Bloomberg Reports, Secretary of Agriculture Statements on Agriculture's Role in GHG Emission, April 20, 2021

 Climate Adaptation

The Carbon Market Gold Rush in American Agriculture

Agriculture accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Industry giants and startups are setting up carbon credits as Biden's Green plan gains momentum.

By Mike Dorning, Marcy Nicholson, Isis Almeida
April 20, 2021, 4:00 AM PDT

A tractor applies fertilizer to acres of lettuce at a farm in Belle Glade, Florida. Photographer: Mark Elias/Bloomberg

It’s a little bit of a gold rush out there, with a lot of new entrants coming in with a lot of great claims,” said Chris Harbourt, global head of carbon at Indigo, which will be one of the few companies to have credits verified by formal carbon registries. “But do they have the buyers to really back it up?”

The Biden administration is thinking of stepping in. Biden has promised to make climate change a top priority and bring down emissions to net-zero by 2050. He ordered all agencies to come up with a whole-of-government approach to achieving the goal.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touts potential “early wins” from a sector he argues can pivot more rapidly than other major polluters such as power plants, transportation and construction. The sector generated only 2.5 million credits from 2013 to June 2020, a tiny fraction of its potential, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

U.S. agriculture in 2019 was responsible for 629 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions, up 8 million tons from the prior year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A carbon credit represents a 1 metric ton reduction in carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount in a different greenhouse gas.

Farming is in constant exchange with the atmosphere. Raising livestock gives off methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. The gas also wafts off pig manure, while fertilizers spread on fields emit nitrous oxide, more potent yet with 300 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide. But crops, pasture grasses and trees take in carbon from the atmosphere and deposit it in roots and soil.

The idea is to re-balance that exchange. Special feeds make cows belch less. Digesters can turn methane from manure into biofuel. Cutting down on fertilizer reduces nitrous oxide. “No till” and reduced-till farming avoids plowing fields, which releases carbon stored in soil. Cover crops planted between growing seasons draw more carbon from the air into the soil and over time may reduce the need for fertilizer.

“The Biden administration is taking this on and, for the first time, many different sectors are realizing that you need brown and green to actually do green,” said Erin Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action. “We need to lean into the next decade. This is no longer business as usual. We’re faced with extreme episodic weather events.”

But it’s also far from simple. Startup costs can swamp financial gains so large operators may squeeze out smaller ones and increase farm consolidation. Adding a cover crop costs at least $20 an acre for the seeds and up to $15 an acre to get it planted, according to Indigo’s Harbourt.

And there’s the question of how to reward farmers like organic growers who are already using these methods. Mark Isbell, an Arkansas rice farmer who has reduced emissions, says he is worried about creating “perverse incentives.”

“What the market would tell you to do would be to go out and plow that up, turn that carbon out of the soil,” Isbell testified at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on climate initiatives. “Basically, squeeze the sponge dry, so that I can soak the sponge back full, and then get paid for that.”

A coalition of farm groups has suggested one-time payments for early adopters.

Environmental groups are split, worrying about paying farmers for steps they might take anyway. Some also recoil at a policy that doesn’t alter — and may entrench — American agriculture’s heavy emphasis on meat production and feed grain for livestock. Activists are pushing Biden to lay out ambitious goals and detailed plans when he holds a virtual summit with world leaders this week on Earth Day.

Some environmentalists worry that credits may supply gains that turn out to be ephemeral. What if a field that has been generating credits for storing carbon changes hands or a farmer later decides to plow again?

“A tremendous amount of that progress in carbon sequestration can be entirely erased with one round of tillage,” said Jason Davidson of Earth Justice, an environmental group that opposes carbon markets.

There are also questions over how to measure carbon sequestration since soil types and climate vary greatly from farm to farm and even within the same plot of land. Verification is an issue, with Indigo so far being one of the few working with the so-called carbon registries that are recognized in voluntary markets.

Registries haven’t escaped scrutiny. Nature Conservancy, the top U.S. seller of carbon offsets, said it’s conducting an internal review of its portfolio following concerns that it’s facilitating the sale of meaningless carbon credits to corporate clients. The move comes as credits were created in forestry areas for trees that were in no danger of destruction.

Pricing is another issue, with wild variations between what companies charge. CME Group Inc., one of the world’s largest derivative exchanges, recently started a carbon offset futures contract, accepting credits issued by certain registries.

“It’s a voluntary market, it’s a developing market, it’s a nascent market,” said Ben Fargher, a managing director of sustainability at Cargill, which for now is only using carbon programs to offset its own emissions. “That price discovery is still being discerned.”

Biden officials say they want to move quickly and their climate policy for farmers will be based on voluntary incentives. Robert Bonnie, Vilsack’s main climate adviser, posed a scenario in a transition memo in which a USDA carbon bank might spend $1 billion a year to buy farm-related credits.

Indigo’s Harbourt says the costs are steep in the first few years and government aid is needed. But then, he says, “In year four, the practices themselves start to make really good financial sense. Farmers will stick with them and their grandchildren will stick with them.”

This article is included at www.greenplayammonia.com

What technology is available now to reverse Climate Change and store carbon in the soil? 

Agriculture producers are doing a good job now.  You can ask Joel McClure, A 7,000 acre No-till producer at Hugoton, KS. Click on images to view videos

PG Farms, Shelton, NE, 60 seconds	1. Goodland, KS-19 seconds Banding into Tritcale cover crop .April 11, 2021	2. Goodland, KS - 118 seconds Mustang p-51 Banding Cover crop - Tritcale	3. Goodland, KS, Sederstrom of the Great Plains. 57 seconds
4. Goodland, KS - 55 seconds April 11, 2021 Sederstrom, Tritcale Cover crop.	5. Goodland, KS, 59 seconds April 11, 2021 Sederstrom, Tritcale Cover crop	6. Video with text included Goodland, KS - 2min 22seconds April 11, 2021 Sederstrom, Tritcale Cover crop

 You can watch the technique perform in No-tillage Cover Crop Production in Goodland KS.

You will discover, Why Kansas leads the nation in No-tillage farming. Acceptance,  Kansas Has A Famous No-Till Field Full of Mustangs, Why? At 28 years, On Ute Road, A Vanguard of Infamy. - Broadcast 12_17_2019 (exactrix.com)

You can learn more about Green Play Ammonia. www.greenplayammonia.com   How can producers take back control of Anhydrous Ammonia.

How Methane, Nitrous Oxide and Carbon Dioxide can be reduced…with No-tillage Fertilizer placement from Exactrix….

Mustang Openers applying stabilized TAPPKTS with Zinc in No-Till,  A technique with potential to Control 62% of all Nitrous Oxide fertilizer emissions by banding TAPPKTS deep in the soil profile and stabilized at reduced rates.

Exactrix Technology raising yields and storing more carbon in roots with No-tillage.

Exactrix Mustang Openers have a history…a fantastic history of making ammonia up to twice as efficient and moving more money to the bottom line.

Winter Crops beat Cover Crops every time. Winter Crops Beat Cover Crops Every time. Double Crop is Even Better.   Broadcast 02_03_2021 (exactrix.com)

Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com