How to Build Soil Carbon in Zambia: With Pigs

Seth J. Itzkan
2 min readJan 17, 2020

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SEBASTIAN SCOTT DEMONSTRATES ONCE-A-DAY PIG PEN MOVEMENTS — EQUIVALENT TO 7000 PIGS ON ONE HECTARE FOR ONE DAY.

When Sebastian Scott is as popular as George Monbiot, humanity will have a chance. We’ll understand the role of animals in building soil carbon, and, if Soil4Climate has any influence, we’ll understand the role of soil carbon in mitigating climate change. Using this method, Sebastian has increased his soil organic matter (SOM) from approximately 0.5% (typical for the sandy soil in the area) to 2.5%. For those of you doing math at home, that equates to 9.6 TONS of carbon per acre or 24 TONS of carbon per hectare increase. Over large enough areas (such as size of Zambia) that equates to 1.8 BILLION TONS or 1.8 GIGATONS of sequestered CARBON. The numbers get large, quick, and if you’re trying to mitigate global warming, this is what you want.

When Sebastian Scott is as popular as George Monbiot, humanity will have a chance.

Of course, this is more than just a carbon play, for each additional 1% of SOM (such as from 1% to 2%), you are increasing the water holding capacity by 20,000 gallons per acre or 50,000 gallons per hectare. Converting to liters, this is about 190,000 liters per hectare. Think that would mitigate drought and extend the growing season in semiarid areas? Yebo!

Trail left by the movable pig pen
Trail left by the movable pig pen.
SEBASTIAN SCOTT DEMONSTRATES ONCE-A-DAY PIG PEN MOVEMENTS — EQUIVALENT TO 7000 PIGS ON ONE HECTARE FOR ONE DAY.

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