May 3, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: info@climatechangepermacultureproject.org
On April 21, 2022, Gov. Whitmer Unveiled MI Healthy Climate Plan to Create Good-Paying Jobs, Protect Air and Water.
The plan outlined a path to carbon neutrality by 2050 with interim steps to take by 2030 including: more clean energy; electric vehicle charging infrastructure; as well as land and water conservation.
The Climate Change Permaculture Project’s (CCPP) analysis showed that agriculture appears to be missing from the plan.
Agriculture is a significant contributor to carbon emissions. Current estimates put it at 14% of emissions.
Regenerative agriculture could not only avoid emissions, but it could also sequester large amounts of carbon, thus helping to mitigate climate change. [1]
CCPP notes that other states have similar climate change strategies and some of them have included regenerative agriculture.
California, for example, launched a Healthy Soils initiative, part of the state’s climate strategy in support of the goal for California to be carbon neutral by 2045. [2]
In 2020, California scaled-up the initiative. It awarded $25.2 million in Healthy Soils Program funding for 339 on-farm projects on 32,051 acres.
Collectively, these projects have the potential to reduce greenhouse gases by 75.2k metric tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent to removing 6,248 passenger vehicles from the road per year.
[1] https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/al-gore-regenerative-farming-can-combat-climate-change/
[2] https://www.morningagclips.com/california-has-taken-bold-action-to-scale-up-healthy-soil-practices/