Episode 297: Digging into Texas’ First Carbon Farm Plan
Provided by:
About Voices from the Field
From cover crops to regenerative grazing and organic production to marketing, ATTRA - Voices from the Field is your sustainable agriculture podcast. Voices from the Field is produced by NCAT. Since 1976, NCAT has provided trusted information, individualized technical assistance, and in-depth resources to support sustainable agriculture and accessible energy solutions.
Related Resources
In this episode of Voices from the Field, we dig into Texas’ first Carbon Farm Plan with New Leaf Agriculture Farm Director Matt Simon, NCAT Climate and Agriculture Program Manager Elise Haschke, and NCAT Sustainable Agriculture Specialist Darron Gaus.
Matt shares his “aha” moments in farming and his vision for ecological restoration and community-building on New Leaf’s 21-acre farm in Elgin, Texas.
Carbon Farm Planning is a comprehensive conservation planning framework that centers carbon as the organizing principle on working lands. With generous funding from a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Professional Development Program grant and The Meadows Foundation, NCAT is working with Texas farmers and ranchers to pilot the Carbon Farm Planning conservation framework for a Texas context.
Please complete a brief survey to let us know your thoughts about the content of this podcast.
Darron and Matt discuss specific conservation practices in the New Leaf’s Carbon Farm Plan, such as how they’re testing no-till and strip-till in a few of the fields and planting windbreaks for multiple co-benefits, including fruit and nut cash crops, on-farm mulch production, and wildlife habitat.
Those practices indicate an estimated annual emissions reduction equivalent to 22 metric tons of carbon dioxide, based on the COMET-Planner quantification tool.
Other Resources:
Multicultural Refugee Coalition
Carbon Cycle Institute – Carbon Farm Planning
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
Have questions or need help? Contact us.