“Urban Carbon Farming” – From the Desk of Jac Smit

Photo: Jac Smit standing in blue shirt on far left. (photo taken in New York, 2001, at a meeting of the Support Group For Urban Agriculture. Beside Jac standing, Luc Mougeot IDRC, Yves Cabanne UNCHS/UNDP, Gordon Prain CGIAR, sitting l to r, Michael Levenston City Farmer, Olivia Argenti FAO.

Jac Smit is one of the world’s leading thinkers on the subject of urban agriculture. His seminal book “Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities” is a classic.

The Climate-Neutral Post-Carbon City
May 30 2008

A decade ago, late 1990s, we engaged in the establishment of the urban agriculture industry. A visit to Google tomorrow will find 1,740,000 entries. It was then targeted at food security and building community. Since then we have added farming the city as an economic generator and as an element of Urban Greening.

The next step is to add carbon farming as a core or foundational element of this industry. Another turn of phrase, we are adding a core commodity to those we are familiar with such as vegetables, poultry, herbs, fruit and flowers.

The fourth IPCC report on climate change has convinced the world’s governments and corporations that our urban civilization needs urgently to reduce our generation of greenhouse gases. There is a plethora of responses already being applied.

Carbon farming is in its infancy. Basically it refers to establishing as a commodity carbon in the soil. The carbon farmer will be paid for each milliliter of carbon [CO2] taken from the air and placed in the soil. This may be a bit easier than raising raspberries. It will also be a bit more difficult to measure the product [it's not by the quart].

Many studies have been done since the 1980s of how much different plants return carbon to the soil under a variety of climate conditions. The establishment of a carbon commodity marketplace is, to my knowledge, not yet complete.

The establishment of methods of carbon farming is underway but, to my knowledge, has not yet been applied to the urban/metropolitan sphere.

Conceptually if I choose to take carbon from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil, I will be looking for green leaves and rich organic soil. Root characteristics will be significant also. I will be considering a mix of deep and shallow roots with lots of hairy rootlings. Obviously I will prefer moist soil to dry. A warm climate will be preferable to chilly.

The environmental and climate characteristics of the global metropolitan landscape at a quick glance may be particularly well suited to carbon farming. Our cities are commonly located on well watered good soils. With the heat island effect urban space is warmer.

An optimistic outlook sees the possibility of municipalities, districts, states and nations setting up markets to encourage the start-up of this new agricultural industry. Measuring the carbon in soil is well established. Measuring it in the air is equally so. To apply it square meter by square meter and acre by acre on a season by season basis will take a little time.

Let’s speculate about a small urban farmer. She is targeting both the food and ornamental markets [vegetable, micro-livestock and potted flowers]. If she can gear up to be paid on a regular basis for her
carbon sequestering, she will have a base cash flow. She will then select her crops partially based on their government certified carbon return capacity and the seasonal measurement of her soil’s carbon content.

So, she might chose to grow a root and vine and shrub crop mixture rather than only one of them; thereby creating a diverse roots and foliage capacity.

This may be not only low risk but generate a reduction in risk.

The other side of the urban carbon farming inquiry; is there a benefit in carbon farming where we live rather than where we do not live?

1. Our urban areas are where we generate the most greenhouse gases.

2. Our urban areas are where the greenhouse gases have the most negative health impacts.

3. Cleaning the air in our urban areas has more positive impacts than doing so in rural areas in our quality of life.

4. Urban areas will return a better return per square meter in carbon farming than in rural areas in the same climate zone.

5. Our urban areas are loaded with idle land well adapted to carbon farming.

Overall it can be read as a slam dunk or no-brainer. Of course we have to do it! It is the natural next sequel in the urban agriculture adventure.

City Farmer publishes “From the Desk of Jac Smit” here.

Contact Jac Smit: URBANAG2@cs.com

Jac Smit bio

Jac Smit grew up on the edge of town. At age 20 he had worked in five branches of agriculture. He took a junior college degree with a concentration in ornamental horticulture. After a short successful entrepreneurial venture as a landscape designer he was accepted in the Harvard Graduate School of Design and graduated as president of the Harvard Organization of Student Planners.

As the senior Ford Foundation planning advisor to the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Authority he generated an urban agriculture plan for the new port of Haldia and established a self-help urban agriculture project for East Pakistani refugees.

During the next 20 years Jac consulted in half a dozen countries in South Asia, East Africa and the Middle East. He was project manger and chief planner for the largest regional planning projects in each of these regions. All urban regional projects that Jac directed had urban agriculture as a significant component.

In 1991 he was contracted by UNDP and the World Bank to carry out a global survey of urban agriculture which foundationed his best-selling book Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities, which was launched at the Habitat II Summit in 1996.

In 1992 Jac was the senior founder of The Urban Agriculture Network. This small not-for-profit service organization has the world’s largest urban agriculture library. It is a founding member of the global Support Group for Urban Agriculture [SGUA] and [RUAF] Resource Center for Urban Agriculture and Forestry which has eight information centers on all five continents.