Currently, the US is not participating in the carbon trade. Interestingly enough, we posess some of the most fertile ground in the world and have, historically been able to grow an abundance of agricultural products.
What if we started an initiative, whereby, instead of paying our farmers to sit idle, we actively encouraged the growth of any number of fast-growing, fibrous plants that we could use to generate food, fuel, paper, cloth, and . . . create a carbon-sink business, on a huge scale?
It seems clear that global warming is a valid theory. That the continued burning of fossil fuels, coupled with the ongoing destruction of the worlds forests is adding to the amount of free carbon (in the form of CO2) to the atmosphere. Moreover, it also seems clear that without intervention that the continuation of this course of action may lead to a catacylsmic shift in the earths biosphere.
Simply put, (and I’ll elaborate more on this later), what if we started not only cultivating fast growing plants to use a food and fuel, but also took a lot of that fixed carbon and buried it? Literally.
Depending on the volume of production the US could enter the carbon trading markent with the ability to literally fix the equivalent amount of carbon emitted from other countries and industries.
Is is possible that this sort of agro-business could put our nations farmers back on top?