Carbon is the Cash Crop

[Music]

john nelson’s land was an oasis

in the middle of haiti’s dry and dusty

central plateau

the soil was covered with a rich carpet

of organic matter

fallen from the trees that had engulfed

his well-terrorist farm

mango citrus coconut and even trees

used to make fine furniture shaded his

young coffee plants

john was a hard-working and

entrepreneurial farmer

but he was never too busy to put down

his machete and take us on a tour

he knew each one of the thousands of

trees that he had planted

with a wide kind grid he would pull out

some chairs and we would visit

and as we readied ourselves to leave he

would cut some sugar cane

for everyone to suck on as we trudged on

to the next farm

john nelson was a carbon farmer actually

he was a small

farmer who grew many things including

coffee

but lately sequestering carbon in his

trees had become pretty lucrative

he was an early eager collaborator in a

carbon offset project that we

the university of the south had

initiated

with the haitian non-profit organization

called partners in agriculture or pia

pia works with haitian farmers in the

central plateau of haiti

to raise agricultural productivity and

food security throughout the region

you may be wondering what is a carbon

offset we all know

that the climate crisis facing us is

caused largely by

rising levels of carbon dioxide in the

atmosphere from burning fossil fuels

and clearing forests addressing this

means reducing those emissions

and removing co2 from our air

a carbon offset is literally one ton

of carbon dioxide that has never been

released into the atmosphere

as a result of on the ground activities

such as using wind

or solar power instead of fossil fuels

or by planting trees that naturally

absorb

and recapture carbon dioxide from the

air

storing it in carbon in wood roots and

surrounding soil

the idea is that capturing carbon

dioxide and storing it in carbon in one

place

can help offset emissions in other

places

which on balance helps mitigate climate

change

this means that we can offset our

personal emissions from

cars and airline travel by paying

farmers like john nelson

to plant trees globally

the carbon offset market is booming as

governments

corporations and even celebrities

seek to zero out their carbon footprints

our carbon offset project called

zommi cafe began with a group of farmers

who wanted to plant coffee

in the mountainous region of boijoli

where john nelson lived

in haitian creel buajoli literally means

pretty woods

but ironically boijoli was not wooded at

all

and the region had suffered from years

of deforestation

and soil erosion but john and others

wanted to grow coffee just as their

parents once had

planting coffee seemed like a good way

to produce carbon offsets because

the crop grows best in the shade and

this would necessitate

planting many carbon sequestering trees

paying farmers for carbon sequestration

would help them cover the upfront costs

of establishing these tree crops

planting trees to offset co2 emissions

is hardly a new idea

but it remains one of our most cost

effective natural means of combating

climate change

according to a study published by the

national academy of sciences

in addition to soaking up carbon dioxide

from the air

trees also provide a multitude of

benefits

especially to farmers including

moderation of extreme temperatures

and soil and water protection

trees also help maintain soil fertility

by recycling nutrients and adding carbon

that feeds soil food webs

trees diversify household incomes with

products such as fruits and nuts

medicine and spices animal fodder and

building materials

once established trees are much easier

to maintain

compared to the clearing cultivating

sowing and weeding required every year

to grow crops like corn

all of these benefits make farms more

productive

and more resilient to extreme weather

which is

projected to increase with climate

change

but if carbon offsets are so popular and

tree planting so beneficial

why don’t more small farmers participate

in the global carbon market

not surprisingly farmers like john

nelson

face opportunity costs not the least of

which

is the choice between planting staple

crops to feed their families

and planting trees for future benefits

and in haiti a bag of charcoal made from

trees

earns 50 u.s dollars this is income that

can be used to buy things like medicine

and school supplies whereas it can take

trees

several years to become productive

enough to earn that much money

and although it’s easy to plant a tree

it is more challenging to ensure its

early survival on a landscape full of

hungry goats

drought-prone soils and bush fires

finally there is the high cost of

managing carbon offset projects

for example verifying the carbon stored

in living trees requires the work of

expensive consultants

all of this means that it is really

difficult

for even the poorest farmers to enter

the carbon offset market

although they have the most to gain

in fact most of the benefits of this

market go to

large landowners or to massive projects

that can afford to maintain

and account for vast tracts of trees

when we joined forces with partners in

agriculture

and boijoli farmers the goal was to

