In the climate change debate there has been a hidden topic that rarely gets debated and discussed publically but is arguably one of the most important parts about the debate because about one-third of carbon pollution is created either by agricultural practices or resources. Even though this affects such a huge part of the debate it is rarely talked about in the media or by politicians because it is not the main component the public thinks about when they hear global warming. It is a shame to because there are so many things that need to be done on a global scale in this field in order to make progress. For example one of main contributors to carbon pollution is deforestation and the main place where this is hurting us is in the Amazon rain forest.

Since 1970 the forest has lost 16.1% of its original cover and this led to the release of over 54 million tons of carbon a year. It is hard to imagine how fast this is happening but to put it in context there has been a significant reduction in deforestation in the Amazon rain forest over the past ten years by over seventy percent but scientists agree that this is not good enough. I think this is why the agriculture needs to be put center stage on the climate debate because most of the major economies are getting on board with clean-renewable energy (US, Europe, China, and even India) but very few are making significant changes to their world-wide policy on environmentally friendly agricultural policies. For example here in the states we emit a little under 700 million tons of green house gases just from agricultural practices. However, the worst part about this is that it is not getting better but rather it is actually getting worse according to the EPA (http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/agriculture.html).

The main reason for this increase is that the technology surrounding manure management has increased its greenhouse emissions by 55% since 1990. That’s right the systems designed to pick up crap are releasing the crap that is going to kill us into the air. However it is not that the systems themselves have gotten less environmentally friendly, although that is true, the main driver of this increase is the increase in livestock and farm production in general. We have yet to figure out a way to feed our growing population in America and in the world and then at the same time slow down (or stop) carbon emissions for agricultural practices.

This problem however is not being addressed with research or grant money or being asked of the market through increased regulatory standards to help improve the efficiency of our agricultural systems. In fact the main debate in Congress and many developed countries across the world is how much should we subsidize farmers on the world market instead of what we should do about the carbon we are releasing. Hopefully this will change though because at the world climate summit coming up both agriculture and deforestation are on the list of topics that will be discussed but the question becomes can the summit bring about actual action on the issue of agricultural climate pollution.

The answer is probably going to be no because even though all the scientists in the world can warn us about the consequences of our actions it will not change what many countries believe as against their own national interest. This means that if real change is going to happen it is going to have to pushed by the voters otherwise the farm lobby will probably advise against it. However, time is not a luxury that we have so we must start investing in greener agriculture technology now rather than later because it will soon be too late anything about it. The question then becomes how do we make agriculture more efficient with green technology.

I believe we need to look at locally made food as a better way to decrease carbon pollution and then at the same time start regulating certain food producers about their carbon footprint. I think that not only would just be a better way to grow our food with concern to the planet but also it will help local farmers feed their communities and beyond.