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Most U.S. farm products sold - 86% - are produced on farms owned by individuals, family partnerships and family corporations. |
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Carbon Credits Program - (Existing Contracts Only)
SDFB is working with Agragate Climate Credit Corporation a division of Iowa Farm Bureau.
What is Carbon sequestration?
- Carbon sequestration can be defined as the capture and secure storage of carbon that would otherwise be emitted to or remain in the atmosphere.
What are Carbon Credits?
- Carbon credits encompass two ideas:
- Prevention/reduction of carbon emissions produced by human activities from reaching the atmosphere by capturing and diverting them to secure storage.
- Removal of carbon from the atmosphere by various means and securely storing it.
What is the Carbon Cycle?
- Carbon is continuously cycled between land and sea, in inorganic and organic form.
- Most of the carbon stored in organic matter is nonliving, occurring either in soil humus or dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in seawater.
- The atmosphere, in addition to comprising a major carbon reservoir, plays a critical role as a medium for rapid global exchange of CO2 and other bioactive elements.
What is the Chicago Climate Exchange®?
- The Chicago Climate Exchange® (CCX®) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and trading pilot program for emission sources and offset projects in the United States and for offset projects undertaken in Brazil and other countries. CCX® is a self-regulatory, rules-based exchange designed and governed by CCX® Members.
- These members made a voluntary, legally binding commitment to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by four percent below the average of their 1998-2001 baseline by 2006 and a six percent reduction by 2010.
What type of Carbon Credits are there?
- Soil Offsets
- No-till
- New Grass
- Rangeland
- Forestry
- New Plantings
- Enhanced Working Forest
- Ag Methane
What are soil offsets?
- No-till crop production
- New Grass Plantings
What are the requirements for soil offsets?
- Land must be in the eligible project area
- Land must be capable of being cropped
- Must be farmed with no-till or strip till practices
- Crop land can be in hay, but if row-cropped must be done in compliant manner
- Crop land that was recently converted to permanent grass (after Jan 1, 1999)
- Commitment to 5 years of conservation tillage
- Annual certification of compliance
- Credits transferred to aggregator on Jan 1st
- 20% reserve held until end of pilot project
- Transfer price will be the price as determined by sale through CCX less a 10% service fee.
Enrollment form information needed:
- Legal description of acreage, practice(s) employed
- FSA maps and crop report (CCC-578)
- Lessees: reasonable expectation that acres are under control for 5 years.
- Failure to keep land in compliance throughout the contract period voids all credits on the non-compliant land.
- Submit annual signed attestation to aggregator
- Acknowledge that CCX verifiers will be given access to fields and CCX documents
What tools are acceptable to use?
- Tools with wide knives
- Subsoiler/ripper
- Anhydrous applicator
- Manure knife applicator
- General Guideline: After the implement has been through the field, there must still be a substantial amount of surface residue present and the soil disturbance must not be full width. If use of the implement would require that a leveling or smoothing activity follow, it would probably result in too much soil disturbance.
What about removing residue?
- No credits earned during year if residue is removed or burned
Rangeland Offsets
- Land meets CCX definition of Rangeland
- Rangeland is in a CCX-approved area
- Project involves rangeland management practices that include use of all of the following tools:
- Light or Moderate Stocking rates;
- Sustainable Livestock Distributions
- Drought mitigation
What information sources are used?
- The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Field Office Technical Guides publish guidelines for managing the controlled harvest of vegetation with grazing animals.
- Stocking rates and livestock distribution criteria are defined according to County and State in the NRCS “Prescribed Grazing Specification” code.
Ag Methane Offsets
Check out website information on
www.agragate.com
Forestry Offsets
Check out website information on
www.agragate.com
Links:
Contracts:
Downloads:
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