According to 2019 EPA estimates, agriculture produces 10.2% of the greenhouse gases that are emitted in the United States.
At that point in time, there was a price between 5 and 10 cents for a carbon credit,” Schnitkey said.
“There are some large companies involved with that in setting emissions goals of zero of carbon.
Often they want new climate-smart activities — those, also, because of sequestering carbon, also have the ability to improve resilience in soil health,” Schnitkey said.
The integrator firms will assure those credits are being generated and then selling them to private entities — companies that want to meet their carbon goals,” Schnitkey said.
“It’s important to point out that many companies want new carbon.
As it currently stands, carbon “buyers” are only entering agreements with farmers who start a new conservation practice.
“They’re the innovators, yet they’re left out of these contracts.
“At this point in time I would give them the same advice as everybody else, getting into these programs will require some documentation of your practices.
“Overall, my advice to farmers probably is that these initiatives are not going to go away and that there’s going to be incentives to think about all of these practices in the future.