WD9,
I see NAWG working on Carbon Credits for US growers.
Just think of the Carbon Credits Canola growers should be able to earn... for reduction of C02 by adding 5 % Canola to Diesel!
Has the Canola Council thought about this issue?
Here is the article:
"Word on Wheat: Helping the Environment and Bottom Lines
May 18, 2007
Mike Sullivan
NAWG Environment and Renewable Resources Committee Chairman
The general public and many urban lawmakers are beginning to realize something agricultural producers have known for a long time: despite popular perceptions to the contrary, agriculture is a solution to a great many of the environmental challenges we must encounter to continue living healthfully on planet Earth.
Over the past few years, many have discovered the potential of ethanol and invested money to make the process of producing it even more efficient. People are looking to agriculture to provide the raw materials need to make a whole host of products for families and industries. People are also now looking to agricultural producers to do something that, well, they have always done – sequester carbon while they grow their crops.
To participate in a carbon sequestration program, growers would sign up with an aggregator that would keep track of the amount of carbon sequestered by their land, depending on acreage, crops planted and farming practices. Those carbon “credits” are then sold on a market to industries that emit carbon dioxide in their processes. Enrolled growers get paid based on the estimated amount of carbon their land actually pulled out of the atmosphere and the market value of that sequestered carbon.
If it sounds like you’re missing something here, you’re probably not. Producers, of course, would have paperwork to keep track of and there would be regulatory requirements, but basically growers would continue to provide the same service they have always provided – producing food - but would get paid for the environmental benefits inherent in what they do.
To help wheat growers get involved, NAWG is looking into the possibility that the NAWG Foundation, a non-profit educational and research organization associated with the grower advocacy group, could serve as a carbon aggregator for growers in NAWG states.
Like many “new uses” the agriculture industry is finding, carbon sequestration is a win-win situation for growers and the environment. These aggregating programs have the potential to help farmers earn extra income that would flow through rural communities in the form of increased spending and investment on the farm. At the same time, they help producers of carbon emissions be responsible for offsetting what they put into the environment, ultimately helping us all breathe a little easier and stem the tide of global warming.
Many people who are two or three (or more) generations removed from the farm have an image in their minds of farmer-pollutants indiscriminately spraying chemicals and breaking natural cover grasses for fertilizer-hungry row crops. Those of us who live in the heartland and actually produce food for America’s families know that, if anything, farmers are more environmentally conscious than the average city dweller because we not only live on the land, we live by the land.
My fellow growers on the NAWG Board will continue to investigate carbon sequestration programs and other ways agricultural producers can help make our planet a better place to live while continuing to provide the safest, most affordable and most abundant food in the world. We see this as an opportunity for our industry and our children who have to live in the world we leave them.
- Sullivan is a wheat producer in Wallace, Neb."
http://www.wheatworld.org/html/news.cfm?ID=1207
I see NAWG working on Carbon Credits for US growers.
Just think of the Carbon Credits Canola growers should be able to earn... for reduction of C02 by adding 5 % Canola to Diesel!
Has the Canola Council thought about this issue?
Here is the article:
"Word on Wheat: Helping the Environment and Bottom Lines
May 18, 2007
Mike Sullivan
NAWG Environment and Renewable Resources Committee Chairman
The general public and many urban lawmakers are beginning to realize something agricultural producers have known for a long time: despite popular perceptions to the contrary, agriculture is a solution to a great many of the environmental challenges we must encounter to continue living healthfully on planet Earth.
Over the past few years, many have discovered the potential of ethanol and invested money to make the process of producing it even more efficient. People are looking to agriculture to provide the raw materials need to make a whole host of products for families and industries. People are also now looking to agricultural producers to do something that, well, they have always done – sequester carbon while they grow their crops.
To participate in a carbon sequestration program, growers would sign up with an aggregator that would keep track of the amount of carbon sequestered by their land, depending on acreage, crops planted and farming practices. Those carbon “credits” are then sold on a market to industries that emit carbon dioxide in their processes. Enrolled growers get paid based on the estimated amount of carbon their land actually pulled out of the atmosphere and the market value of that sequestered carbon.
If it sounds like you’re missing something here, you’re probably not. Producers, of course, would have paperwork to keep track of and there would be regulatory requirements, but basically growers would continue to provide the same service they have always provided – producing food - but would get paid for the environmental benefits inherent in what they do.
To help wheat growers get involved, NAWG is looking into the possibility that the NAWG Foundation, a non-profit educational and research organization associated with the grower advocacy group, could serve as a carbon aggregator for growers in NAWG states.
Like many “new uses” the agriculture industry is finding, carbon sequestration is a win-win situation for growers and the environment. These aggregating programs have the potential to help farmers earn extra income that would flow through rural communities in the form of increased spending and investment on the farm. At the same time, they help producers of carbon emissions be responsible for offsetting what they put into the environment, ultimately helping us all breathe a little easier and stem the tide of global warming.
Many people who are two or three (or more) generations removed from the farm have an image in their minds of farmer-pollutants indiscriminately spraying chemicals and breaking natural cover grasses for fertilizer-hungry row crops. Those of us who live in the heartland and actually produce food for America’s families know that, if anything, farmers are more environmentally conscious than the average city dweller because we not only live on the land, we live by the land.
My fellow growers on the NAWG Board will continue to investigate carbon sequestration programs and other ways agricultural producers can help make our planet a better place to live while continuing to provide the safest, most affordable and most abundant food in the world. We see this as an opportunity for our industry and our children who have to live in the world we leave them.
- Sullivan is a wheat producer in Wallace, Neb."
http://www.wheatworld.org/html/news.cfm?ID=1207
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