[Consumer Climate Action Column] Uniting Efforts for Cancer Prevention and Earth Healing through Carbon Farming

Lee Young-geun, Director of Carbon Healing Agriculture Research Institute and Lawyer

On December 10, 2020, the Government of the Republic of Korea declared the ‘2050 Carbon Neutrality Vision.’

‘Carbon neutrality’ refers to reducing greenhouse gases emitted from fossil fuel use and other sources, and offsetting or removing the inevitably emitted greenhouse gases through forests, wetlands, and other means so that the net emissions become ‘0.’

Accordingly, changes are occurring in various fields, with a representative example being the transition to a ‘plastic-free’ society.

The Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters is serializing the ‘Consumer Climate Action Column’ to empathize with and participate in the plastic-free movement.

Humanity achieved the Industrial Revolution and remarkable productivity increases through capitalism, which stimulates rational individuals to maximize their desires through free trade. However, for this very reason, it has caused global carbon excess and a climate crisis. But is current agriculture truly blameless in the climate crisis?

The Haber process (nitrogen fixation method), developed in 1908, made mass production of nitrogen fertilizer essential for plants possible. Combined with pesticide development and seed improvement technologies, the ‘Green Revolution’ was achieved, and the world population eventually reached 8 billion.

However, fertilizers excessively applied over a long period were not absorbed by plants but were discharged from the soil into rivers and seas, causing green and red tides that destroyed ecosystems and ultimately accelerated carbon emissions again. Moreover, the 2019 IPCC ‘Special Report on Climate Change and Land’ stated that land use accounts for about 23% of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities.

There is also a claim that emissions from the food sector account for about one-third of total greenhouse gas emissions. Fertilizers and pesticides sown for human survival, and the food produced from them, are threatening ecosystems and human survival. This is the ‘paradox of fertilizer.’

However, recent research has revealed that soil itself is the most important alternative to achieving carbon neutrality. At the 2016 Paris UN Climate Agreement conference, France proposed the 0.4% principle (4 per 1000 initiative).

It states that if the carbon absorption capacity of the surface soil (topsoil 30cm) is increased by just 0.4% annually, the surface can store a vast amount of carbon, enough to store all greenhouse gases emitted by industrial activities. Of course, it is plants that store this carbon. And agriculture.

However, plants cannot capture and store carbon in the soil alone. They must cooperate with microorganisms. Therefore, we are paying renewed attention to microorganisms.

Plants grow, develop, and adapt to the environment through close symbiotic relationships with various types of soil microorganisms, mutually helping each other. For example, fungi such as mycelium attach to plant roots, receiving habitat and carbon (carbon compounds) from the plant, and in return supply minerals and water to the plant.

Thus, microorganisms protect plants from unfavorable environments or stresses caused by pests and diseases by suppressing plant pathogenic fungi through various methods, including the production of antibiotics. They also produce and supply plant growth hormones and perform roles such as nitrogen fixation.

Additionally, microorganisms that fix nitrogen, suppress plant disease occurrence, produce substances toxic only to specific pests, and decompose soil pollutants to restore contamination are continuously being discovered.

Moreover, carbon compounds secreted from plant roots and excretions from earthworms act like glue, binding soil particles together (aggregation), and this aggregated soil allows appropriate air and water permeability, greatly aiding plant root growth.

Fungi, especially arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, produce glomalin, a protein that acts as this adhesive in plant roots. Glomalin has an outstanding carbon storage capacity, with about 30% of soil carbon stored in this substance.

However, excessive tillage destroys the soil’s aggregate structure, destroying the habitat (ecosystem) of microorganisms in the soil and killing these fungi. In cases where there is no soil protection such as cover crops, soil scattering and erosion by air and water are accelerated, damaging fungal growth and carbon storage capacity.

Therefore, the various principles proposed by carbon farming or regenerative agriculture?such as minimizing mechanical and chemical interference (no-tillage, prohibition of chemical use), utilizing cover crops, enhancing biodiversity, and integrated circular livestock farming?are all aimed at helping plants and microorganisms coexist better.

Furthermore, plants grown in active symbiosis with diverse microorganisms utilize mineral nutrients supplied by microorganisms to produce various substances they need themselves, which are very important to humans. In particular, chemical substances produced and secreted by plants to defend themselves from unfavorable environments or pests and diseases are called phytochemicals, which are very important nutrients for human health.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Cancer Center jointly announced the ‘10 Lifestyle Rules for Cancer Prevention (National Cancer Prevention Rules)’ in 2006, listing second among them: “Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, and have a balanced diet with diverse foods.” The government also released the ‘National Cancer Prevention Rules Practice Guidelines (Diet),’ which answered the question ‘How do vegetables and fruits prevent cancer?’ by stating, “Various nutrients such as antioxidant nutrients, plant bioactive compounds, and dietary fiber in vegetables and fruits play a role in preventing normal cells from transforming into cancer.”

Here, plant bioactive compounds refer to phytochemicals. The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated in the practice guidelines that phytochemicals not only have antioxidant effects, detoxification effects, immune function enhancement, hormone regulation, and antibacterial and antiviral effects but also, depending on the type, have various effects such as ‘anticancer effects,’ ‘inhibition of cancer growth,’ ‘suppression of carcinogen activation,’ and ‘cancer prevention.’

Thus, we have learned that even without excessive fertilizers and pesticides, simply helping plants and microorganisms to coexist more actively can aid healthy plant growth and, furthermore, store a large amount of carbon in the soil.

We have also clearly learned that phytochemicals, substances produced by plants in symbiosis with microorganisms, play a very important role in human health. Agricultural products rich in phytochemicals grown through carbon farming can be called genuine (original) agricultural products essential for human health, even having cancer-preventive effects. If such genuine agricultural product cultivation methods spread widely, carbon neutrality through agriculture will no longer be a far-fetched story.

Since increasing carbon absorption by just 0.4% annually can achieve carbon neutrality, this carbon farming method can be the most fundamental alternative to consider in responding to the climate crisis.

The period from about 900 BCE to 200 BCE is called the ‘Axial Age.’ Religions and philosophies that emerged worldwide in China, India, the Middle East, Greece, and elsewhere during this time have had a profound influence on humanity to this day.

The force that turned this axis may have been, on one hand, the rapid increase in productivity, and on the other, the need for power over universal social order. Whatever the reason, thanks to the rotation of this axis, humanity inherited spirits such as equality, empathy, and compassion (the Golden Rule).

After 2,000 years, 20th-century capitalism achieved tremendous productivity improvements, and thanks to this, community awareness transcending time, space, and language limitations has taken root through the internet, mobile phones, big data, and artificial intelligence. A desperate communal value consensus is forming that we must work together to solve the climate crisis, correct capitalism’s contradictions, and restore humanity. Naturally, this interest is moving toward the direction that ‘humans must now seek ways to coexist more actively with microorganisms through plants.’ A new Axial Age is dawning.

It is time to unite our efforts for cancer prevention first and, ultimately, for the healing of the Earth through carbon farming.