Do you lube before you probe?

Climate change is a real concern for most of us on this planet and, as most of us know, agriculture has a part to play. Whether it's due to the loss of soil organic matter as carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of cultivation or the flush of nitrous oxide (N2O) as nitrogenous fertilisers are reduced under flooded soils, there's a chunk of the human contribution to this issue that lays at farmers' feet. But it's not as though we're doing nothing to better understand and mitigate these potentially harmful agricultural practices, which are widely recognised as being important components in continuing high yield crop production to feed and clothe the ever growing global population.