Carbon Competition

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Agriculture is not the only industry that can produce carbon credits, in fact, it’s not even the cheapest source of carbon sequestration. Iowa State University professor, Dr. Alejandro Plastina says agriculture may have trouble being competitive.

Plastina… “Think forestry for example. It’s much easier to track the evolution of a forest for 30 years than evaluating 30 years of changes in annual practices.”

Plastina said that providing evidence of additionality, permanence, and other characteristics carbon buyers want to see, is a much simpler process in some of these other sectors.

Plastina… “It’s not that agriculture cannot produce credible carbon offsets; it’s only that it’s more challenging. There are more processes that need to be put in place and more information to track to prove that a change in practices at the farm level has actually removed carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, and that removal was credible and it was additional and it was permanent.”

The verdict is still out on whether carbon programs could be a source of additional revenue in the future, but you can use Plastina’s report “How to Grow and Sell Carbon Credits in US Agriculture” to help decide what’s right for you.