A mound of windblown soil on Neva Heilman’s farm captured by a windbreak of tumbleweeds against a fence. Eroded soil is piled several feet above the field on the downwind side of the fence. Agriculture isn’t just vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate; it’s also a source of greenhouse gas emissions. Figuring out how to make how we farm and what we eat more climate-friendly can be good for everyone. Fort Collins-based ecologist Mark Easter explores these challenges in his new book , The Blue Plate: A Food Lover’s Guide to Climate Chaos. In it, he discusses how we can make our food systems more sustainable, and how farms in the West can be a blueprint for regenerative agriculture everywhere. Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes spoke with Easter to hear more about his work. Editor’s note: This interview and this transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Caroline Llanes: So let’s get started. I’d love for you to tell me a little bit about what inspired you to write this book. Mark Easter: What spawned me to write this book… I started the work in about 2014. I realized that, at the time, the world, the scientific community, but in particular, the stakeholders, the taxpayers, citizens of the world, were starting to understand that when you burn stuff, it creates pollution. When you burn coal, natural gas, oil, it creates pollution that could warm the climate, that was (and is) warming the climate. But they didn’t really understand that carbon emissions that were coming from growing food were not coming from burning stuff. They were coming from microbes. It was just fascinating to me that the ecosystems were such a source of carbon emissions, but also that the ecosystem could play a role in actually […]
Click here to view original web page at www.aspenpublicradio.org