In George’s last article in his carbon series, he discussed soil fertility—what it is and what it isn’t. While it’s important to have nutrients available to our plants, it’s more important to strike a natural balance in our soils. And this is where our discussion turns to carbon and its role in agriculture.

Carbon: The Basis of Life

Carbon is the basis of life. Our bodies are primarily different forms of sugar and water. Now, we do have a skeleton that is made of calcium and other minerals. And we have muscles and all that. But, on the simplest level, our body is mostly a carbon/water complex. And it’s no different in the plant world. Our plants, trees, and vegetation are basically different forms of carbon. 

I’ve heard it said that carbon is the basis of organic chemistry. Glucose is C₆H₁₂O₆. To me, this molecule is a balance between hydrogen energy and oxygen that is held to carbon. We all know that our plants build sugars from our atmosphere. Oxygen is around twenty-one percent of our atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a very, very small percentage of the atmosphere. It turns out that nitrogen is seventy-eight percent of what we’re breathing. We like to think of oxygen as “air,” which it is, but it’s not the largest percentage of our atmosphere. That’s nitrogen. 

I give credit to the good Lord above for blessing me with the ability to learn and the patience to look at nature and discover how it really works. Take time to consider a natural forest or even the grove surrounding a farm-place in the Midwest. It grows just fine without manmade inputs. In fact, it grows well because man doesn’t mess with it. Now, with that said, we’re doing something different on our farms. So why is carbon important to our soil? Well, the biology in our soil consume carbon. Carbon is their food. 

Carbon: A Part of the Natural Soil Cycle

Let’s think about our own bodies again for a minute. We eat carbohydrates, which are essentially sugar molecules. Carbohydrates are based on carbon and contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. This very simply explains to me why carbon is so important. Saying that carbon is our lifeblood, and in agriculture food for our soil biology, is true. 

Up in the Midwest, you guys have a lot of organic matter in your soil; your soil is carbon-based. But that amount is not a stagnant number. There is no consistent locked-down amount of carbon in your soil. It’s not the same as placing gold coins in a safe and returning to the safe later to retrieve the same number of coins. Why? Because the carbon in your soil is continually changing. It needs to change because our soil carbon is a life system that is continually recycling. You hear a lot about the term “regenerative ag” these days. Well, nothing is new there; our soils are continually regenerating. They are breaking down and being rebuilt. The biology consume the food in the soil. They break down the plant residue, manure, or other things that are added to the field. Down the line these nutrient sources are broken down into simple sugars—carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. 

Carbon: Breathing Life Into Soil Respiration

In my last article, I talked about cation exchange capacity. CEC basically describes how well soil will hang on to anything that’s applied to it. By definition, CEC is the exchange of a positive hydrogen ion at the root tip for a nutrient. As farmers, we spend a lot of time thinking about photosynthesis, but we rarely ever talk about respiration. 

During respiration, the biology is breaking down sugar that’s naturally made in the plant and then using that for food and energy. They consume the energy just like we do when we eat food. And the byproducts are CO₂ and water. That is the biological respiration of sugar. That’s how it works in nature. So, the hydrogen energy needed to break down the nutrients in the soil comes from the breakdown of the sugar. I didn’t invent that; God did. Photosynthesis is obviously crucial, but respiration is the other half of the equation. 

If I could get anything across to fellow farmers, it is to have a greater respect for how God designed nature. The entire system has to function as God intended. When we talk about adding various products to the soil, we have to keep this natural system in mind—all aspects of it. Otherwise, we’re interfering with God’s design and, although we may see benefits in the short term, we’re not going to be doing the long-term health of our soils or our farms any favors. 

Carbon Products for Your Farm

If carbon is the basis of all life, and if we’re supposed to work with God’s design and not against it, then what should we do as farmers to sustainably increase the productivity of our farms? Since carbon is the foundation of all life, should we add more carbon to the soil to supercharge the growth of our plants? Yes, there are numerous carbon products out on the market today. But it’s not quite that simple. These products are not created equal and some of them are as good as useless. In our next article, we’ll take a look at the different types of carbon products on the market today and what’s really at the heart of these formulas. Is it really the carbon with the biggest potential to improve your soil health, or is it something else?