In October 2021, our article How Poultry Farmers Can Use Environmental Commodities covered the passage of the Growing Climate Solutions Act (GCSA) in the US. Its goal is to help small farmers enter the voluntary environmental credit market and join the fight against climate change.

Governments all over the world realize that implementing sustainable agriculture practices like decreasing fossil fuel consumption, switching to sustainable energy sources, and maintaining healthy soil, can reduce carbon emissions and produce more carbon offsets globally.

This article shows how small-scale poultry farmers can make changes to become more sustainable and get started in the environmental commodities market.

How poultry farmers can get started with sustainable agriculture

The main goals of sustainable agriculture are to actively promote environmental health while increasing farm profitability, quality food production, and quality of life.

Small-scale poultry farmers can reduce their carbon emissions by making changes like these:

• Adopt no-till farming if you grow your own feed. This saves fossil fuel and the crop litter adds nutrients to the soil.

• Replace gas- and diesel-powered machinery with electric powered.

• Switch to solar-powered lighting and water heating.

• Use deep bedding practices which reduce the release of greenhouse gases. Poultry litter is a nutritional addition to the soil that's rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. Adding it to soil also reduces water runoff and consumption, and it promotes a healthy bacteria population.

• Pasture-raise birds and practice rotational grazing.

• Keep animal processing as close to the farm and market as possible.

• Go organic and stick to heirloom breeds like the farmers in our previous article did. This creates a niche market, entices local customers, and cuts out the middleman.

How poultry landowners can contribute to carbon sequestration and make money at the same time

Single.Earth is a digital asset company that hopes to encourage landowners to leave their land wild. For every 100 kg of carbon stored, cattle ranchers and farmers get a Merit token. These tokens can then be used to buy products and services or simply be converted into cash.

The project is in its beginning stages, but landowners can sign up early on Single.Earth’s website.