Benjamin Houlton, who began a five-year term as the new Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in 2020. He spoke recently to the state Senate Agriculture Committee. Submitted Photo

Farmers may yet play an important role in decreasing the state’s carbon emissions — without resorting to building wind turbines or solar panels.

Members of the state Senate Agriculture Committee recently heard a presentation from Benjamin Houlton, who began a five-year term as the new Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in 2020.

Houlton is working on a project that involves capturing carbon and putting it into the soil, where it can remain locked up for thousands of years or longer. Researchers are using recycled rock dust to enrich farm and rangeland soils, in order to accelerate natural weathering processes by which soils capture atmospheric carbon. For every two carbon dioxide molecules that enter the soil, one of these molecules is broken down through the process of weathering and is released into the ocean as calcium carbonate. The other CO2 molecule is released back into the atmosphere. Researchers first began testing enhanced weathering in the early 2000s, by testing various kinds of rocks in lab settings.

“Thank you for this quick presentation,” said state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay. “I’m intrigued by this largely because I’m very concerned that farmers are under a lot of pressure to convert their land and the only crop they’re going to have someday is going to be wind turbines and solar panels. I think coming up with alternatrives to carbon sequestration issues that will address that so it continues to be fertile farmland is going to be very important going forward. You can see the pressure from the solar speculation that’s going on throughout New York state especially. My opinion is you’re never going to sequester the same amount of carbon with solar panels as you would actually having farmers actively doing it.”

Houlton said research in California has shown a cost ranging from $60 to $300 per ton of carbon captured. At the same time, farming with rock dust can release nutrients that help plants grow, including phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Preliminary results show increased crop yields in alfalfa and corn, in plots with the added soil amendments versus plots without them. Lastly, the project can help rebuilding eroding soil.

“It’s a tricky, tricky set of issues,” Houlton said in response to Borrello. “The college is working hard on this with their stakeholders. Obviously we need to support the food sector. We understand how important agriculture is in New York state, but also imagine the pandemic if we didn’t have local food when it first struck. So we have to do both and I know that sounds a little bit down the middle, but I really believe in building bridges, too. I think there are ways you can site solar, sequester carbon and continue to grow food if we’re thoughtful in our design. Uplifting our rural economy through a new carbon-based system could be terrific.”

Assemblywoman Anna Kelles, D-Ithaca, has introduced A.9174 in the Assembly to establish a natural carbon sequestration research program headquartered in the state Land Grant College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It will establish demonstration projects on Cornell CALS research and extension-owned farms and forests. NYSERDA would pay for some of the research, as would the Fuel NY program, while the legislation also calls on a tax on gas and electric corporations. Companion legislation has been introduced in the state Senate by Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Kingston and Senate Agriculture Committee chairwoman.

“Research is urgently needed to expand upon proven techniques, develop and demonstrate new technologies, and quantify overall benefits of natural climate solutions,” Kelles wrote in her legislative memorandum.