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97 Denv. L. Rev. 497 (2019-2020)
(Carbon) Farming Our Way out of Climate Change

handle is hein.journals/denlr97 and id is 509 raw text is: (CARBON) FARMING OUR WAY OUT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ALEXIA BRUNET MARKSt ABSTRACT Numerous climate-related emergencies highlight the challenges and urgency posed by climate change: the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, the Global Climate Action Summit in California, and international student walkouts, to name a few. While the IPCC Report sent an urgent cry to reduce total emissions and to achieve specific results-45% reduction by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050-reductions need to be combined with capturing and storing atmos- pheric carbon dioxide. Scientific studies have shown that an annual in- crease of 0.4% of carbon stored in soils would make it possible to stop the present increase in atmospheric CO2. This Article focuses on carbon farming, a Climate Smart Agriculture strategy that uses plants to capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide in soil to achieve the IPCC Report goal. This Article makes two contribu- tions. First, recognizing the potential of private certifications to drive sales and investment (Organic-Certified food sales soared to $100 billion in 2018), this Article designs a new Carbon Farming Certification with an Organic or Regenerative Agriculture certification as a base, and an add-on module to measure carbon sequestration. Second, a carbon farming certi- fication becomes a linchpin to accessing a greater network of resources to scale-up carbon farming: farmers leverage the Certification to gain access to immediate and long-term financing; to unlock lucrative opportunities to sell carbon credits to those who purchase carbon offsets in California's cap-and-trade market; and to engage in forward contracting with major supply chains. State and local governments should leverage sequestered carbon metrics from Carbon Farming Certified-farms to demonstrate com- pliance with international law and treaty targets, as well as national and local climate policies. Filling gaps in food law and environmental governance literature, this Article presents a multidisciplinary approach to solving a critical global problem. It identifies barriers which hinder the scale-up of promising car- bon farming strategies, including: insufficient information, lack of funding 1T Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School. J.D., Northwestern Uni- versity; Ph.D., Purdue University (Agricultural Economics). For thoughtful comments on earlier drafts, I thank the Earth Systems Governance Conference (Utrect, Netherlands) participants, European Association of International Law, Environmental Group Conference (Heidelberg, Germany) partici- pants, and the Sustainability Conference of American Legal Educators (Tempe, Arizona) participants. I value conversations with CU students, Mad Agriculture, and the regenerative agriculture community in Boulder, Colorado. Ultimately, I have Michael and our three C's to thank. I welcome all comments at: alexia.brunet(dcolorado.edu