This article first appeared in INHF's Summer 2007 magazine.
by Duane Sand
This article is not about the impacts of global warming, but about effective actions Iowa leaders could take to affordably and responsibly prevent climate change disasters in the making.
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Photo credit: Darrel Mills/INHF
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Iowa farmers have tried to feed the world and many now hope to fuel the world. Supported by good leadership and public policy, our farmers can also help save the world from climate disaster.
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Though people argue about the precise extent of global warming and its human causes, most agree it’s time for humanity to address this issue. By its nature, global warming can’t be solved by one state or nation alone. However, Iowans have a unique opportunity to take a first-in-the-nation position that’s both symbolic and significant.
With good leadership, we can make Iowa the first highly-developed state to become carbon-neutral.
Toward neutrality
To be carbon-neutral, an entity can emit no more greenhouse gases than it can mitigate (absorb).
In the year 2000, the latest figures available1, Iowa’s estimated total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 32.8 million metric tons of carbon equivalent 2 (MMTCE). On the plus side, we were credited with mitigating 6.4 MMTCE through carbon sequestration.3 In sum, Iowa’s net greenhouse gas emissions are about 26.2 MMTCE. Unfortunately, fossil fuel consumption is trending upwards, so Iowa’s emissions will worsen before improving.
The Iowa legislature has requested a plan for a 50 percent reduction of emissions by the year 2050. Amidst indications that global warming is already accelerating beyond original estimates, some warn that carbon emissions must decrease even more and faster.
The big picture
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Photo credit: Joe McGovern/INHF
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Many agricultural practices that help prevent global warming will also advance the recovery of our polluted lakes and streams.
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Becoming carbon neutral calls for four general strategies:
· Reducing fuel consumption (conservation). While this option is extremely important (arguably the most important), it’s not the subject of this article. The next three items are addressed in this article:
· Improving energy efficiency and related technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the source.
· Substituting renewable, environmentally benign, energy alternatives when feasible.
· Trapping/reducing carbon dioxide through carbon sequestration.
Popular suggestions
Unfortunately, the most widely promoted emissions reduction strategies would not move Iowa very far toward a carbon neutral goal in a timely manner. Let’s look at those strategies and estimates of their potential benefits:
· Implementing known energy efficiency technologies: 5.3 MMTCE savings (This number could rise further if incentives/savings help spur innovations in efficiency technologies.)
· Converting all gasoline vehicles to E-85 corn-based ethanol: 2.8 MMTCE (This assumes the ethanol is farmed and manufactured with methods that don’t introduce additional environmental problems.)
· Substituting more wind power and solar energy: 2-3 MMTCE (This figure assumes Iowa gets 20 to 30 percent of its electricity from wind and sun.)
· Restoring one million acres of Iowa forests and prairies (more than many people think possible): 1-4 MMTCE
· Total estimated savings: 11.1 to 15.1 MMTCE
In other words, if Iowa limits itself to commonly promoted methods, we’ll fall well short of a carbon-neutral goal. We need to consider additional tools and practices, preferably methods that save money rather than cost money. Luckily, additional solutions exist in the very landscape that defines us.
Other opportunities
Iowa farmers have tried to feed the world and many now hope to fuel the world as well. Supported by good leadership and public policy, our farmers can also help save the world from climate disaster. Agriculture produces an estimated 27% of Iowa’s GHG emissions, but intensive conservation management of farmland could yield a very positive impact on our carbon footprint.
With the right planning and incentives, Iowa’s farmers could add “carbon mitigation” to their achievements by helping the whole state become carbon neutral. Here are a few of the possibilities and their potential impacts:
· Reduce tillage practices, employ continuous no-till farming and implement intensive conservation management on an additional 8 million acres of cropland. 4.4 MMTCE (Note: Statewide potential over time is more than twice these crop acres.)
· Substitute sustainably-harvested crop residues (biomass energy) for coal or natural gas: 9.1 MMTCE. (Note: If we burn crop residues, that means we’re sequestering less carbon than noted in the previous item, so these two practices must be weighed against each other.)
· Implement monitored rotational grazing on 3.5 million acres of pasture: 2.6 MMTCE (using the carbon credit system under development by the Chicago Climate Exchange)
· Implement statewide adoption of nitrogen efficiency practices used by the Iowa Soybean Association’s On-Farm Network, which found that a 30% reduction of nitrogen application on crop ground is often economically feasible: 1.8 MMTCE (Note: This benefit would increase with improved storage and application of livestock manures for nitrogen efficiency and control of methane emissions at the source.)
Our carbon crop
These potential reductions within our agriculture sector can lead to profitable, carbon-neutral Iowa agriculture relatively soon. Over time, intensive conservation farm management, combined with statewide energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, can make Iowa a carbon neutral state. With proactive leadership focused on maximizing Iowa’s carbon “crop,” we could become a national leader and model in the fight against global warming.
In other words, Iowa’s best defense against global warming is truly “home-grown.” It begins with appreciating and encouraging our farmers’ stewardship skills.
We can take the first step by expanding Iowa’s network of technical assistance and on-farm research. Now practiced by about 500 innovative Iowa farmers, this program should be expanded to at least 3,000 of Iowa’s most progressive farms, creating the critical mass of data and skills to help fine-tune conservation management among all farmers.
While the USDA Conservation Security Program can provide critical support for this goal, increased state investment will also be needed. Public policies and private philanthropy have often overlooked the need to channel more resources to assist the people who work and manage the land. And agriculture leaders have missed this opportunity as well.
A carbon neutral agriculture and a carbon neutral Iowa is possible. It’s time to prepare ambitious plans and encourage policy makers to implement them.
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Duane Sand is an public policy consultant to INHF and a member of the State Soil Conservation Committee.
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Notes
1 Source: Most of the data in this article are reported from Year 2000 Iowa Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory, a January 2005 report by the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa. Available online.
2 Carbon equivalency includes carbon dioxide and other gases, such as methane and nitrous oxides, weighted for environmental impacts equivalent to carbon dioxide.
3 Carbon sequestration involves trapping carbon in plant tissues or other materials. Additional sequestration can mitigate emissions.
For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.
