At Caney Fork Farms, we prioritize growing food in ways that transform carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to carbon that is stable in the soil and in woody parts of plants. This is carbon farming. Carbon farming simultaneously grows healthy foods and addresses climate change.
The basics: Carbon
The element carbon is abundant in the atmosphere and the biosphere. Similar to the way water cycles between rivers, oceans, clouds, soil, and the air we breathe, carbon atoms cycle through multiple locations in our Earth system. Let’s start with atmospheric carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere in many ways, including the decomposition of organic matter and respiration of living things like mammals and bacteria, through burning of fossil fuel (i.e. underground, stored carbon), and forest fires. Most climate scientists agree that 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide is an appropriate amount of atmospheric carbon. Historically, agriculture and civilizations developed in a time when 350 ppm was the norm. Since humans began mining and burning coal and oil during the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing, with carbon dioxide levels in 2024 at a record 424.6 ppm. In short, humans are adding too much carbon to the atmosphere and the Earth is less able to absorb carbon from the atmosphere back into the biosphere.
Carbon Farming:
That’s where carbon farming comes in: growing crops, raising livestock, and incorporating trees in such a way to accelerate the biological activity that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores carbon for the long term in soil and the woody parts of plants. We are constantly considering how our management decisions impact the ability of the land to store carbon in the long term. The good news is that there are plenty of principles of how carbon is naturally stored for the long term that regenerative farmers and the scientists who support them can draw from. We manage animals, grasses, trees, and nutrients in practices that produce food in ways that mimic the ways that the most carbon enters and remains in the soil and other living elements of the agricultural systems: the trees, the cover crops, the soil microorganisms. In the efforts of carbon farming, two twin goals of mimicking nature to increase carbon capture are increasing soil health and maximizing photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is how plants use sunlight to transform carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water into sugars (i.e. stored energy), and oxygen. Here are a couple ways that carbon farming maximizes photosynthesis, seeking to mimic nature:
Biodiversity:
The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: What good is it?
-Aldo Leopold
Wherever appropriate, regenerative agriculture and carbon farming prioritizes biodiversity. This is a principle based in a respect for the intrinsic value of all living things and a humble recognition of humans’ limited knowledge about, well, everything! Prioritizing biodiversity is an aspect of mimicking nature. In nature, diversity of life forms provides stability and resilience of ecosystems. In nature, each species occupys a narrow niche within every ecosystem, as well as contributes to a diversity of interactions between species. On the farm, this prioritization of biodiversity leads greater productivity because more ecological niches are occupied by living things. On the farm, grasses, forbs, and trees create an agricultural ecosystem with multiple spatial layers. On the farm, some of that enhanced productivity is captured as additional crops, for example, in organic double cropping of row crops. Some of that enhanced productivity is what are broadly termed “ecological outcomes,” which includes greater insect diversity (including pollinators, which in turn enhance crop production), greater avian diversity, and of course, the ecological outcome we monitor most closely, soil carbon.
Diversity of forage: A mix of species of grasses are sown into the fields that animals graze, including perennial species and annual species, and the species mix changes with the warm and cool seasons. Perennial species are especially useful for improving soil health because they do not require tillage. Avoiding tilling allows soil, and especially the fungal networks and plant root systems within soil, to remain undisturbed. This mix results in greater photosynthesis, as species differ in growth form, capturing nutrients and contributing to soil health at different times and in different ways. Similarly, different forage species are each associated with different soil microorganisms, contributing to greater abundance and diversity of below-ground life. This abundance multiplies the cycling of carbon into the soil. Some weeds in the pasture are accepted as a part of the ecosystem of the farm, and may contribute to greater insect diversity. Weeds are monitored and kept in check as to not degrade forage quality.
Diversity of livestock: Caney Fork Farms practices mixed species grazing: incorporating cattle, sheep, and pigs to encourage maximum photosynthesis of forage grasses. Cattle and sheep sometimes graze a field together as a “flerd,” which is a regenerative agriculture portmanteau describing a mixed flock of sheep and heard of cattle. Each of the three species of grazing animal has a different impact on the soil. Sheep take bites off of grasses with their top and bottom teeth and relatively small mouths. Cows, lacking bottom teeth, incorporate their tongues and do more pulling and tearing, and pigs “root” into the soil with their snouts, seeking to devour plants’ tender roots.
