‘Additionality’ Issue keeps some Farmers out of Carbon Markets
When Mike Estadt talks with Ohio farmers using no-till and cover crops who want to participate in carbon markets, he often tells them they are unlikely to qualify for those opportunities.
“These are farmers who’ve been in no-till for 20 or 30 years, and they’ve probably sequestered all the carbon that they can,” says Estadt, Ohio State University county Extension educator for Pickaway County.
Old Versus New
At the crux of the matter in those scenarios is a term the carbon industry refers to as additionality.
To qualify as a genuine carbon offset, the reductions achieved by a project need to be “additional” to what would have happened if the project had not been carried out.
In most scenarios, companies want to incentivize growers by paying them to use regenerative farming practices, especially no-till and cover crops, on ground where they haven’t used such practices previously.
“No one wants to pay for what happened last year, two years ago or five years ago, because corporations and governments can’t make (carbon offset or inset) claims for that,” explains Debbie Reed, executive director of Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC).
That reality keeps some farmers out of the marketplace. Of 1,200 farmers who responded to a national carbon market survey by Purdue University economists last spring, 22% indicated their previous use of eligible agronomic practices disqualified them from participation.
It’s an issue ESMC is working to address with a portfolio of carbon pilot projects.
For example, in one pilot project, ESMC was able to incentivize farmers for using a cultural practice in a region where 50% or less of the farmers there had adopted it.
“We have made progress showing regional thresholds for practice-based additionality thresholds should be 50% not 5% (as they are currently),” Reed says.
Now, ESMC is working with Gold Standard, a carbon offset registry, to reward early adopters of regenerative farming practices and, in the process, get credit for the companies that work with them.
Layer On Practices
In the meantime, Jean Brokish, Midwest Program manager for American Farmland Trust, encourages farmers to look at ways to layer conservation farming practices on acres.
“They might be able to participate in some programs by integrating multiple species of cover crops rather than a single species,” she says. “Or if they’re only using cover crops, they might layer in no-till or some additional soil-health practice.”
In some ways, carbon programs distract from what Hannah Birge believes is of greater value to farmers.
“I don’t think most farmers will get substantial income from the carbon markets,” says Birge, director of agriculture for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska.
“Payments from carbon markets should be thought of as a supplement for practice adoption costs," Birge adds. "The real benefits are in soil health over the next 5, 10 or 20 years. Farmers will have lower input costs and more stable yields and benefit from costs savings.”
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