REGENERATIVE AG CAN REPAIR THE SOIL AND SEQUESTER CO2
The Regenerative Agriculture Group focuses on informing our community about and fostering the adoption of new techniques for soil regeneration using innovative approaches to compost.Regenerative Agriculture Action Group
Climate action has primarily focused on efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural activities generate a sizable share of these emissions and have been a target of reduction efforts. There are two sides of the coin in agriculture, both damaging emissions from current practices and the promise of great reductions in atmospheric CO2 by using regenerative practices that return healthy levels of carbon to agricultural soils.
We formed the Regenerative Agriculture Group as part of the Soil Not Oil Coalition to inform ourselves and educate our community about both sides of the agricultural emissions story. We work with local farmers, ranchers. and vintners who are using regenerative practices to inform and educate our larger agricultural community in Sonoma County about the win/win benefits of regenerative agriculture: improved quality of product and profit, increased water holding capacity of soils, and, crucially, increased sequestration of atmospheric carbon back into the soil where it belongs.
We are meeting with local officials and representatives to urge development of initiatives to support regenerative practices through education and incentives. We are also lobbying to end federal and state subsides for industrial agriculture, which will provide adequate funding for the transition.
We are collaborating with local groups such as the Sonoma Compost Coalition to establish state of the art composting facilities in Sonoma County and with Zero Waste, to recycle and reuse all waste rather than putting our commercial and personal garbage in landfills.
The founders are Anna Jaccopetti, a retired teacher and author, and Terry Harrison, retired farmer and Ag-Climate Chair in the North Coast Chapter of California Association of Family Farmers (CAFF). Our members are devoted to researching best practices and spreading the word by writing articles, educating legislators, and organizing events and demonstrations. For more information contact us via our Facebook Page or by emailing 350SonomaCounty@gmail.com.
Carbon Gardens: A Dirt Simple Solution to Climate Change.
Daily Acts and the Russian River Watershed Association have co-created an educational campaign to encourage residents to help sequester carbon in their home landscapes: Carbon Gardens: A Dirt Simple Solution to Climate Change.
The campaign is centered on a series of brief videos in both English and Spanish, which will be launched on social media and Daily Acts’ website, accompanied by additional resources and opportunities to receive incentives and prizes.
Check out their series of brief educational videos and related resources in both English and Spanish starting November 7th at dailyacts.org/carbongardens. Sonoma and Mendocino County residents who share their carbon gardening stories and photos with Daily Acts will receive a voucher for one free yard of organic compost, while supplies last, and be entered into a raffle for a bunch of exciting prizes!
Revisa su serie de videos breves educativos y los recursos relacionados a partir del 7 de noviembre en dailyacts.org/jardinesdecarbono. Los residentes de los condados de Sonoma y Mendocino que compartan a Daily Acts sus historias e imágenes de jardinería de carbono recibirán un cupón para una yarda de compost orgánico gratis, hasta agotar existencias, ¡y entrarán a una rifa para un montón de premios geniales!
Food Localization Action Group Meeting
Thursday August 18, 2022 6pm, at the Sebastopol Grange
Please join us for a look at Two Paths To Local Food at our next Food Localization Action Group. We will explore how both local government and direct community action can help realize local food autonomy, and pinpoint what each of us can do now.
When: Thursday Aug 18, 2022, 6pm outdoor potluck, 6:45pm indoor presentation and chat
What to Bring: Your picnic set (plate, bowl, cup, utensils) and food to share, a mask if needed for indoors
Where: Sebastopol Grange 6000 Sebastopol Ave, Hwy 12
Sign-up here
Climate Resilient Lands Strategy Released for Public Input
Sonoma County’s Climate Action and Resiliency Division and Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District released the Sonoma County Climate Resilient Lands Strategy, a document designed to provide structure and guidance to climate-related efforts throughout the county, with a focus on natural and working lands. Alongside the full draft strategy, an Overview and Critical Concepts document is also available, which offers a summary of the full strategy alongside key excerpts. Submit comments on either document by 5pm July 15, 2022. The Overview and Critical Concepts document has also been translated into Spanish. To read the overview click here. Read full story
Food Localization Action Group Meeting
Thursday July 21, 2022 6pm at the Sebastopol Grange
Are you concerned about inflation, the environment, and ……………..?
Then come join us for a program hosted by Sonoma County’s Food Localization Action Group.
