Carbon!  I usually talk about how it helps our production and how to get more of it in the soil.  There is however another aspect to carbon that I haven’t touched on yet.  This is the opportunity for farmers to earn money from trading carbon – either storing carbon or reducing the emissions of carbon (and other greenhouse gases).  For some, this may be adding extra income to their farm business, while for others the income might be an added bonus to putting carbon in the soil, which they know will benefit their production in many ways. 

I don’t know about you, but in the evolution of the Carbon Farming Initiative in Australia (what the last Government called the agriculture component of carbon trading), I felt a bit like switching off from the politics involved with it.  As a farmer, I felt – “Just give me something that’s easy to work with on-ground!”  This is why I am grateful for people like Louisa Kiely of Carbon Farmers of Australia.  Louisa has contributed to the hard work for us, to help get our industry to a point where there are now some usable aspects of the Australian Governments’ carbon reduction scheme.  This is why I’ve chosen to speak with Louisa about where things are up to with carbon trading and the now called Emissions Reduction Fund. Continue reading “CARBON TRADING – now more relevant to you all!” »