Carbon

Countdown to zero: How one grower brings carbon-neutral bananas to market

Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:13:45 GMT

In the search for sustainable production, tropical fruit grower Kapi Kapi Growers set its sights on an audacious goal, not yet achieved by a competitor: carbon-neutral bananas .

As exciting as this aspiration is, how exactly does one measure and quantify carbon neutrality in fresh fruit?

As Kapi Kapi Growers sought answers, the International Fresh Produce Association collaborated with the grower, outlining how it charted its carbon neutral course in a recently published sustainability case study, “Becoming Carbon Neutral Through Beneficial Environmental Practices.”

“We want to thank IFPA’s sustainability group for supporting us in conducting this case study,” Sofia Acon said in a news release. Acon is president of Kapi Kapi Growers, which is headquartered in the U.S. but was founded in Costa Rica. “As many are well aware, carbon neutrality is a commitment that takes hard work and dedication. We take pride in being among the pioneering banana companies to reach this goal, while also expanding our partnerships and availability of our products in North America and Europe.”

Charting a course to carbon neutral

Having already achieved a laundry list of sustainability certifications — Rainforest Alliance, Sustainably Grown Certified and Ethical Trade Initiative — Kapi Kapi Growers sought to raise the bar once more through recognition by Costa Rica’s National Carbon Neutrality Program, a certification that allowed it to identify as a carbon-neutral company.

While the grower supplies bananas and pineapples to retailers and fruit brands in over 25 countries, it wanted to achieve carbon neutrality in 100% of its banana business. Kapi Kapi Growers achieved that goal in 2022 and is now working to expand its carbon neutral certification to include pineapples, according to the case study.

“We want to work toward change in the direction of even higher levels of sustainable production. This certification alone took [five] years of planning and long-term conviction. For us sustainability is at the core of our bigger purpose as we grow,” Acon said in the case study.

Baselining and mapping a course to carbon neutral

The first step in tackling its goal of carbon neutrality was to address carbon sources.

Excess amounts of carbon released into the atmosphere during operations is not only a problem in the produce industry, but in all industries throughout the world, the case study noted. Carbon neutrality takes not only thoughtful growing and business processes, but it also takes careful planning and analysis.

According to the study, common major carbon contributors for growers include:

Nitrogen-based fertilizers.
Improper soil-management practices.
Machinery and transportation fuels.
Deforestation.

After identifying and assessing the main carbon contributors in an operation, the goal is to track and counterbalance these sources of carbon emissions, according to the case study.

Managing emissions

One you know what you’re working with, next comes the balancing act. Carbon neutrality is achieved through compensating for known carbon emissions by way of environmentally beneficial countermeasures. This tracking is often described as carbon accounting.

According to the case study, the certification process for the banana division began in 2017 and covered 9,000 hectares.

“Main sources of carbon for the company include fertilizers, machinery and transportation. All sources of carbon emissions were identified, quantified and accounted for,” the case study said. “Once identified, the company enacted a plan that included establishing a carbon neutrality management system and implementing reduction measures, which included solar panels installation.”

Related news: How some growers are cultivating sustainability at the apple orchard

Today, Kapi Kapi Growers’ banana-growing operations is powered primarily by solar energy, with over 9,000 solar panels covering all operations, Acon said in the release.

Costa Rica’s National Carbon Neutrality Program, administered by the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, issued a carbon-neutral certification that assures the reduction and offsetting of all carbon emissions generated by Kapi Kapi’s farming operations have been validated.

Benefits of sustainable production

In addition to sharing this industry-leading sustainable agriculture story with consumers, Kapi Kapi Growers’ carbon neutral journey has resulted in cost savings because of operational changes made to achieve certification, according to the release.

As a result of the carbon neutrality initiative, Kapi Kapi Growers said it has saved approximately $400,000 in energy costs as of 2022. Over the next 10 years, the company is estimated to have reached $4 million in energy savings, said the case study.

“We started on a journey that has been integral to the DNA at Kapi Kapi,” Acon said in the release. “As our efforts towards sustainability continue to grow, we hope that we can inspire and support others to pursue a similar path.”

The case study may be accessed on the IFPA’s sustainability site.

Goals that go beyond 'greenwishing'

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 16:36:16 GMT

Along with the annual migration of golden-cheeked warblers, every year in early March tens of thousands of musicians, entrepreneurs, film crews and tech startups descend on sunny Austin, Texas, for the annual South by Southwest Conference.

Also known as SXSW, the festival hosts a dizzying array of concerts, premiers and art activations that take place in every corner of Austin. Also layered onto the festival is an interactive conference that lasts over a week and is punctuated by serious discussions about climate, tech, culture, art, startups and, yes, even food.

From March 10-12, food was a major focus at the 2023 SXSW Conference. Along with familiar celebrities, activists and luminaries, fresh produce innovators, ag advocates and foodtech leaders gathered to share their perspective on the state of the industry, trends, challenges and who’s doing what.

One such discussion was a provocative two-part panel called “Businesses Doing More Than ‘Greenwishing.’” The conversation included leaders from Driscoll’s, The Kroger Co., Google, Bonterra and others who, over the course of two hours, shared many of the strategies and approaches they have used to tackle lofty sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals.

These leaders detailed how they were putting action behind their words, setting milestones, making decisions and making good on well-meaning promises, plans and marketing claims within their organizations.

The panel was hosted by a nonprofit think tank called Foodtank during a SXSW-sponsored summit on Sunday, March 12, at Huston-Tillotson University in East Austin. The discussion wasted no time in diving headfirst into challenges on the minds of many entrepreneurs and food businesses in the audience.

Greenwashing versus greenwishing

“What is greenwishing?” asked Natalie Byrne, founder of impact strategy firm, Blankspace. “We all know what greenwashing is; it’s when you see something, like a marketing campaign, that isn’t tied to real impacts.”

Greenwashing, according to Byrne, is a strategy meant to mislead — tugging at heartstrings without real action behind it. On the other hand, greenwishing is when companies set audacious goals in the distant future with no clear plan to achieve them or a lack of buy-in to accomplish these goals. Both strategies mislead. The difference is that greenwishing seeks to achieve things that are unlikely, for many reasons, to become reality.

“How I see it is a company puts a stake in the ground and says, ‘I want to have this huge goal completed by 2050,’” Byrne said. “In the time it takes to move the company — like a cruise ship — towards that goal, they face challenges.”

Often when facing these challenges, continued Byrne, some companies receive criticism that, in many instances, derails sustainability goals.

“There’s a difference between constructive criticism and just throwing tomatoes in the dark,” she added.

“Greenwishing is really the opposite of good goal-setting for me,” said Emily Ma, head of Food for Good at Google. “I know many people out there want us to set ambitious goals, but there’s a reason why we might be setting slightly less ambitious goals. We truly don’t want to be just wishing for something to happen. We want to be actually making it happen.”

How to avoid ‘pie in the sky’ goals

“Google generally tends to not talk about anything until we have a pretty good plan to get there, or we’ve already done. No good deed goes unpunished,” Ma said. “We tend to be very quiet about what we do until we’re almost done.”

At Kroger, Senior Director of Sustainability and Social Impact Denise Osterhues said her main challenge is narrowing in on where her team can make a measurable impact on a broad and diverse range of topics.

“We are asked to do a lot of things … and some of the advocacy groups are very single-issue,” Osterhues said. “Our portfolio of topics is huge and covers the entire spectrum of things that we manage for people, our planet and to help create a more equitable, fair, sustainable food system. That list of topics is enormous.”