Diversity of timing: Another aspect of mimicking natural diversity is diversity of timing. By strategically monitoring forage quantity and moving animals between pastures, rotational grazing changes the time animals spend on each section of the land. This mimicks the ways that the wild ancestors of current grazing species moved across the landscape in groups. Imagine historic herds of bison or elk moving across the grasslands of North America. They traveled in large groups, consuming forage, returning digested nutrients and microorganisms to the land through their waste, disturbing the soil with their hooves, and then moving on, leaving for fresh grasses. Perennial grasses drew from the reserves in their deep root systems, absorbed the nutrients left behind by the animals, and grew fresh, tall grasses.
Agroforestry, which involves strategically incorporating trees into agricultural land, is a primary strategy for carbon farming. After all, trees are long-lived and large-bodied masters of photosynthesis. They store a great deal of carbon above ground in their trunks, branches, stems, and deep underground in their coarse roots. Trees reach heights and extend their branches above ground as well as below ground, shaping mycorrhizal communities. Trees have added benefits of providing shade for grazing animals, which makes animals more comfortable, creating wildlife habitat (think insect populations and birds that depend on them), and slowing down winds and precipitation that can cause soil erosion. With all of their biomass, trees create a “bumpy” surface that slows down blowing winds. Similarly, as rain falls, trees intercept droplets, absorbing their energy, and moderate the flow of water to the land. In some agroforestry systems, the trees themselves provide an annual crop of fruit or nuts. When trees are pruned, this pulse of organic matter to the soil surface directly around the trees is ripe for decomposers to transform woody organic matter into soil organic matter and nutrients available for forage and trees to uptake. Sometimes, the trees in agroforestry systems are managed as a long-term timber crop. By extending the (managed) forest into fields, agroforestry combats the loss of forested land to agricultural land.
At Caney Fork Farms, several of our pastures are designed as silvopastures. In a silvopasture, trees, forage, and livestock are managed simultaneously for beneficial interactions between all three elements of the system. Silvopastures can look very different depending on the design of the system, and especially the selection of the tree species. At Caney Fork Farms, the silvopasture system involves trees planted fifteen feet apart in rows with thirty foot wide alleys of forage between them for grazing. The trees were planted in 2016 and 2019. Initially, in the 2016 planting, chestnut trees were planted as crop trees between a mix of native tree species that are important food sources for wildlife (e.g. oaks, cherry) and support the endemic insect populations. In an effort to facilitate greater feasibility of harvest of chestnuts, the 2019 planting is solely chestnut trees, omitting the mix of native tree species. However, there is genetic diversity between the chestnut trees. We purchased our chestnut seedlings from Greg Miller at Route 9 Cooperative. The children of twenty-three different mother trees. These mother trees have fantastic names like “Sleeping Giant,” “Luvall’s Monster,” “Jersey Gem,” and “Ace,” “Ace,” I recently learned, is an acronym used for a mother tree that is the result of breeding American chestnut, Chinese chestnut, and European chestnut. While these trees haven’t yet grown to a size where commercial harvest of chestnuts is viable, for several years, they have been providing the sheep with shade during the hot summers. Once the trees grow large and strong enough to withstand the rubbing of cattle, cattle will be permitted to graze the silvopastures as well. The shade also protects forages from direct sunlight and helps the soil retain moisture. The local deer populations have certainly found the chestnuts to their liking.
Conclusion
Carbon farming is not just farming practices; it's a way of balancing food production with the earth's natural life processes. By mimicking natural ecosystems, encouraging biodiversity, and enhancing photosynthesis, the farmer can sequester carbon from the atmosphere while simultaneously enriching the soil, improving yields, and developing resilience to climate change.
At Caney Fork Farms, we believe that carbon farming is a process of ongoing learning and adaptation. Each decision we make, whether it's growing diversified forage, adding trees, or fine-tuning livestock grazing practices, moves us closer to our overall goal of cultivating carbon-dense, biologically active soils. This is not a process to rush; it takes patience, close observation, and the flexibility to cooperate with nature instead of trying to force it.
While carbon farming alone will not fix the climate emergency, it is a valuable long-term strategy to lower atmospheric carbon, restore degraded lands, and create more resilient agriculture. To reach its full potential, farmers, scientists, and policymakers each have a role to play. Consumers play a crucial role, too, by voting with their dollars and supporting regenerative farms.