I think if we can do a broad-spectrum baselining project, we will learn so much. We'll have not just that baseline and be able to see where we are in the future, but we'll also have a compare and contrast. If you have really beautifully adaptive multi-paddock grazed land next to heavy conventional cropping, you'll get to see what the soil health looks like. You'll be able to contrast the biological communities, the levels of soil carbon, right across the board. That will give us a huge clue into who's going to be able to adapt better and what practices might help with climate mitigation and adaptation. I think that would be incredibly helpful.
In terms of technology, with the Alberta protocols we always say that we can't measure; it's too expensive. That was true 10 years ago, but now with algorithms, mapping, and monitoring, there is so much technology that's just burgeoning. What we're planning on doing, or what Food Water Wellness is trying to get off the ground, is a project that would use the conventional methods to actually use combustion to test soil carbon. We'd also be using spectroscopy to correlate that, and then correlate that with microbiological health. It is much more efficient now that we have genomics easily accessible. We hadn't been able to type the genes before in the microbiological community.
Yes, I think a baseline study would be incredible. The way I look at it is that if you can bring the opportunity for offsets in it, then you can actually have private industry help pay for part of that baselining study. It could be a co-operative process between large emitters and the government.