Osterhues said sticking to a rigorous decision-making process has helped her team set goals that they have become reality.

“The main way we show up, in terms of what we decide to do and what our timeline, is our three pillars: people, planet and systems. We have a very broad portfolio of specific topics in within that platform,” she said. “We make decisions every day, based on balancing the tradeoffs, priorities and feedback and engagement from our stakeholders.”

Osterhues dubbed her process “operationalizing ESG decision-making.” Using this model, her team shares their ESG goals with Kroger’s leadership and poses a question at the end. “How can you help us get these goals done? What is achievable and reasonable?” she said.

This feedback and stakeholder engagement helps her team secure the internal buy-in and the support needed to drive the goal across the finish line, she said.

One example on this process in action, Osterhues added, is Kroger’s recent resistance to cave to mounting pressure to set a net-zero target.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen by 2040 and 2050,” she said. “And I don’t want to just wish for something to happen without having a pretty concrete road map and a really good start.”

Alejandra Sanchez, Driscoll’s social responsibility and sustainability marketing manager, agreed that thoughtful goal-setting is the key to maintaining not only consumer trust, but trust internally with growers as well.

“When you’re so close to your growers, their success, their mistakes are ours; it’s really an interdependent ecosystem,” Sanchez said.

“If we took steps [and set big goals] without really knowing what the process is, you don’t just lose consumer trust, but you lose trust internally,” she said. “You lose trust with your growers. You lose trust and leadership. It can be really damaging in the long run.”

Sanchez added that sees the most authentic and effective sustainability communication as education.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of things we’re doing that’s creating behavior change,” she said. “On one side of the spectrum, you have science communication, and on the other side [is] greenwashing. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot: strategic storytelling … You need to bring consumers along.”

Chefs champion soil health in new regenerative ag education program

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 18:43:22 GMT

Who better to make the case for the importance of soil health and sustainable agriculture than the professionals crafting outstanding meals from healthy ingredients?

That’s the bet that the Natural Resources Defense Council is making. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit is featuring 30 diverse chefs from across the U.S. as regenerative agriculture advocates in its Chefs for Healthy Soils program, according to a news release.

“Food is inextricably connected to soil health, water quality and climate change,” Lara Bryant, deputy director of water and agriculture at NRDC, said in the release. “As Congress considers the upcoming Farm Bill, it’s critical to educate decision-makers about the value of healthy soil and regenerative agriculture and the chefs on our roster have a unique voice and story about the importance of transforming our agricultural and food systems for the better.”

The new program is based on the concept of soil as the foundation for a healthy food system. More than just growing food for consumption, healthy soil offers ecosystem services such as filtering and replenishing water systems, storing and cycling carbon, and feeding fungi and microbes that make produce flavorful and nutritious, according to the release.

“Collectively, we have the power to transform our food systems to be more equitable, healthy, and climate-friendly,” Adrian Lipscombe, chef and founder of the 40 Acres Project, said in the release. “Being a part of the Chefs for Healthy Soils program is an opportunity to connect with like-minded chefs who want to celebrate and protect our communities and local ecosystems.”

By volunteering to be a part of the program, chefs can support policies and speak directly to lawmakers and customers about the importance of healthy soil for growing food, the release said. Partnering chefs include Lipscombe, Abra Berens, Nick Wallace and others.

The Chefs for Healthy Soils program underscores the importance of protecting soil to support food systems and builds public awareness around regenerative agriculture, which is a holistic approach to land management that has the potential to restore soil and ecosystem health, address inequity, and improve the land, water and climate, according to the release.

The launch of the Chefs for Healthy Soils program follows the publication of NRDC’s Regenerative Agriculture: Farm Policy for the 21st Century report, which includes insights from years of research and testimonies from more than a hundred farmers and ranchers building healthy soils and fostering climate-resilient farming communities across the country. The report also details policy recommendations to inform the upcoming farm bill discussion.

Dairy Carbon Footprint 2% of U.S. Total

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:07:47 GMT

Large dairy operations tend to have lower green house gas footprints because of more efficient feed conversion.

Ten research papers and one editorial in the International Dairy Journal confirm the dairy industry’s carbon footprint is 2% of the U.S. total.

According to the life-cycle assessment, which looks at carbon emissions all the way from fertilizer production through consumers’ refrigerators, dairy greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to be 2.05 kg carbon dioxide equivalent for every kilogram of fat- and protein-corrected milk.

“This work is noteworthy for its comprehensiveness in looking at every stage of the fluid milk life cycle and for its data collection method,” says an editorial which leads off the special Supplement to the April issue of the International Dairy Journal. More than 500 U.S. dairy farms submitted data.

“Based on the amount of milk produced in the United States, the dairy industry accounts for approximately 2% of the total U.S. GHG emissions,” says the editorial. This is about a third less than the global dairy industry’s GHG output, which contributes 2.7% of global emissions.

One of the papers included in the Supplement notes that large dairy operations tend to have lower GHG footprints because of more efficient feed conversion. But their use of lagoons for manure storage is one area where losses occur and more efficiency could be gained, if it could be done cost effectively.

The entire set of papers can be found here .

Missouri Farmer Tells Kamala Harris Rural Broadband Struggles Could Throttle Biden’s Climate Goals

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:09:11 GMT

The digital divide in the U.S. was center stage this week, as the White House hosted a listening session focused on broadband connectivity. Vice president Kamala Harris hosted the event to hear Americans’ experiences and frustrations in accessing broadband, as the Biden administration continues to craft and implement the American Jobs Plan .

While various industries were represented, agriculture also had a voice. Missouri farmer Meagan Kaiser was one of six individuals invited to join Harris and discuss connectivity issues in the U.S. As a farmer and small business owner in rural Missouri, Kaiser made it clear: Rural connectivity is a major pain point for not just farmers and rural businesses, but also rural residents who struggle to connect to the internet.

“We spent years calling every fiber provider in our area, asking what do we have to do? What can we do to connect our business? And the answer was that it would cost upwards of $40,000 just to connect, not including our monthly fees,” said Kaiser. “Right there is a barrier of access that if we were a new business, we couldn’t possibly justify locating in a rural area.”

Kaiser explained she was able to secure a connection in 2019, and it made a difference in upload speeds. Kaiser said the issue then became a rural development obstacle, as connectivity issues could scare away businesses from making their rural community home.

“But on top of that, the upload speed is so important for us as farmers,” added Kaiser. “We still don’t have this connectivity at our home or farm, we often rely on cellular hotspots. But in rural areas, even cellular data is very difficult to come by.”

Kaiser says when it comes to making data-driven decisions, including when adopting and quantifying climate smart practices, the lack of access to rural broadband is a major hurdle that is growing in importance. Kaiser told Harris connectivity issues could ultimately impact the Biden Administration’s efforts in reducing the overall climate footprint.

“We’ve come so far with precision agriculture. We can test our nutrient content, learn our air and water holding capacity, we know how much fertilizer we applied and exactly how much crop we gained from those applications down to the acre,” says Kaiser. “But we can’t utilize the any of that data and overlay it and make better data-driven decisions if we can’t upload the information to a central source. And, you know, I strongly believe the future for agriculture to play a large role in green alternatives for everything from plastics to fuel and lessen our own carbon footprint while producing these goods is very real. But the only way for us to get there is to have the ability to make better data-driven decisions. And that completely relies on our ability to connect to the internet.”

Harris responded to Kaiser’s experiences and frustrations, saying the solution should be simple.

