Can farmers reverse climate change through carbon farming?

As part of a broad-based climate change initiative, the Biden administration has proposed subsidizing farmers to plant cover crops to sequester carbon in the soil, an approach widely described as “carbon farming.” However, it is expensive to measure the amount of carbon trapped in soil, implying carbon farming programs are likely to be inefficient, and carbon sequestered in response to such incentives is likely to be rereleased if conventional farming practices are reintroduced. At present, remedies for these concerns are few, and adopting carbon farming is costly for farmers, suggesting government resources may be more wisely used for other approaches to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector.