Key Articles and Publications on Carbon Ranching

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These are key articles and publications on carbon ranching. It is a representative selection of current writing and research, rather than a comprehensive list. It will be updated as often as possible!

General Articles

"Cap-and-Spade: Will California's Carbon Market Dollars Go to Organic Farms?"
Twilight Greenaway, Grist, Oct 4, 2012
http://grist.org/food/cap-and-trade-farm-in-ca/

"Trees Absorb Less Carbon in Warming World Than Experts Assumed"
Robert Krier, Inside Climate News, May 21, 2012
http://insideclimate.org/news/20120523/trees-forests-co2-carbon-photosynthesis-deforestation-wildfires-drought

"California's Deadlocked Delta: Is Carbon Farming the Future?"
Lauren Sommer, QUEST, May 2012
http://science.kqed.org/quest/audio/californias-deadlocked-delta-is-carbon-farming-the-future/

"Carbon Sequestration for Dummies"
Dan O'Brien's blog, March 2012
http://wildideabuffalo.com/2012/carbon-sequestration-for-dummies/

"Grassland Soils Offer Some Insurance Against Climate Change"
Science Daily / January 2012
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120129151054.htm

"Cattle Ranches and Carbon." (The Marin Carbon Project)
Jennifer Skene / KQED / August 2011
http://science.kqed.org/quest/2011/08/29/cattle-ranches-and-carbon/

"Can 'Climate-Smart' Agriculture Help Both Africa and the Planet?"
Fred Pearce / Yale 360, 2011
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/after_durban_can_climate_smart_farming_help_africa_and_the_planet/2477/

"Crops with Deeper Roots Capture More Carbon, Fight Drought: Study"
David Fogarty / Reuters, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/05/us-crops-carbon-idUSTRE77412Q20110805

"Cattle Can Help Restore Degraded Soil: Evidence Shows Grazing Replenishes Nutrients."
Soil Science Society of America / New Release, 2011
https://www.soils.org/news-media/releases/2011/0104/442/5

"Greener Pastures: The Stomachs and Hooves of Cows May Be the Key to Turning Deserts into Grasslands, and Even Taming Climate Change."
Judith Schwartz / Conservation Magazine, 2011
http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/06/greener-pastures/

"The Brown Revolution: Increasing Agricultural Productivity Naturally."
Lisa Hamilton / The Atlantic, 2011
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/the-brown-revolution-increasing-agricultural-productivity-naturally/245748/

"Could Dirt Help Heal the Climate?"
Kristen Olsen / Discover Magazine, 2011
http://discovermagazine.com/2011/may/06-could-dirt-help-heal-the-climate

"Grazing of Cattle Pastures Can Improve Soil Quality."
ScienceDaily, March 3^rd, 2011.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110303111626.htm

"Carbon Cowboys: By Storing Carbon in the Soil, Ranch Owners can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions"
Jessica A. Knoblauch / Emagazine, 2010
http://www.emagazine.com/archive/5144

"A Revolutionary Idea about Cattle Ranching"
Judith D. Schwartz / Time Magazine, 2010
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2016079,00.html

"Could Grasslands Help Fight Global Warming? Scientists Dig Deep for Carbon Solution."
ScienceDaily (June 21, 2010)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621121256.htm

"The Only Way to Have a Cow"
Bill McKibben / Orion, 2010
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/5339/

"Evolution by the Grassroots"
Olivia Judson / New York Times op-ed, 2010
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/evolution-by-the-grassroots/

"A Win-Win Policy: Conserving Lands and Mitigating Climate Change in a Public-Private Partnership"
Steven Apfelbaum / HuffingtonPost Green, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-apfelbaum/a-winwin-policy-conservin_b_746826.html

"It's Time the Sky Fell"
Steven H. Rich / Range Magazine, 2010
http://www.rangemagazine.com/features/spring-10/sp10-range-sky_fell.pdf

"How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Help Save the Planet"
Lisa Abend / Time Magazine, 2010
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1953692,00.html

"Could Cows Heal the West?"
Moises Velasquez-Manoff / Christian Science Monitor, 2009
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Wildlife/2009/0120/could-cows-heal-the-west

"Scientists Help Ranchers Wrangle Carbon Emissions"
Christopher Joyce / NPR News, 2009
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121200619

"The Amazing Benefits of Grass-fed Meat"
Richard Manning / Mother Earth News, 2009
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/Grass-Fed-Meat-Benefits.aspx

General Books, Reports, and Publications

"Mitigating Climate Change Through Food and Land Use." By Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit. WorldWatch Report no. 179. WorldWatch Institute, Washington, D.C. 2009. http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6126

The Carbon Farming Handbook: an Introduction to Soil Carbon, Land Management and Climate Change (3^rd edition) Published by the Carbon Farmers of Australia.
To purchase: http://carbonfarminghandbook.blogspot.com/

"Raising the Steaks: global warming and pasture-raised beef production in the United States." A Report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 2011.

More Technical

'Carbon Sequestration' / Rattan Lal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 2008 http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/363/1492/815.full.pdf

'Grassland Management and Conversion Into Grassland: Effects on Soil Carbon'/ Richard Conant, Keith Paustian, Edward Elliott, Ecological Adaptations, 2001. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/37788/1/cona2282.pd

'Soil Science: Fungal Friends Against Drought' / Nature Climate Change, January 2012 http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n4/full/nclimate1392.html

'Surface Soil Changes during Twelve Years of Pasture Management in the Southern Piedmont USA' / Alan J. Franzluebbers and John A. Stuedemann. Soil Science Society Journal, vol. 76, no. 6, 2010 / https://www.soils.org/publications/sssaj/articles/74/6/2131

'Land Use Alters the Resistance and Resilience of Soil Food Webs to Drought' / Nature Climate Change, January 2012 http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n4/full/nclimate1368.html

"Climate Change Mitigation Finance for Smallholder Agriculture: a guide book to harvesting soil carbon sequestration benefits." FAO, Rome, 2011.

"Grassland Carbon Sequestration: Management, Policy and Economics. Proceedings of the workshop on the role of grassland carbon sequestration in the mitigation of climate change." Edited by Michael Abberton, Richard Conant and Caterina Batello. FAO, Rome, 2010.

'Rethinking Ecosystem Resilience in the Face of Climate Change' / Plos Biology, 2010 http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000438

'The Potential for Carbon Sequestration in the United States' / Congressional Budget Office, 2007.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/86xx/doc8624/09-12-CarbonSequestration.pdf

Peter Smith. "Soaking Up the Carbon," in What is Land For?: the Food, Fuel, and Climate Change Debate, edited by Michael Winter and Matt Lobley. Earthscan Publishing, London, 2009. http://www.earthscan.co.uk/?tabid=74738

'The Role of livestock in sustainable food systems' / The Soil Association (UK)
http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=qm0ueyxHQjI%3d&tabid=313

Support for the Carbon Ranch Project is provided by the Compton Foundation, the New Cycle Foundation, and the Lydia B. Stokes Foundation, as well as by the Quivira Coalition and its supporters.