blue moon fund

Soil is an invaluable resource. The production of food, fiber and fuel—the building blocks of human existence—is rooted in the soil. Yet soils are being degraded across the globe at astonishing rates, victim to erosion, nutrient depletion and urbanization.

Since the advent of the Agricultural Revolution in Mesopotamia 10,000 years ago, humans have manipulated plant communities, and by extension, soils, for their benefit. Crop domestication resulted in food surpluses enabling the flourishing of diverse cultures.  But with agriculture come complex soil management issues. Repeated cropping and irrigation cycles deplete essential nutrients and degrade soil structure and fertility.

Thousands of years before the arrival of the conquistadores, in the Amazon Basin, indigenous communities thrived, developing unique cropping practices to ameliorate agricultural problems encountered in their intense tropical environment.  In recent years scientists have been researching one of these practices—Terra Preta—with keen interest and an eye towards reviving it for present day use.

The Terra Preta (literally, black soil) phenomenon is found across vast areas of the Amazon Basin.  In a nutshell, Terra Preta are charcoal-enhanced soils associated with pottery shards, bones and other unmistakable signs of human habitation. Compared to the acidic, nutrient-poor, red clay soils from which they’re derived, Terra Preta are dark (from the carbonized remains of plant material) and, crucially, highly fertile.

What makes charcoal-enhanced soils so much more productive than their parent material?  What properties does charcoal derived from organic sources, aka biochar, confer to the soil? Blue moon fund is collaborating with universities, research institutions, NGO’s and the farming community to find out. 

Biochar is loosely defined as a carbon-rich product obtained when biomass such as wood or crop residue is heated in low- or no-oxygen conditions. Pyrolysis, the process resulting in biochar formation, occurs at low temperatures compared to combustion, i.e. burning, and in a closed chamber restricting air flow.

Importantly, the thermal degradation of biomass via pyrolysis creates not only the solid biochar fraction but also bio-oil liquids and hydrocarbon gases. Researchers are enthusiastically pursuing the viability of these liquid and gaseous fractions as sources of biofuel for energy production.

Transformed from raw feedstock, the highly porous and well-structured biochar harbors exciting agronomic potential. Research demonstrates that biochar provides multiple soil benefits including soil aeration, water storage, nutrient retention, pH stabilization, and microbial activation. Additionally, because it is a highly stable carbon-rich material resistant to microbial degradation, it may be a simple way to draw down atmospheric carbon levels through soil carbon sequestration thus providing a tool to combat climate change.

blue moon is promoting biochar research and deployment at multiple levels and in all of our geographic focal areas. From crop waste management and reduced methane offgassing in rice paddies in China, to vegetable farming using poultry litter biochar in Virginia, to comprehensive feedstock analyses, technology development and farmer outreach in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, we are exploring ways to use biochar for the benefit of ecosystem and human health.  In so doing we are reviving the ancient wisdom of prehistoric communities that understood that biochar is good for the soil.