“It’s such a big point that you’re making, and the solution is so obviously simple,” said Harris. “If we get our act together, the scientists, the farmers. You guys are doing the hard work of coming up with all of all of these innovative practices, figuring out watering how much and when and predicting and projecting. Doing it in a way that is smart and efficient and effective. And you can’t even upload the information to do anything with it.”

Harris went on to ask Kaiser about how the connectivity issues are impacting rural farmers’ ability to stay productive and in business.

“Well, my dad always said, ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,’’’ responded Kaiser. “If you don’t know what you’re working with. We have tight margins. In many cases, we are a commodity business in agriculture. And if we can’t look at it down to the tee of exactly what we’re putting in, what we’re getting out, we can’t survive. We can’t be financially sustainable. But now we’re looking at it and even greater role in that, the more that we are able to do with less. We’re feeding people or clothing people, we’re fueling people. And we’re replacing products that are not as sustainable with the soybean oil that comes through my farm. I can make biodiesel, I can make plastics. These are things that are better for the earth.”

Click here to hear the entire discussion.

Dirty Boots Advocacy: Farm Journal Announces Carbon Council

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 19:05:28 GMT

Farm Journal announces the formation of The Carbon Council, comprised of eight farmers and ranchers who actively participate in and advocate for carbon-related programs.

Recognizing the need for thought leadership in the carbon market, Farm Journal stepped up to help the industry navigate the carbon space by assembling this group of diverse leaders in agriculture. These charter members bring a range of expertise and the drive to share the financial and ecological benefits of carbon programs.

Members of The Carbon Council include:

Rick Clark, Williamsport, Ind.
Meredith Ellis, Rosston, Texas
Lukas Fricke, Ulysses, Neb.
P.J. Haynie, Reedville, Va.
Trey Hill, Rock Hall, Md.
Mitchell Hora, Washington, Iowa
Kyle Mehmen, Plainfield, Iowa
Ben Riensche, Jessup, Iowa

“Farm Journal is committed to being an advocate for producers from grassroots efforts to top-down efforts in national and state policies,” said Charlene Finck, president of Farm Journal. “We’re proud to form this prestigious council that will provide knowledge in the carbon arena, practical and factual advocacy and a valuable sounding board.”

The group, which will include additional members, meets regularly to discuss the latest development in the carbon space, upcoming innovations and trends/policy developments to watch. Their thought leadership will be valuable for policy makers, carbon market participants and fellow producers.

Farm Journal will leverage the knowledge and experience of The Carbon Council to guide its coverage of carbon-related issues on its more than 20 media platforms including print, digital and broadcast, as well as its work with industry partners to drive conservation and sustainability across all of agriculture.

Farm Journal’s commitment to informing agriculture audiences about carbon-related issues began in 2020 with the launch of the Carbon Innovation Center , which is hosted on AgWeb.com. Farmers, ranchers and industry stakeholders from all segments of agriculture rely on this resource for the latest news and information about carbon initiatives.

For more information go to agweb.com/carbon .

New Data Shows Ag’s Climate Footprint is Shrinking

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 20:42:19 GMT

The Biden administration’s initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 are well underway.

New year-over-year data shows ag is playing its climate smart part in multiple ways.

According to the USDA, 2020 farming activities in the U.S. made up 11.2 percent, or 670 of 5,981 million metrics tons, of the U.S.’s total carbon contribution.

This data indicates a decrease in American ag’s carbon footprint from 2019 to 2020, dropping from 699 to 670 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

USDA data shows ag’s greenhouse gas contributions are made up of:
• Nitrous oxide = 5.6%
• Methane = 4.2%
• Carbon dioxide = 0.8%
• Electricity = 0.6%

The Department of Ag notes fertilizer application, manure management and animal food digestion are some of the sources in American ag’s carbon contributions.

(Farm Journal)

Outside of ag, the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s defines four other economic sectors that contribute to the U.S.’s greenhouse gas tally, including:
• Industry – 30.3%
• Transportation – 27.3%
• Commercial – 15.4%
• Residential – 15.4%

While ag’s carbon contribution went down in 2020, USDA says its share of carbon emissions in the U.S. economy did go up from 10.6 percent to 11.2 percent.

More on climate:
Is the U.S. Prepared to Support Electric Vehicles?
How Climate Change Amplifies Damage from Invasive Species
Come On In: The Ocean Temperatures Are Hot

Research in Ag-Tech Top-Of-Mind in Farm Bill Hearing

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:03:24 GMT

The Senate Ag Committee met on Tuesday to hear testimony surrounding the need for ag research funding in the coming farm bill. According to Katy Rainey, associate professor at Purdue University who gave testimony, the hearing showed “signs of hope” for ag research.

Representing the American Seed Trade Association , Rainey underscored farm bill ag research and technology funding needs:
• Public-private partnerships
• Better program support in the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS)
• Regulatory space that allows technology to come to market.

“There is a misconception that the private sector has the basic and applied research needs for row crops,” Rainey said in her testimony. “We rely on the support of farm bill funding and programs to ensure continued U.S. leadership as the provider of the best seed to the world.”

Outside of sharing her own message, Rainey heard four other testimonials as well as questions from senators. While the on-air discussion proved informative, Rainey says she was most intrigued by the conversations happening off-air.

“Senators are concerned with farmers’ bottom line, but they’re also concerned about global events,” Rainey says. “My takeaway from the senators is that there’s actually a hopeful outlook for global food security because there is so much technology. If we can support the research to get that technology to the field or to the plate that could dispel concerns across the board.”

Rainey is confident research funding will come through in the farm bill to deliver that technology.

View Across the Table

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was also in attendance of the hearing. In Ernst’s view, there are two highlights from the hearing that deserve a spotlight on Capitol Hill.

1. Cybersecurity in Ag

“We know that our adversaries are targeting our farmers [through cyberattacks] and that does affect our nation’s food chain,” said Ernst in the hearing. “What we want to see is additional work in university ag systems through research, education and outreach activities.”

Chavonda Jacobs-Young, undersecretary for research, education and economics at USDA, said the agency is working to deliver on that additional work.

“We first need to raise the awareness for needs in cybersecurity,” she says. “We also need to train — and retain — the generation of professionals who can help us in this space. That involves high-performance computing, AI and cybersecurity.”

Jacobs-Young and Ernst plan to meet and establish a partnership, along with other groups recommended by Jacobs-Young, to make a gameplan for cyber-awareness in rural America.

2. Carbon Credit Opportunities

In the research corridor, Ernst feels there are carbon questions that still need answers.

“I hear about this all the time from Iowa farmers — they want to participate in carbon markets and create healthy soils,” Ernst says. “Getting the right type of information and translating that so producers can measure carbon on their farms and in their production activities is the bigger issue.”

Ernst and Young both agree the outreach chord needs to be reconnected to rural America, but Jacobs-Young isn’t sure what tactic will flip the ignition switch.

“It’s critically important to talk to producers about what they need and how that can be delivered in a way that they will be receptive to,” said Young in the hearing. “Adoption is part of the issue we have. We can develop wonderful technologies, innovations and tools, but we struggle with producers being receptive.”

For her part, Ernst says she’ll work to allocate farm bill funding toward such programs and communicate with Young on ways to relay the program messages to farmers.

Producers with carbon questions can also seek answers in Farm Journal’s Carbon Innovation Center .

More on farm bill 2023:

Rep. G.T. Thompson Lists His 3 Farm Bill Objectives
Opinion: The Value of Partnerships Between the Agriculture and Energy Industries

Examining carbon’s next chapter on the farm

Fri, 12 May 2023 13:51:31 GMT

A yet-to-be-realized provision in the Inflation Reduction Act could be the key for farmers to engage in measuring the carbon intensity (CI) of their grain.

