A growing number of North Dakota farmers are supplementing their harvest with monetary credits for conservation practices that keep globe-warming carbon out of the atmosphere.
North Dakota, in fact, with 1.2 million acres enrolled in a program to receive financial credits on a voluntary carbon exchange, is one of the leading states in a slowly emerging movement.
The sign-up so far remains modest, but that would change if mandatory carbon restrictions on industry drives up the price of carbon credits, said Dale Enerson, carbon program director of the North Dakota Farmers Union.
Now, as debate intensifies to shape federal legislation restricting carbon, certain farm groups are keeping a close eye on what happens to climate change policy.
"Agricultural groups should be at the table," Enerson said. "We're trying to persuade agricultural people to have a seat."
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Representatives of the North Dakota Farmers Union and several farm commodity groups met Tuesday in Jamestown with a climate policy leader of the National Environmental Trust.
Until recently, farmers' interest has been mainly on renewable fuels, but more growers and ranchers now are turning their attention to potential revenues from carbon sequestration, Angela Ledford Anderson, vice president of the National Environmental Trust's climate program, said Tuesday in Fargo.
"Sequestration just hasn't caught on in a big way," she said, referring to conservation farming techniques that sequester carbon in the soil. "I'd say North Dakota's sort of ahead of the game. They've been pioneers."
The North Dakota Farmers Union is "aggregating" - lumping together - groups of enrolled farmers or ranchers into blocks that qualify for payments through the voluntary Chicago Climate Exchange.
Participation among North Dakota farmers grew from 830,000 acres in the first sign-up last year to 1.2 million acres this year, almost half of the 2.5 million acres the North Dakota Farmers Union is aggregating in 26 states, Enerson said.
Ranchers are now beginning to sign up under a new managed native rangeland program, he said.
Not all of the carbon "cap and trade" regulation bills pending before Congress would make farmers eligible for carbon credits that trade on an exchange. One leading bill, the Lieberman-Warner bill, targets electrical power, transportation and industry sources, but not farms or ranches.
The Lieberman-Warner bill, although criticized by some environmentalists as not going far enough, would reduce emissions by 13 percent to 18 percent by 2020, according to sponsors, who include Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Klobuchar is spearheading a "carbon counter" provision in the bill to require a carbon emissions inventory program.
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Eventually, if not in the first round of legislation, farmers and ranchers will be part of a comprehensive carbon reduction program, Anderson said.
Agriculture contributes an estimated 8.2 percent of carbon emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That compares to 33.5 percent from electrical power generation, 27.7 percent from transportation, and 18.6 percent from industry.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer at (701) 241-5522 Carbon control Patrick Springer 20071024
