To avoid carbon debt, CRP beats fields of corn, soybeans

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.msu.edu/news/2011-08-09-biofuels.html

To avoid carbon debt, CRP beats fields of corn, soybeans

MEDIA RELATIONS * Division of University Relations * 403 Olds Hall * Michigan State University * East Lansing, MI 48824-1047

Contact: Layne Cameron, University Relations: [phone], cell [phone], [e-mail]; Phil Robertson, Kellogg Biological Station: [phone], [e-mail]; Ilya Gelfand, Kellogg Biological Station: [phone], [e-mail]

Aug. 9, 2011

EAST LANSING, Mich. --- Farmers and policymakers should wait before converting Conservation Reserve Program land to corn and soybean production, according to a Michigan State University study.

The study, which appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on CRP land, a federal program encouraging farmers to grow natural vegetative cover rather than crops, and its role in the production of biofuels. A team of MSU researchers shows directly for the first time that the carbon costs of converting these lands to corn and soybeans is high – even when care is taken to protect soil carbon from loss by using no-till cultivation practices.

Carbon debt results from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released when land is converted from natural vegetation to agriculture. It's called debt because until a new biofuel crop creates enough renewable fuel to offset the lost CO2, the new biofuel crop has no climate benefit. In fact, it's the same as burning fossil fuel as far as the atmosphere is concerned, said Ilya Gelfand, MSU postdoctoral researcher who worked with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.

“Conversion creates carbon debt, which must be paid off before the biofuel crop can provide climate mitigation benefits,” he said. “No-till practices (planting without plowing) reduced by two-thirds the amount of debt created by the conversion, but still it would take 29 to 40 years for it to be repaid by growing corn and soybean for biofuel.”

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1017277108