We will invite you to consider new ways of addressing the issues we face. After a chance to eat, drink, and socialize, we will discuss:
* How re-integrating food production into our cities and rural periphery can address social, economic, and environmental concerns.* Why we need a different way of thinking of farming and gardening.* How we can regain control over our lives and build a more self-sufficient society, right here, right now, without waiting for distant governments or elites to act.… and more. Plus, an exciting Q&A afterwards!Bring your friends, the date you want to impress, a good beverage, a dish to share, and lots of curiosity to the Sebastopol Grange at 6000 Sebastopol Ave, Hwy 12 on Thursday, July 21.
Potluck Dinner at 6pm, program at 6:45pm.
Free. (Donations welcome). See you there!
Please RSVP to let us know you’re planning on attending.
Support Local Composting
Provide support for Renewable Sonoma (RS) at the Zero Waste Sonoma
(ZWS)
Meeting on November 18 at 8:30 am where RS will provide an update on
the compost project to the ZWS Board. This will be an online meeting:
Renewable Sonoma requests that you write a short letter before Nov.
18 emphasizing that we need our local compost facility back: our soil
needs a local source of quality soil amendments. Renewable Sonoma with
the experience of Sonoma Compost has the qualifications and trust of the
community to deliver a product that will meet our local needs.
If
you would like to attend the online meeting please contact Will Bakx at
will@renewablesonoma.com to let him know you will be attending and
making a short statement.
Please send letters before Nov 18 to:
Zero Waste Sonoma
Leslie Lukacs, Executive Director
2300 County Center Drive, Suite B-100
Why Renewable Sonoma?
Ask the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency board to accept their staff’s recommendation that Renewable Sonoma be awarded the commercial compost operation contract for the proposed Llano Road site (by the waste-water treatment facility). Send emails to the SCWMA board via executive director Patrick Carter by August 14th (patrick.carter@sonoma-county.org)
Talking point ideas for your email:
- Renewable Sonoma is owned by Sonoma Compost, the company operating our former, excellent local compost facility at the central landfill site.
- They have a long history of supporting composting education, school garden programs, community waste-diversion/ Zero Waste efforts, and local farmers and gardeners
- Their proposal includes an anaerobic digester that will generate electricity from green waste via natural gas generation
- They are excellent environmental stewards
- They have a long history of working with local farmers and have extensive knowledge of the local composting market
- Their business emphasis is on creating high-quality soil-amendment products for customers (as opposed to merely diverting green waste from landfill)
Local composting means:
- We do not have to truck our greenwaste out of the county (thereby reducing greenhouse gas production)
- Farmers, schools, and gardens can purchase high-quality compost produced locally (at lower prices because of reduced delivery fees)
Find a form for a petition to the SCWMA Board Members here: RenewableSonoma_petition
County ‘Bioreactor’ Compost Ready for Action
Last year, 350 Sonoma’s Regenerative Agriculture action group hosted David C. Johnson, researcher and microbiologist at the University of New Mexico, for training and workshops on his bioreactor technique for creating compost undisturbed by turning. The first Sonoma County bioreactors created during the workshops have been opened to reveal thick compost filled with worms. We are mixing the compost with our garden beds and making inoculate spray to spread the healthy organisms. Stay tuned for the results! Meanwhile, new bioreactors are being built for next year’s gardens. A bioreactor is used to create BEAM – a rich compost filled with mycorrhizae (fungal filaments) that are key factors in regenerating and improving soil, carbon sequestration and water retention, according to Johnson’s research.
Video: Pushing Back Pesticides
Recology eyes big boost in composting in Sonoma County
Recology, our new hauler, is working towards improving and increasing composting in Sonoma County. Read more here.
The BEAM Team is a group that has formed to support and further test the research of Dr. David Johnson, a New Mexico State University molecular biologist who has been investigating the microbial life in the soil. Dr. Johnson has developed, applied and tested the results of a high fungal compost called BEAM – Biologically Enhanced Agricultural Management–with the goal of enhancing soil microbial community populations, structures and functionality to regenerate natural processes in soils of agro-ecosystems. His test plots have had very positive results in terms of the amount of carbon returned to the soil, soil nutrient availability, plant vitality and growth, and water retention. This research offers a different perspective than traditional soil science which has been focused on soil chemistry rather than soil life systems. The BEAM Team includes farmers, orchardists, grape growers and gardeners as well as climate activists. Current members are located in Sonoma, Marin, and Yolo Counties.
Interested in getting involved in this exciting project? Contact Anna.