Carbon Sponge is an interdisciplinary team including farmers, scientists, artists and educators led by White Feather Farm’s Director of Innovation, Brooke Singer. The goal of this project work is to better understand soil carbon sequestration as a means to address climate change, improve soil and human health and develop resiliency through collaboration. To do this we are building experimental plots for anyone to track soil dynamics with a simple and reliable kit coupled with professional lab testing. We consider both recent scientific knowledge and more ancient traditions as guides for land-use practices that support ecological farming.

Originally initiated at the New York Hall of Science in 2018, Carbon Sponge partnered with White Feather Farm in 2021 and established the Carbon Sponge Hub at White Feather Farm in 2022. Today the Carbon Sponge Hub at WFF is a network of 10 small-scale farms across the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions with each farm hosting an experimental plot. On these plots, farmers try new cultivation practices, test with the Carbon Sponge Kit and collect data. Through peer-to-peer training and evidence-based decision making, Carbon Sponge is helping farmers experiment with less risk and more easily share knowledge.

We are looking closely at specific plants, like sorghum, along with a mix of cover crops. Sorghum is originally from East Africa and is “climate smart” because it is drought tolerant, deep rooted and accumulates silica in its biomass that is known to bind with carbon. We are asking can we create food systems that simultaneously feed the soil and our bodies.