The Section 45Z tax credit provides biofuel producers (ethanol, biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel) with an incentive to produce low-emission fuels. What makes this different than carbon offset programs is it could provide a business model in which the farmers’ carbon data is associated with their crop at the point of sale, rather than maintain the trend of carbon being an asset on its own.

Iowa farmer Mitchell Hora says his low-carbon intensity grain could be worth more than $400 per acre in 45Z tax credits.

That’s the good news. Here’s the catch — the Internal Revenue Service has yet to issue its own regulation, which is the holdup for ethanol companies before giving a clear answer on the value to farmers.

“[Expectations for compensation] will vary by farm,” says Paul Scheetz, ADM director of Climate Smart Ag Origination. “Our goal is to make the process simple, so farmers understand how they can receive – and increase – incentives as they lead in meeting the vast and growing demand for lower CI products.”

Grain will be assessed with a CI score, which has a set of parameters determined by the Department of Energy. Currently, the standard CI score for corn is 29.1. The Inflation Reduction Act sets a weighted average below 25.

“The value potential here is pretty good — 5.4 cents per CI point below the industry standard,” says Paul Neiffer, a farm CPA. “If you raise 200 bu. corn with a CI score of 0, that’s $1.57 per bushel and an extra $314 in value. Now, the ethanol plant isn’t expected to share 100%, but it could be 25% to 30%. There’s definitely potential here for material value to the farmer. I don’t think this is pie in the sky.”

Hora says his farm’s current CI score for corn is -4.4.

“What excites me the most about this is it really opens the potential for farmers to be price makers and not price takers,” Hora says. “With their production practices, including the long-term practitioners who were excluded from offset market participation, they can sell a digital asset associated with a physical product, their grain.”

Neiffer and Hora discuss the topic more on The Farm CPA Podcast

With his regenerative ag software business, Continuum Ag , Hora is ready to help farmers assess their carbon score upon providing the following data:

Yield
Fuel usage/energy usage
Fertilizer
Tillage
Cover crop (yes/no—doesn’t matter which one or what rate)
Manure
Herbicide and insecticide (fungicide isn’t currently counted)

While, the current parameters don’t specifically ask for planting date or planted populations, Hora says farmers should have it any way.
Neiffer agrees this opportunity could be transformational for every farmer.

“This is based on what farmers are actually doing. If a farmer has done good practices, they are getting rewarded for it,” he says. “This isn’t a program where a farmer has to make a change and then wait five to 10 years for a bonus payment.”

Unlike the previous program, the structure of how these tax credits will be issued provides the ethanol plants with an opportunity to sell excess credits on the secondary market.
Here’s another catch, section 45Z is only good for three years: Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2027.

“First, the IRS needs to publish their regulations, which will help us really calculate the values,” Neiffer says. “We could get that from the agency as late as December 2024.”

Neiffer shared more on AgriTalk:

For now, Hora encourages farmers to get their data in order, and work with folks who can help them start to measure their CI score.

3 Big Carbon Questions For Farmers

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 17:57:10 GMT

The future of voluntary carbon markets for agriculture is still coming into focus. As such, farmers continue to assess the landscape and weigh their opportunities.

1. ARE FARMERS SIGNING UP FOR CARBON PROGRAMS?

All programs require field-level data and the farmer’s ability and willingness to share data. Enrollment requires the intersection of interest, incentive and execution. As a result, a new term, “carbon curious,” is being used to describe farmers exploring the space.

The Purdue Ag Barometer started in 2021 asking about farmers’ interest in carbon sequestration. Jim Mintert, agricultural economist at Purdue University, says the number of respondents who claimed to engage in carbon discussions in 2021 and 2022 were between 2% and 5%. However, in August it jumped to 9%.

“We’re seeing an increase in the curiosity level, but not many people signing up,” Mintert says.

While the conversations have picked up, only 1% of those in August’s survey said they’ve signed a carbon contract.

2. WILL MY EXISTING PRACTICES QUALIFY?

Today’s carbon programs require a change in practice. So, companies with markets are looking to expand the pool of farmers who qualify.
One such company is Land O’Lakes and their sustainability business Truterra, which is working to build a wider funnel of farmers who could enroll in carbon markets and other new revenue streams.

“We know there are barriers to growers making practice changes to more of a regenerative approach,” says Jason Weller, vice president, Truterra. “Often, farmers are weighing the risk to the profitability in spending money and perhaps taking a yield drop. So, we thought how could we help share that risk?”

The company offers a $2 per acre incentive for first-time practice changes, such as planting cover crops, reducing tillage and more.

3. HOW MUCH CAN FARMERS BE PAID?

Each carbon contract outlines how farmers can be paid for a ton of carbon sequestered over a given time. Payment, terms, timing and other details vary by program, which leaves farmers weighing the benefit.

“At $10 dollars per ton, it’s not a very front-and-center topic,” says Ben Reinsche, owner of Blue Diamond Farming Company in Jesup, Iowa. “At $60 per ton, you have my full attention. If the potential is greater than $100 per ton, it’s a priority, and I really need a plan.”

Like all business-driven decisions on the farm, farmers are using a lens of return on investment.

Carbon Market Roadblocks

A study from Trust In Food, Farm Journal’s sustainable agriculture initiative , shows even the most carbon-conscious farmers see signs their participation in current market options would require investments of time, effort and resources without the needed returns.

Florida Researchers to Study How to Reduce Carbon Dioxide in Ranch Soil

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:23:02 GMT

University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers hope to reduce possible pollutants emanating from soils in Florida cattle ranches by using a $710,000 federal grant to study soil microbes.

In the new study, UF/IFAS researchers will use lab and field studies to investigate how pasture management and factors such as temperature and rainfall affect soil microbes. They’ll also look for genetic markers to get a glimpse into microbial identity. Genetic markers are genes or short sequences of DNA scientists use to find other genes on a genetic map.

“The goal is to put together a model that can predict the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide from soils under a climate that is expected to be warmer and experience more extreme dry and wet periods across the Southeast,” said Stefan Gerber, a UF/IFAS assistant professor in soil and water sciences and one of the investigators on the new study.

The scientific team includes Gerber and fellow UF/IFAS soil and water sciences faculty members Patrick Inglett, Kanika Inglett and Maria Silveira, collaborating with Ryan Penton, an Arizona State University-based microbiologist.

Soils naturally absorb and retain carbon dioxide. They also produce nitrous oxide from soil nitrogen. Carbon in the soil is primarily in the form of organic matter. Carbon dioxide is produced when soil microbes eat plant litter and soil organic matter, Gerber said.

“This is essentially the same process as when we humans consume food,” Gerber said. “We, and microbes, consume organic materials and metabolize, or burn, them and give off wastes.”

Gerber, Inglett and their colleagues hope that their results can help guide ranchers to manage their land in such a way that they reduce greenhouse gas emissions and maybe even receive credit for storing carbon. Ranch management can include factors such as more or fewer cows in a given area, how much fertilizer is applied to the ground, whether the land manager chooses specific plants to grow and whether the manager decides to burn vegetation periodically, Inglett said.

The three-year study, which begins in August, is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Source: University of Florida

Major ADM Carbon Capture Project Underway

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:27:37 GMT

Archer Daniels Midland Company (NYSE: ADM) announced today that the Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (ICCS) project, a partnership to safely and permanently store more than 1 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, has begun operations.

