith Paustian. Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries: Options for Synergies. October 2009.
Greenpeace
Cool Farming: Climate Impacts of Agriculture and Mitigation Potential
By Jessica Bellarby, Bente Foereid, Astley Hastings and Pete Smith, 2008
Agriculture contributes significantly, both directly and indirectly, to GHG emissions. Direct emissions are mostly from soil and livestock while indirect emissions include GHGs from land conversion, chemicals, and fossil fuels. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soils and methane (CH4) emissions from enteric fermentation of cattle are the largest sources of emissions. (Report includes tables for specifics on emissions and mitigation potential.) These GHG emissions from agriculture are projected to increase with fertilizer use and meat consumption. Recent studies have questioned the sustainability of modern industrial agriculture, while considering, as a solution, a shift to farming practices that could provide large scale carbon sinks. Greenpeace promotes agriculture’s potential to contribute less to global GHG emissions, and even to mitigate climate change. Potential mitigation opportunities include: improved crop and grazing land management; restoration of organic soils for increased carbon sinks; improved water management; improved livestock management; increased efficiency in manufacture of fertilizers; and reduction in consumer demand for meat.
International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
The Role of Organic Agriculture in Mitigating Climate Change: A Scoping Study
By Johannes Kotschi and Karl Mueller-Saemann, 2004
While the agricultural sector is responsible for approximately 15 percent of all GHG emissions, at the same time it offers different options to reduce GHGs significantly by either minimizing the production of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) or by systematically sequestering CO2 in soil and in plant biomass. However, organic agriculture shows more potential to reduce emissions as compared to conventional agriculture, dependent on the production and application of fossil-fuel intensive fertilizers and pesticides. Compared to conventional agriculture, organic agriculture uses less fossil fuel by avoiding energy-demanding fertilizers, contributes to improved biological activity in soils, and provides several methods that increase soil organic carbon retention. As the article concludes, organic agriculture is “superior to mainstream agriculture” in terms of the large role it can play in mitigating climate change both through avoiding and sequestering GHGs.
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Mark Muller, Catherine Hofman, and Paul Hodges. Addressing Climate Change and Providing New Opportunities for Farmers. September 2000.
The Lancet
Dr. Sharon Friel, Dr. Alan D. Dangour, Tara Garnett, Dr. Karen Lock, Dr. Zaid Chalabi, Dr. Ian Roberts, Ainslie Butler, Dr. Colin D. Butler, Dr. Jeff Waage, Dr. Anthony McMichael and Andy Haines. Public Health Benefits of Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions: Food and Agriculture. In The Lancet, December 2009.
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development
Agricultural Practices that Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Overview and Results of Survey Instrument. 2002.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Charles R. Frink, Paul E. Waggoner, and Jesse H. Ausubel. Perspective – Nitrogen Fertilizer: Retrospect and Prospect. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, February 1999.
Redefining Progress
Diana Deumling, Mathis Wackernagel, and Chad Monfreda. Eating up the Earth: How Sustainable Food Systems Shrink Our Ecological Footprint. Agriculture Footprint Brief, July 2003.
Rodale Institute
Regenerative Organic Farming: A Solution to Global Warming
By Tim J. LaSalle and Paul Hepperly, 2008
Rodale Institute promotes a rapid transition to “regenerative organic agriculture” from the current, fossil-fuel based system in the U.S. The Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial (FST) compares conventional and organic farming in the United States. The study shows that conventional systems are not sustainable and suggests that regenerative organic agriculture, though often underestimated, may be the most effective current strategy for mitigating carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Agricultural carbon sequestration could be one of the most productive mitigation techniques, with the potential to sequester up to 40 percent of current CO2 emissions, but more research is needed on soil carbon sequestration. More research is also needed into the external economic benefits of regenerative organic agriculture (public health, etc.) Education, training, and policy shifts in favor of these ecological practices are imperative.
Soil Science
Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel. Soil and Global Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities. In Soil Science, January 2000.
Texas A&M University
Richard M. Adams, Ching-Cheng Chang, Bruce A. McCarl, and John M. Callaway. The Role of Agriculture in Climate Change: A Preliminary Evaluation of Emission Control Strategies.
Texas A&M University
Bruce A. McCarl and Uwe Schneider. Curbing Greenhouse Gases: Agriculture’s Role.
United Nations Environment Programme
K. Trumper, M. Bertzky, B. Dickson, G. van der Heijden, M. Jenkins, and P. Manning. The Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosystems in Climate Mitigation. June 2009.
United States Department of Agriculture
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Buildup: Potential Impact on Farm-Sector Returns
PDF Available Here
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Materials and Land Management Practices. September 2009.
United States Geological Survey
A Guide to Potential Soil Carbon Sequestration
PDF Available Here
University of Florida, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Stephen Mulkey, Janaki Alavalapati, Alan Hodges, Ann C. Wilkie, and Sabine Grunwald.
Opportunities for Greenhouse Gas Reduction through Forestry and Agriculture in Florida. Executive Summary, April 2008.
West Virginia University
Mark Sperow. The Marginal Costs of Carbon Sequestration: Implications of One Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Activity. In Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, November 2007.
Worldwatch Institute
Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use
By Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit, 2009
Land makes up a quarter of Earth’s surface, and its soil and plants hold three times as much carbon as the atmosphere. More than 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions arise from the land use sector. Thus, no strategy for mitigating global climate change can be complete or successful without reducing emissions from agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. Moreover, only land-based or “terrestrial” carbon sequestration offers the possibility today of large-scale removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, through plant photosynthesis.
Agricultural communities can play a central role in fighting climate change. Even at a relatively low price for mitigating carbon emissions, improved land management could offset a quarter of global emissions from fossil fuel use in a year. In contrast, solutions for reducing emissions by carbon capture in the energy sector are unlikely to be widely utilized for decades and do not remove the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. To tackle the climate challenge, we need to pursue land use solutions in addition to efforts to improve energy efficiency and speed the transition to renewable energy.
Yet so far, the international science and policy communities have been slow to embrace terrestrial climate action. Some fear that investments in land use will not produce “real” climate benefits, or that land use action would distract attention from investment in energy alternatives. There is also a concern that land management changes cannot be implemented quickly enough and at a scale that would make a difference to the climate.
For a review copy of Mitigating Climate Change through Food and Land Use, please contact jtier@worldwatch.org or go to http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6183
World Resources Institute
Kevin Baumert, Timothy Herzog and Jonathan Preshing. Navigating the Numbers: Greenhouse Gas Data and International Climate Policy – Chapter 15: Agriculture. 2005.
