It was launched by Green & Blacks chocolate founder Craig Sams. But complementary growing media products have been delayed due to the lateness of the season.
Carbon Gold is made from charcoal that is produced by heating woody plant matter using a clean technology that captures up to 70% of carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. The product was launched at the beginning of March.
Sams said: "Garden centres want to see what the product looks like. There's nothing like it on the market. It's the first opportunity for gardeners to make a personal contribution - if you reward people for keeping carbon in the soil you change the way they grow."
Carbon Gold has been trialled at Riverford Organics in Devon by gardener Mark Diacono, producing a 20 per cent increase in yield, said Sams. The range is Soil Association approved.
All Comments
All political persuasions agree, building soil carbon is GOOD.
To Hard bitten Farmers, wary of carbon regulations that only increase their costs, Building soil carbon is a savory bone, to do well while doing good.
Biochar provides the tool powerful enough to cover Farming's carbon foot print while lowering cost simultaneously.
Agriculture allowed our cultural accent and Agriculture will now prevent our descent.
Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,
Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, \( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.
Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta \(black earth, TP), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages... SIMULTANEOUSLY!
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration \(= to 1 Ton CO2e) + Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels = to 1MWh exported electricity, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.
Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
"Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes;
"Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !".
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
Microbes like to sit down when they eat.
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders & Kingdoms of life.
This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of penitence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.
Unlike CCS which only reduces emissions, biochar systems draw down CO2 every energy cycle, closing a circle back to support the soil food web. The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet. Pyrolysis conversion plants are the only infrastructure we need to build out.
Another significant aspect of low cost Biomass cook stoves that produce char is removal of BC aerosols and no respiratory disease emissions. At Scale, replacing "Three Stone" stoves the health benefits would equal eradication of Malaria http://biocharfund.org/
The Congo Basin Forest Fund \(CBFF).recently funded The Biochar Fund $300K for these systems citing these priorities;
\(1) Hunger amongst the world's poorest people, the subsistence farmers of Sub-Saharan Africa,
\(2) Deforestation resulting from a reliance on slash-and-burn farming,
\(3) Energy poverty and a lack of access to clean, renewable energy, and
\(4) Climate change.
The Biochar Fund :
Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon
http://scitizen.com/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_viewBlog.php?idTheme=14&idContribution=3011
The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all \( that , and the size of the Biochar corn root balls )
http://biocharfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=75