“We are extremely proud to be part of this important program,” said Todd Werpy, ADM chief technology officer. “The technology that we are using in Decatur can be a model for reducing industrial carbon emissions around the world. We’re pleased to be working with great partners in the U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Community College and the University of Illinois - Illinois State Geological Survey, and we’re excited to move forward as we not only reduce our carbon emissions in Decatur, but also contribute to important research that will help other companies do the same.”

“2017 is a watershed year for carbon capture in the United States. On the heels of the successful opening of Petra Nova in Texas, the Illinois Industrial facility serves as another example that large-scale CCS deployment works, is safe, and serves as a key component of a low carbon future,” said Jeff Erikson, general manager of the Americas region with the Global CCS Institute. “The Illinois Industrial CCS Facility is the 12 th large-scale CCS facility operating in North America, and the first large-scale application of CCS on biofuels production in the world. With this landmark achievement, ADM will now capture and store about one million tons of CO2 per year. We applaud ADM for their vision and leadership, and acknowledge the foresight and wise investment provided by the U.S. Department of Energy.”

The project captures carbon dioxide, which is created as a byproduct at ADM’s Decatur corn processing facility, and stores it safely almost a mile and a half underground in the Mt. Simon Sandstone. With the capability to store 1.1 million tons of carbon annually, ICCS is designed to demonstrate the commercial-scale applicability of carbon capture and storage technology in a saline reservoir. The project is currently permitted to operate for five years and has the potential to store up to 5.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

This is the second carbon capture and storage project that ADM has helped to lead. Previously, the company removed and stored approximately a million tons of carbon over three years as part of the smaller-scale Illinois Basin - Decatur Project, led by the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium at the University of Illinois.

“ADM is committed to successfully feeding the world while minimizing our impact on the planet,” Werpy continued. “Around the globe, across our business, from reducing waste and water usage to increasing energy efficiency to taking part in this groundbreaking carbon storage project, we are living up to our dedication to do business the right way.”

First-Ever Rice Farming Carbon Credits Sold to Microsoft

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 19:29:03 GMT

For the past four years, the California Air Resources Board, the Environmental Defense Fund and others have been working behind the scenes to develop protocols that allow farmers to offset carbon emissions and get compensated for their efforts. Today, those groups celebrate a critical milestone as the first-ever voluntary carbon credits generated from U.S. rice farmers were sold to Microsoft.

How does it work, exactly? Robert Parkhurst, EDF’s agricultural greenhouse gas markets director, says the carbon market is split into two components, compliance and voluntary. The two main compliance markets are driven by California and Quebec. In the California market alone, the state’s businesses will look to offset as much as 200 million tons of carbon by 2020.

And that’s where farmers come in. In the rice pilot project, for example, farmers collect data to quantify how several production practices – such as dry seeding, alternate wetting and drying, and early drainage – reduce generation of around 30 pounds of methane per acre.

With several participating farmers on board, the next step was getting the voluntary credits approved by two primary registry bodies, the Climate Action Reserve and the American Carbon Registry, which write standards, verify results and maintain carbon databases.

With Microsoft as a buyer, the loop is finally completed. Voluntary carbon credits trade around $7 per ton, which makes the rice farmer credits worth about $2 per acre. But farmers like Arkansas rice producer Chris Isbell say it’s not even about the money.

“The credits themselves are not our central concern,” he says. “Three other concepts are involved. No. 1, it’s the idea of potential – one thing leads to another. There are multiple opportunities involved, like saving water. No. 2, the program fosters an ongoing relationship with researchers. That’s critical. And No. 3, it’s the right thing to do.”

Arkansas rice producer Mike Sullivan adds that consumer demand is another benefit to further investigating various sustainability practices.

“The general public is screaming for sustainably sourced products,” he says. “We’re building the base right now.”

Parkhurst points out another important wrinkle. Even though the buyers come from specific places such as California or Quebec, this program proves the sellers can theoretically come from anywhere.

“Offsets can come from any 50 states,” he says. “So if you farm in the Midwest, you can create a credit through conservation practices and sell it to a business in California.”

Other opportunities could present themselves in other parts of the agriculture industry, Parkhurst says. Additional projects are focused on dairies capturing methane, fertilizer-use efficiency in row crops and grassland conservation, he says.

Parkhurst says EDF is trying to shepherd more of these transactions. Participating farmers will need to be able to provide baseline information about their operations and collect data to document changes they make. Because of that, EDF is taking a long look at farmers already actively engaged in precision ag practices, Parkhurst says.

“They’re in the best position to generate credits and revenue,” he says.

Sen. Stabenow urges industry activism on immigration reform and climate change

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:28:34 GMT

Specialty crop champion Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow stressed the importance of industry engagement on immigration and climate change legislation in a Sept. 22 address to the United Fresh Produce Association’s Washington Conference.

Speaking at the breakfast general session, Stabenow, D-Mich., also touched on infrastructure legislation, nutrition programs and the farm bill.

“It’s so good to see everyone without being in a box on my computer,” Stabenow joked in greeting the crowd. “Real people, this is really great!”

Praising the advocacy work of United Fresh, Stabenow noted she helped put the specialty crop title in the 2008 and subsequent farm bills, said the industry is at the “big kids’ table” in Washington.

She urged the produce industry to be vocal on the need for immigration reform.

“Please be loud when you are on the Hill about these issues that relate to labor,” she said.

“We don’t need crops rotting in the fields because there aren’t enough workers; it’s that simple,” she said. “And a workable guest worker program as a critical part of this.”

Stabenow also said she has been working on legislation to address the climate crisis, notably the Growing Climate Solutions Act.

“If you want to measure the carbon that you are keeping in the ground or in the trees, and you want to take that to a carbon market, how do we make sure that kind of voluntary market works for agriculture?” she asked.

Stabenow called the legislation a bipartisan, producer-led voluntary approach that won overwhelming support in the Senate. Now the challenge is to look for resources to be able to fund the program, she said.

She said the investment in climate change solutions is sorely needed, noting that multiple extreme weather events are taking a toll on farmers and the U.S. budget.

Federal funds used on disaster recovery from extreme weather events have averaged more than $100 billion in recent years, she said.

“We’re paying an awful lot for not acting, and we can use the same amount of money we’re doing … and actually support efforts to act that would get us beyond what’s happening with these wildfires and (other disasters),” she said. “Now is the moment to act.”

Stabenow said agriculture could provide 10% to 15% of the climate change solution. With the right incentives, she said agriculture and forestry could be carbon negative in the next 10 years.

Emerald Packaging makes shift to solar

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 14:17:14 GMT

Union City, Calif.-based flexible packaging company Emerald Packaging is planning to shift away from fossil fuels and power its two manufacturing facilities with solar energy systems.

The largest of the two solar facilities will go live in the first half of 2023, and the second is to be completed later in 2023, according to a news release.

“Our company is committed to playing its part in sustainability and mobilizing a shift towards a circular economy for plastics,” Kevin Kelly, CEO of Emerald Packaging, said in the release. “It’s clear that our planet is losing the battle to stop greenhouse gas emissions. We need to step up in any way we can. So, the installation of solar and other initiatives such as reducing plastic use and increasing recyclability of our packaging makes complete sense.”

Related news: How fruit and vegetable companies are doing their part to reduce food waste

If successful, the solar installations will cut Emerald Packaging’s emissions by more than the equivalent of 47 million pounds of coal burned. It will also help reduce energy spend at this site by $12 million over 25 years, according to the release.