remove these barriers

the farmers would transition to more

sustainable shade coffee agroforestry

systems that would sequester carbon

we the university of the south would pay

farmers up front for the carbon held on

their farms

we’d use a campus green fee that was

targeted for sustainability projects

swani students could participate

directly by conducting tree surveys for

the verification process

side by side with haitian students from

partners in agriculture’s

agronomy program this would drive down

the cost of the program

offer important educational experiences

for everyone

and help build strong connections with

our haitian partners

thus omni cafe was born with a meeting

in a church near john nelson’s home

followed by the construction of a tree

nursery

a year later a couple thousand trees

were distributed to a dozens

omni cafe farmers and the next year

the number of participating households

grew to 50.

every spring teams of haitian and swanee

students

comb the hillsides of boijoli to count

and measure every tree

at first the results were disappointing

the zealous farmers had planted way more

coffee than shade trees

and three-quarters of the fragile

seedlings had died during that

first dry season nonetheless

the farmers received their first carbon

payment

based on the number of surviving trees

it averaged about thirty dollars a

family

the following year we returned to find

that farmers had planted

many more shade trees and those that had

survived the previous year were now

thriving every year the carbon payment

grew

as we counted more and more trees and at

the end of the fourth year

we celebrated the first coffee harvest

all the while our relationships with

somni cafe farmers grew stronger

our students spent summers in haiti

conducting on-farm research

they also played a lot of cards and

dominoes with farmers late into the

night

we were family at the end of the

five-year study

we found that the number of shade trees

had increased by tenfold

and all the trees had grown

significantly in size

storing over 120 tons of carbon

across 50 tiny plots of land

this is not a huge amount of carbon

compared to the gigatons of co2 that

humanity

releases every year but it does offer a

model

of what is possible when institutions

like liberal arts colleges

partner with small farmers to work

towards climate change solutions

and as these young trees continue to

grow they will increasingly

absorb and sequester more co2 while

offering

family farms all the benefits that trees

provide

like coffee to sell equally important

carbon offset projects can help avoid

further deforestation

we found that over half of zami cafe

farmers use their carbon payment

to buy things like school uniforms these

are items that might otherwise be

afforded by selling charcoal made from

trees

the champion of all tree planters was of

course john nelson

we counted more than a thousand trees on

his farm estimated to sequester

15 tons of carbon his farm became

legendary as it grew into a shady

biodiverse paradise using the haitian

custom

of communal work parties we organized

farmer to farmer workshop so that john

and others could share their expertise

haiti like many places in the world

suffers from political instability

often reaching crisis proportions

in fact our haitian friends tell us that

current

food and fuel shortages are so severe

they create pressures similar to those

after the

2010 earthquake which is really hard to

imagine

we’ve had to cancel trips as protests

against government corruption have

flared

and crippled the country but our close

relationships with farmers

and partners in agriculture have meant

that the project continues

the tree surveys are led by haitian

farmers

and last year before christmas

carbon payments totaling six thousand

dollars were distributed to the 50

families of boijoli

john nelson died suddenly maybe it was a

stroke in the middle of the night

being up in the mountains at least a

two-hour walk from a hospital

meant that he didn’t have much of a

chance

however his legacy lives on not only in

all those trees that he planted but in

the vision that we

shared carbon is a cash crop

one that can help mitigate climate

change while uplifting

rural economies seventy percent

of the food grown on our planet is

produced by small

farmers who are most vulnerable to

extreme weather

and natural disasters projected to be a

consequence

of climate change addressing global

challenges such as climate change

and rural poverty are often presented

as coming at a cost to society

but planting trees is a regenerative

practice

that protects soils restores degraded

lands

adds productivity and resilience to

family farms

and remove co2 from our atmosphere

imagine the carbon sequestration and

the livelihoods improved if farmers

everywhere

but especially in the global south could

participate

in the booming carbon market

we can make a difference by choosing to

offset our own emissions

and by supporting projects that invest

in small farmers

like john nelson who have so much to

contribute to

climate change solutions paying

farmers to sequester carbon is a global

win-win

ultimately it’s about climate justice

for all

thank you