Tilling the soil releases carbon into the atmosphere, but does the compost that organic growers apply compensate for that? Emissions of nitrous oxide from on-farm fertilizer applications are thought to be a significant contributor to the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the ­atmosphere. Although the amount of nitrous oxide emitted into the atmosphere is significantly less than the carbon dioxide emitted in the United States, nitrous oxide is far more potent. The effect of one molecule of nitrous oxide is equivalent to that of almost 300 molecules of carbon ­dioxide, according to David Granatstein, sustainable agriculture specialist with Washington […]