In addition to years of advocacy for effective plastics recycling, Emerald Packaging has accomplished the following in its sustainability efforts:

Received California Green Business certification.
Became an Ellen MacArthur Foundation signatory that includes pledges requiring companies to reduce the use of plastic by embracing goals to create a circular economy.
Signed United Nations treaty in support of plastic waste reduction.
Helping shape legislation in California addressing the need for a better recycling infrastructure.
Introduced the first compostable packaging in the produce industry 15 years ago and continues to test and experiment with new compostable materials as they become available.

Emerald Packaging is one of the few plastics manufacturers to win a Green Business certification for its waste, water and energy reduction efforts, according to the release. And under its Ellen MacArthur Foundation commitments, Emerald Packaging will help drive the adoption of post-consumer recycled resin in food packaging and has agreed to make its packages reusable, recyclable or compostable (in accordance with NPEGC principles), with specific targets to hit by 2025, according to the release.

Climate-Smart program rewards must outweigh risks to earn grower participation

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 13:22:46 GMT

When an attendee of the 2023 Trust In Food Symposium addressed the three farmers speaking on stage this Monday, he said what other members of the audience likely were thinking.

“You all are hitting us with a dose of reality that I believe is badly needed in the conservation community,” the audience member said.

He referred to the thoughtful yet candid comments the three farmers made about many climate-smart programs available in the marketplace.

The producers’ perspective: For the most part, such programs require them to make significant cultural changes. In the process, they must shoulder the bulk of financial investments in equipment, seed and other inputs. They do this without adequate support or return-on-investment, they noted.

Carbon Sequestration Programs

To date, none of the three farmers has signed up for a single carbon-market program. They offered several reasons why. Most revolve around what they see as too many financial risks and few rewards.

“There’s not been a program that we’ve evaluated that financially makes any sense. The premiums just aren’t high enough,” said Matt Splitter of Splitter Farms. He and his family farm 12,000 acres near Sterling, Kan.

Rob Barley agreed.

“We’ve looked at all of the programs, and some of them we considered. Ultimately, we thought for the few dollars paid, it probably wasn’t worth the hassle,” said Barley, whose operation, Star Rock Farms, is based in the Chesapeake Bay region near Conestoga, Pa. Barley’s family grows 12,000 acres of crops and runs dairy and hog enterprises.

The cost of making significant cultural changes to their operations, such as adding cover crops, would need to be recouped, they said.

The program “would have to offset the loss that we would incur by changing our production practices based off somebody else’s idea of sustainability,” said Chris Adams, Adams Family Farms, Grand Forks, N.D. He farms 9,000 acres of crops, mostly products such as specialty varieties of beans.

Those concerns echo similar farmers’ comments in the recent report “Ready or Not? Ag Carbon Markets and U.S. Farmers,” from Trust In Food, Farm Journal’s sustainable agriculture division. The report highlights the perspectives of 500 U.S. row-crop producers on pathways and barriers to carbon market participation.

“Our initial findings suggest that even the most carbon-curious farmers are signaling that their participation under current market conditions would require prohibitive investments of time, effort and resources without fair financial and market returns,” said Amy Skoczlas Cole, president of Trust In Food.

Not All Doom And Gloom

Despite the panel’s dim view of carbon market opportunities, the farmers referenced several climate-smart benefits they’ve experienced from other developments in agriculture.

Among them is recent market introductions of sprayer technology, Splitter said. Work by John Deere and the joint venture of BASF and Bosch have resulted in technology that can differentiate between plants farmers want to grow and those they don’t.

“Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping us reduce the amount of herbicides we use and target specific weeds, and that’s pretty cool” Splitter said.

A no-till farmer, Splitter noted recent advances in equipment allow him to cut through heavy residue and clay-packed soils with ease. That wasn’t possible a decade ago.

“It could be like drilling into concrete, but things like hydraulic down pressure have changed that,” he says. “No-till has become a lot easier to do. My compliments to the engineers for that.”

Biologicals Gain Credibility

Fertilizer costs, concerns about product availability and the desire to adopt the 4Rs of nutrient management have all three growers evaluating biological products on their farms.

“Biologicals are a tool that can help get the crop to the next level and then the next level and the next,” Adams said. “We do soil testing and have for many years to stay competitive and place nitrogen only where we need it. Biologicals work, and I think they’re more beneficial in the mediocre type soils of ours.”

Barley said he’s encouraged that biologicals have a strong future in agriculture. He noted a number of large crop-protection companies are developing such products.

“These products are working, and that’s verifiable,” Barley said. “They’re going to continue to improve. They’re the new frontier, I believe.”

Research Shows 90% of Farmers Won’t join Carbon Markets Without Changes

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:08:07 GMT

Despite the exponential growth in agricultural carbon market options, most producers aren’t biting.

New research based on 500 farmer insights suggests adjustments in payment amounts, credit for existing conservation practices and reduction in paperwork could help but won’t be a cure-all for enrollments.

“Failing to connect with drivers such as purpose, mission and legacy could inadvertently result in negative perceptions of carbon marketplaces as purely transactional efforts to commodify farmers’ hard work,” writes Cara Urban, lead author of the report from Trust In Food , Farm Journal’s sustainable agriculture initiative. “Producers might see such marketplaces as seeking to extract value from their operations at the lowest possible price, while requiring a lengthy and risky up-front investment of time, energy and expert advisers.”

The report isn’t designed to throw water on sustainable agriculture investments or carbon markets, says Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president at Trust In Food . Instead, it balances marketplace excitement with farmers’ pain points and needs.

“We’ve witnessed exuberance in both the private sector and the U.S. government for using agricultural carbon markets as a tool to advance climate and food goals,” Cole says. “We wanted to understand how producers feel about this new opportunity.”

PARTICIPATION AND PROMISES

Around 90% of farmers are aware of carbon markets, and 3% are participating, according to the report. About a third say they’re still monitoring the landscape, and 59% report they won’t join without changes.

If carbon market organizations can meet farmers where they are, it’s possible they can capture the promise of the carbon economy.

GET THE CARBON FARMER REPORT

Find out what U.S. farmers say it will take to get active in carbon markets in an upcoming edition of the Trust In Food email newsletter. You’ll get the full report when it publishes. Sign up at TrustInFood.com

Nate Birt is vice president of Trust In Food, which supports farmers in adopting conservation agriculture.

Rabo Carbon Bank Takes Pilot Program to Three States, Partners with Continuum Ag

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 16:23:38 GMT

In January 2021 Rabobank launched the Rabo Carbon Bank and has since been launching pilots in three categories: carbon farming, supply chain decarbonization and carbon reduction in retail.

As part of the Rabo Carbon Bank initiative, Rabo AgriFinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, is operating the pilots with farmers in three states. The pilot farmers are being advised by Continuum Ag for its soil health/agronomic advisement and carbon sequestration baseline measurements.

The practices being implemented are rooted in regenerative agriculture practices and include:

Reduced tillage or no-till
A variery of cover crop plantings
Planting cash crops “green” into living cover crops
More robust crop rotations
Precision agriculture planting, applications of fertilizer and crop protection products, and/or irrigation
A transition to natural fertilizer

“We will know the impact of our practices on carbon in the soil. No one else in the marketplace I’ve talked to is doing it that way and measuring,” John C. Barnes of Barnes Farming Corporation, a pilot participant said. “Some of the practices we’re already doing, but our management team are going to have opportunities to be exposed to some new ideas, some cutting-edge practices, that maybe would not have been economical on their own but with carbon payments become feasible.”

