Nationally acclaimed author, Dr. Courtney White joins the San Juan Islands Agricultural Summit on February 12 as the keynote speaker to share innovative practices that soak up carbon dioxide in soils, reduce energy use, sustainably intensify food production, and increase water quality.
A former archaeologist and Sierra Club activist, Courtney dropped out of the ‘conflict industry’ in 1997 to co-found The Quivira Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to building bridges between ranchers, conservationists, public land managers, scientists and others around the idea of land health. Today, his work concentrates on building economic and ecological resilience on working landscapes, with a special emphasis on carbon ranching and the new agrarian movement. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Farming, Acres Magazine, Rangelands, and the Natural Resources Journal. His essay “The Working Wilderness: a Call for a Land Health Movement” was published by Wendell Berry in 2005 in his collection of essays titled The Way of Ignorance. In 2008, Island Press published Courtney’s book “Revolution on the Range: the Rise of a New Ranch in the American West.” He co-edited, with Dr. Rick Knight, Conservation for a New Generation, also published by Island Press in 2008. He published “Grass, Soil, Hope: Journey through Carbon Country,” in 2014.
His most recent publication, “Two Percent Solutions for the Planet,” profiles fifty innovative practices that soak up carbon dioxide in soils, reduce energy use, sustainably intensify food production, and increase water quality. The “two percent” refers to: the amount of new carbon in the soil needed to reap a wide variety of ecological and economic benefits; the percentage of the nation’s population who are farmers and ranchers; and the low financial cost (in terms of GDP) needed to get this work done.
As White explained in “Grass, Soil, Hope,” a highly efficient carbon cycle captures, stores, releases, and recaptures biochemical energy, mitigating climate change, increasing water storage capacities in soil, and making green plants grow. Best of all, we don’t have to invent anything new—a wide variety of innovative ideas and methods that put carbon back into the soil have been field-tested and proven to be practical and profitable. They’re mostly low-tech, too, relying on natural resources such as sunlight, green plants, animals, compost, beavers, creeks, and more. White offers positive solutions for farmers to “regenerate the planet now, rather than in some distant future.”
Dr. Courtney White will present his latest findings on Friday, Feb. 12, 7-9 p.m., at the San Juan Community Theater. Tickets will be available at the door and are on sale now on eventbrite.com. For more information about the SJI Agricultural Summit, please visit: www.sjcarc.org/summit.
