The Pancake Parlour has become the first Australian company to buy Australian soil credits through the Carbon Soil Credits scheme.

Through a monthly sponsorship, called a soil carbon credit, farmers are rewarded and encouraged to change their land management practices to increase organic carbon levels in their soil.

Mr Michael Kiely of Carbon Farmers of Australia said The Pancake Parlour made history as the first organisation to buy Soil Carbon Credits.

“In doing so, they have launched a revolution in environmental protection and the most effective response to climate change the world can make,” he said.

Professor Tim Flannery, one of the world’s leading authorities on climate change and Australian of The Year, has endorsed the concept of farmers being rewarded for changing their land management practices towards increasing soil carbon.

An Australian, family-owned company, The Pancake Parlour is committed to using organic products where possible and ingredients free from genetically modified organisms.

Ms Samantha Jewel, a director of The Pancake Parlour, said the company was very excited to be the first Australian organisation to participate.

For more information regarding the Carbon Soil Credits Scheme visit
 http://www.carboncoalition.com.au.

Fact Sheet

• Dr Christine Jones, soil ecologist and founder of Carbon For Life Inc. said CO2 has the greatest chance of being controlled by allowing the soil to restructure so it will hold carbon rather than release it. This process is known as a “carbon sink”.

• Carbon (C) provides the structural basis for many compounds. It is the building block for all life on earth. People are around 18% carbon, wood is 50% carbon and the organic matter in soil is around 58% carbon. We cannot live without carbon. Neither can our soils.

• The process of photosynthesis, where green plants use sunlight to synthesize food from carbon dioxide and water from the soil, forms glucose. This glucose forms the base of a range of chemical reactions creating carbon compounds such as carbohydrates, proteins, waxes, oils and our fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas.

• Over 50% of the organic carbon that was once in the topsoil has been lost to the atmosphere due to poor land management practices.

• Soils contain more carbon than is contained in vegetation and the atmosphere combined.

• In bare paddocks, more carbon will move to the atmosphere than is stored becoming a source of atmospheric carbon. This substantially increases greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

• Any farming practice that increases groundcover improves soil structure and builds soil carbon. This process results in an increase of water, energy, life, nutrients and most importantly reduces the levels of greenhouse gases.

The information on this fact sheet has been sourced from Dr Christine Jones, founder of Carbon For Life Inc. http://www.amazingcarbon.com.