Rabobank shares these are the farmers, locations and crops enrolled in the pilot:

Barnes Farming Corporation (North Carolina) – broccoli, peanuts, potatoes, soybeans, sweet potatoes, tobacco, watermelons and wheat
Bruihler Farms (Iowa) – corn and soybeans
D&D Horras Farms (Iowa) – corn and soybeans
Jeffrey McDoniel Farm (Arkansas) – corn, rice and soybeans
Miles Farm (Arkansas) – corn, cotton, rice and soybeans

“Feeding the world more sustainably is about continuous improvement. Every farm has a unique sustainability journey that has defined their success as a contributor to the food supply chain thus far,” Cristian Barcan, sustainability officer for Rabo AgriFinance and regional Rabo Carbon Bank officer said in a news release. “We’re helping our clients monetize a natural feature of their farms – the plants’ ability to capture carbon equivalents from the air – while improving their fields with healthy, nutrient-dense, biologically-enhanced, carbon-rich soils. The expected result is improved yield with lower costs and lower environmental impact.”

ContinuumAg will consult with each individual farmer in the pilot and provide tailored practices for soil health and carbon sequestration.

“As a farmer-led company, we are ecstatic to be a partner of the Rabo Carbon Bank. Rabo’s long-term vision and value proposition aligns with that of participating farmers and Continuum Ag,” said Mitchell Hora, founder and CEO of Continuum Ag. “We all seek more sustainably produced food, but these efforts will fail if the family farm isn’t also economically sustainable.”

4 Questions Farmers are Asking about Carbon Markets

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 17:36:27 GMT

As farmers wade through the ever-deepening amount of carbon information available, they routinely ask for answers to these four questions.

1. How do I know which carbon program makes the most sense for my farm?
It depends on your goals. Consider how much time and effort you want to invest, how long your land will be committed to the program and what kind of financial payback you want to achieve.

Know how each program will compensate you. For instance, some programs pay based on outcomes achieved.

“We actually model and measure both the soil sequestration and the emissions reduction from the field, which requires farmers to submit a bit more data but tends to provide them more economic benefit,” says Ben Gordon, carbon and ecosystems global portfolio lead for Corteva Agriscience.

Some other carbon programs pay farmers for implementing practices, such as using no-till or planting cover crops. This strategy tends to require less data and work on the farmer’s part. The downside is it’s likely to pay less per acre. However, you might be paid sooner versus with a program that is outcome-based, which can take up to a year before a payment is made because of the data collection and crunching required.

2. Why should I bother participating?
In years when margins are thin, an annual carbon payment can help bulletproof your balance sheet.

Beyond income, some farmers are interested in the carbon industry as an opportunity to learn practices and benefit from technology that can help them build a strong, more sustainable future.

“Agronomy, agronomy, agronomy is the name of the game,” says Dan Hansen, who farms near Avoca, Iowa. “Obviously, there has to be an ROI, but we have to continue to examine our practices and grade ourselves on how we can do better and improve.”

In the past five years, Hansen says he has experimented with cover crops as well as different nitrogen tools that have helped him see value in variable-rate nitrogen or reduced nitrogen use, intensive grid sampling and variable-rate fertilizer.

“We want to continue to see soil health improve on our farm, so we’re evaluating (programs and practices) and risks while we’re trying to move the needle forward and improve ROI in the process,” he adds.

3. Are carbon markets going to be around, or are they just hype?
As in any new industry, not every program will succeed. However, companies both within and outside agriculture (Disney, IBM, Microsoft, to name a few) are making long-term commitments that extend into the next decade.

“We’re talking real transactions that are already happening, so that gives me confidence,” says Corteva’s Gordon. “I’d urge farmers to make sure that they’re signing up for programs that have the flexibility to evolve with the market, not against it,” he adds.

4. How can I protect myself from a bad decision or being taken advantage of?
Explore what the various companies are offering. Talk with other farmers, and seek counsel from your banker, agronomic consultant and legal representative, who can help you evaluate the fine print in contracts.

In addition, like with other practices, start small and scale up as you become more comfortable and confident with the various programs.

For more insights on the carbon marketplace, check out these resources:

Carbon Innovation Center | AgWeb

The rapid pace of U.S. carbon market activity has left many farmers dazed and confused. To help answer your questions, Farm Journal is sharing the first-ever carbon market comparison tool to assess how several of the most prominent frameworks stack up. We will continue investing in enterprise reporting as carbon markets mature and evolve.

Farmer Shares Top 10 Considerations With Carbon Markets

Will Carbon Markets Drive Farmers to Collect More Data?

Grassroots Carbon Targets Grazing and Pastureland

Field Work: Are Carbon Markets an Opportunity to Stack Multiple Benefits on the Farm?

Carbon Markets: Farmers Want More to Hang Their Hat On

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 19:20:44 GMT

The carbon market will grow over the next three years
Farm Journal’s August 2021 Carbon Survey found that 3.32% of respondents were participating in an non-governmental carbon market, up from an Ag Barometer last spring where only 1% of farmers had entered into a contract. And 55% of survey respondents said that they plan on joining the market in the next three years.

(Farm Journal)

Money in the dirt?
While the carbon market is poised for growth, there are some lingering issues. Almost half of the respondents to Farm Journal’s Carbon Survey said they would need a return on investment of more than $20,000 to participate in carbon markets.

Many respondents said that the available programs were only paying on newly adopted practices and not pre-existing practices. Others thought their operation was too small to count or that the expenses required to adopt new practices would not be offset by the return on investment. A few viewed the carbon markets as a means for others to make money and said they didn’t see how it benefited them.

(Farm Journal)

It’s time for carbon markets to roll up their sleeves. There’s work to do.
Farmers also struggle to trust the motives behind the carbon market. Respondents to Farm Journal’s Carbon Survey cited fears that markets could lead to regulations that unfairly penalize them or create circumstances where they lose control over their operation.

Many of farmers said they don’t have enough information to adequately understand the opportunity, find programs in their area or find information on how to apply. The good news: they’re looking for reputable sources for more information.

(Farm Journal)

How to increase farmers’ trust
Some trust issues can be overcome by having university extensions verify compliance with carbon market program requirements, according to Farm Journal’s Carbon Survey. Farmers expressed a preference for a third party that would not directly benefit from the outcome of their findings or create penalties.

(Farm Journal)

So what about the things that farmers are already doing?
Another way to build trust may be to answer a key objection raised by farmers and give them credit for practices they already have in place. Many farmers report they’re already engaging in conservation practices, with conservation tillage practices topping the list. See the chart below.

For more updates and information on carbon market programs, visit Farm Journal’s Carbon Innovation Center .

(Farm Journal)

Related Links:
Clarity in Carbon Marketplace Needed, say Iowa State and EDF Reports
Iowa Farmer Shares Firsthand Experience with Carbon Markets
Farmer Shares Top 10 Considerations With Carbon Markets
5 Tools to Unravel Carbon Market

DC Signal to Noise: Infrastructure Passed; It's Time for Reconciliation

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 15:01:46 GMT

AgriTalk’s Chip Flory and Pro Farmer’s Jim Wiesemeyer layout the infrastructure bill and a look ahead at what’s to come. Watch the video above or listen to the podcast below for discussion on these topics and more:

> Infrastructure – Roads, bridges, and broadband.
> Vaccine mandate – OSHA’s authority and states fighting back
> Reconciliation bill – methane reduction program could cost consumers $10 a hamburger.
> EPA – rejected refinery exemption petitions

$1B to Biofuels in Build Back Better

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 18:52:54 GMT

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Rep. Cindy Axne joined AgriTalk with host Chip Flory and Pro Farmer policy analyst Jim Wiesemeyer recently to comb through President Biden’s reframe of the Build Back Better (BBB) plan.

