But he would also give credit for carbon added to soil with manure, sludge and landscape waste. A 1 per gallon gasoline tax would easily raise enough to pay 2 for every pound of carbon trapped in the soil. In the past, agriculture and forestry were big contributors to the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The Woods Hole Research Center estimates that over 150 years, up to a fourth of the new CO2 in the earth's atmosphere came from clearing forests and plowing sod. Planting new trees and grasses, as we've done with the Conservation Reserve Program, is the fastest way to take carbon back out of the atmosphere.
Research shows that broadcast tillage breaks down humus very fast.
Carbon restored by a decade of CRP grasses can be lost in a year. In the short run, Kinsella's idea could be blocked by Republican opposition to the global warming treaty, which is also opposed by the Farm Bureau. And it's too narrow. No-till farmers aren't alone in working to restore native soil fertility. Organic farmers like Del Akerlund of Valley, Nebraska, are among those who preceded them.