San Joaquin Valley row crop growers help control greenhouse gases

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Jeff Mitchell, left, presents research results at a UC ANR West Side Research and Extension Center field day.

Reporter Dennis Taylor of the Visalia Times-Delta wrote about research results recently published by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources scientists that may allow farmers to be part of carbon cap-and-trade agreements.

Taylor interviewed lead researcher Jeff Mitchell, UC ANR Cooperative Extension specialist and chair of the UC ANR Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation Center.

Long-term research by UC ANR has documented the capacity for farmland in the San Joaquin Valley managed with certain conservation practices to sequester carbon, results that could give farmers a seat at the carbon trading table, the article said. The study was published this month in the Agronomy Journal.

"We're reducing the atmospheric load of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that plays an important role in global warming," Mitchell said. "Proving a stable storage location for carbon could allow agriculture to be part of future cap-and-trade programs."

The ANR news release on the research was also picked up by the Central Valley Business Times, California Political Review and the Red Bluff Daily News.

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