The proposal is now $1.75-trillion dollars and is almost 25-hundred pages long. It includes the following for biofuels:

$1 billion in funding for the biofuels industry
A four-year extension of the $1dollar biodiesel tax credit
Plans to develop “sustainable aviation fuels
$320 billion in clean energy tax credits
$110 billion for investments in clean energy technology
$105 billion to address extreme weather

Ethanol

“There is a specific appropriation of $1 billion for the industry,” says Vilsack. “Secondly, there are a series of tax credits the industry could potentially take advantage of as it formulates low carbon fuel, and the combination of those two is a very positive aspect.”

Projections for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) have been top-of-mind for Vilsack. He says the industry can expect a 35-billion-gallon demand.

Opportunities for production facilities to “be able to store carbon, to sequester carbon and there is a potential tax credit that they can benefit in the bill for that kind of storage capacity,” says Vilsack.

Representative Cindy Axne (D-IA) shared ADM’s intentions to produce SAFs at multiple locations, saying, “they expect to get to 500 million gallons a year and then scale up.”

Conservation

The decreased BBB budget reduces conservation funding from $28 billion to $27 billion for programs like Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), as well as the conservation easement efforts.

“When was the last time we invested $27 billion over a couple years in conservation programs? Never… There’s $27 billion in additional assistance for forests to help avoid these catastrophic forest fires,” Vilsack says.

Rural Economy

“There’s a significant amount for rural housing, rural economic development, and billions of dollars for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP),” says Vilsack.

USDA renewable energy grants will also be made available through BBB in the range of $3 billion. Vilsack says universal preschool, college expense assistance and lower healthcare and housing costs are also included “to strengthen American families.”

Axne elaborated on these efforts saying the childcare provision will provide relief for those looking to reenter the workforce as it is “the number one thing that’s holding people back from getting into the workforce.” She says this legislation will help roughly 20 million children.

In conjunction with the BBB, Vilsack emphasized the bipartisan infrastructure (BIF) package will improve broadband access in rural America, along with improved roads, bridges, ports, and inland waterways. He also shared he recently rode a barge down the Mississippi River that resulted in over an hour and a half wait for a barge to move through a single lock and dam. “You’re going to cut that time in half” with the BIF improvements, he notes.

Vilsack also noted opportunities to increase debt-relief for farmers “who are in a distressed circumstance that have loans from USDA” can be found in the reframed BBB.

Climate Change

Commodity Credit Corporation’s (CCC) authority for carbon goes untouched in the new BBB, according to Vilsack.

“We are confident that the program we announced last month, which will utilize the Commodity Credit Corporation, is a legitimate use of those resources as it is helping to create a climate-smart commodity and the standards for climate-smart commodities so that there will be some clarity and some direction in the future as to folks who want to go to consumers and say, ‘Buy our stuff because it is produced sustainably,’” says Vilsack.

The climate-smart commodity efforts development, according to Vilsack, will open the door for documentation of how commodities are produced. “For that, farmers should be compensated, and they should also be able to legitimately participate in carbon markets that are privately operated,” he says.

Stepped-Up Basis

In the BBB reframe, Vilsack claims there isn’t any literature outlining the end of the stepped-up basis. Additionally, there is “nothing” suggesting the current estate tax will be altered.

“The people that are paying for this are corporations that made more than $1 billion and didn’t pay any tax, and individuals that make more than $10 million per year or $25 million--they might pay a little extra tax,” Vilsack says. “I think they can afford to do that. And tens of millions of American families are going to see their taxes reduced because the child credit continues and because the Earned Income Tax Credit is extended and increased.”

House Agriculture’s Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) shared he’s fearful the tax policies “shrouded in secrecy”, will wreak havoc on farm families, saying, “a recent study has shown these policies could add $1.4 million to the average tax liability for a farm family.”

Biofuel Aid

Vilsack provided an update timeline on the COVID-19 aid package for biofuel producers, saying “It’s ready to go, we just need to get the clearance from OMB and the White House, and I’m sure we will get that very soon.”

“It may physically still be here [at USDA], but because we have been working with OMB, once it goes over there it’s not going to take very long for them to sign off on that,” Vilsack says.

According to Vilsack, the USDA will detail how the funds will be split up to help the industry. He says the combined tax credits and support through the BBB demonstrate industry support and interest in aviation biofuel.

The reframed BBB legislation will continue the $1-a-gallon tax credit for biodiesel that was previously noted in the original, $3.5 trillion plan. However, under the new, $1.75 trillion plan, that credit will now only through 2026 and would then be replaced by a clean fuel credit that could extend to other products, including sustainable aviation fuel and lower carbon versions of ethanol.

Carbon Markets: A Low-Hanging Fruit or The Next Cash Crop?

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:41:24 GMT

Most voluntary carbon markets introduced to farmers so far have made their first tranche of payments.

Meanwhile, a handful of companies have used carbon markets to spin off new efforts for market opportunities with traceability, sustainability and the broader definition of regenerative agriculture (for example, Truterra’s approach and Bayer’s ForGround).

A low-hanging fruit or the next cash crop?

So, what does the future hold for carbon markets? Currently the industry is based on credits being tradable assets, so it is not yet a fully developed market, points out Alejandro Plastina, Iowa State University Extension economist.

Looking into the crystal ball and applying economics, he sees four possible scenarios (see chart).

(Farm Journal)

“The second scenario is most likely where we are heading,” Plastina says. “We want to get to the first scenario, but with the current status quo, we are moving toward the low-hanging fruit.”

As such, to foster a strong agriculture carbon market, he says these “science gaps” need to be addressed:

Uncertainty in the projected volume of carbon credits that can be produced by a farmer depending on weather, timeliness of practice, etc.
Measuring the volume of carbon removed or avoided by a farmer is difficult and costly, particularly at large scale, which is why the current method is just sampling.
Carbon programs use different models, so it’s impossible to compare across programs the potential for carbon credit generation stemming from one change in practice on one farm.

How quickly can this market evolve? “A functioning market can be achieved in three to five years, if demand continues to be strong, and there’s more agreements on how to standardize the tools soon,” Plastina says.

Truterra Pays $5.1 Million to Farmers for 2022 Carbon Program Payments

Wed, 17 May 2023 13:36:15 GMT

In its second year, the Truterra carbon program had 273 farmer participants with an average payment of more than $18,000. In total, the 2022 program paid farmers more than $5.1 million for 262,000 metric tons of carbon stored.

“At the end of the day, it’s Truterra’s farmer focus that makes us preferential to their carbon program and sustainability solutions, and we are dedicated to helping farmers in their sustainability journey in lock step with the Truterra team,” says Daniel Mullenix, Director of Ag Technologies at GreenPoint Ag.

“I had read about carbon programs without giving it much thought until GreenPoint Ag mentioned they work with Truterra and it’s a real thing that I could enroll in and could not only help with my bottom line, but also the sustainability of my farm,” says Robert Walters, a farmer in Alabama.

Since its launch, the Truterra carbon program has now paid farmers more than $9 million for more than 462,000 metric tons of carbon.

“Farmers are fast realizing that Truterra’s farmer-friendly approach aims to strengthen the connection between sustainability and profitability,” says Tom Ryan, President of Truterra. “By working with and through farmer’s trusted advisor, the carbon program has continued to achieve great success in its second year, and we look forward to continuing to meet farmers where they are in their sustainability journey in order to help them make the best agronomic, economic and environmental decisions for their farms.”

Truterra is expanding its service to farmers with sustainability. This includes soil health assessments, roadmaps for improving soil heath, and its farmer-centric, retail-driven carbon program. Read more about that here.

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