Conservation Agriculture

• This article examines the environmental impacts of tilling, what conservation agriculture entails, and how much CO₂ equivalent emissions can be reduced if conservation agriculture continues to expand.
• Students will learn that tilling can decrease the amount of nutrients in a field, conservation agriculture involves techniques such as crop rotation and cover cropping, and the continued growth of conservation agriculture would sequester many gigatons of CO₂ equivalent emissions.

Positives

• This article also talks about climate resilience in agriculture, showing students that this solution contributes to more than just carbon sequestration.
• An additional article on regenerative annual cropping is referenced within this article, giving students and teachers a clear path for extended research.

Additional Prerequisites

• Students may need the terms tilling, sequester, crop rotation, cover cropping, degraded, organic, mitigation, and others defined before reading the article.
• Students should know the different types of climates.
• Students should understand climate change and the role of agriculture in contributing to climate change.
• The second link in the References section does not work, but it's not necessary for analyzing the article.
  

Differentiation

• Teachers can use this article as a conceptual introduction to regenerative annual cropping and other forms of sustainable agriculture.
• Students can read this article at home to prepare for an in-class discussion on the sustainability of America's agricultural practices.
• This article could supplement a classroom discussion on the connection between agricultural cost efficiency and sustainability.

• In civics classes, students can participate in a brainstorming session where students consider different ways to draft policies that incentivize producers to farm sustainably.
• Students can research other climate solutions from the Table of Solutions.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.