Agriculture is uniquely suited to lead the way in reducing greenhouse gasses. The infrastructure and practices are often already in place, as are voluntary commitments from farmers, ranchers and foresters to be good caretakers of the land and environment

Keynote panelist Robert Bonnie, undersecretary of agriculture with the USDA, spent an hour on the evolution of attitudes and conversations that occurred across multiple administrations to incentivize farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His message was reassuring.

“Agriculture has a tremendous role to play in climate change,” said Bonnie. He said farmers were early adopters of innovation and change, such as nutrient management adoption, no-till crop production and improving soil health by growing cover crops. “Today, agriculture is only contributing 10-11% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Bonnie said.

“Our efficiency and adoption are already allowing us to use a smaller footprint,” Bonnie added.

Bonnie acknowledged regional differences in attitudes when the issue of climate policy is raised, particularly between rural and urban sectors. But when they surveyed attitudes across the board, everyone wanted the same thing — to practice good environmental stewardship.

“But there are differences in climate policy. The difference is not in the what – the differences are in the how,” Bonnie said.

Bonnie advocated a producer-led, voluntary approach in adopting climate policy, not a top-down government regulatory one. He noted that farmers, ranchers and foresters have a proven track record. 

“US agriculture is good at this —  good at efficiencies, technologies and innovation. So we should be good at the incorporation of carbon credit policy,” Bonnie added.

He stressed the importance of not only maintaining but adding productivity as an undeniable factor in the success of a carbon policy.

Bonnie announced that the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is funding 141 keystone programs, built by and for agriculture producers.

“This is a learning network to create additional conservation and private sector investments in agriculture,” Bonnie said. “We’ve captured all of agriculture – grain, crops, livestock, dairy, forestry, underserved producers and small and medium farms.”  

Shaping a successful climate policy needs broad incentives to depolarize difficult issues. Bonnie stressed the importance of bringing agriculture sectors to the table to shape policy. He concluded that climate policies will only work when there are incentives and collaboration that produce results, are built for and by farmers and demonstrate a benefit for agriculture. “It must be bipartisan and built for something that can last and be there for the long term,” Bonnie concluded.

The remainder of the symposium offered practical insights for farmers to understand the changing and fluid dynamics in the carbon credit trading markets. They heard legal considerations on contracts from Paul Goeringer, Extension specialist at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension. An economist, Alejandro Pastina, from Iowa State University, shed additional light on the risks and benefits of the many pricing schemes involved with trading in carbon sequestration. Plastina introduced an online tool where farmers can enter their costs of inputs, additional acreage they want to convert and expected compensation rates from contracts or cost-sharing so they can anticipate the bottom line for their efforts before entering into carbon contracts.

The audience received a deep dive into soil chemistry from Charles White from Penn State University who reviewed how carbon is sequestered and the conditions that cause its release into the atmosphere. Two Perdue AgriBusiness representatives Drew Getty, vice president of environmental sustainability and regulatory affairs and Scott Raubenstine, vice president of agricultural services shared Perdue’s plans to offer additional incentives to growers beyond carbon sequestration. Zach Gihorski, director of government affairs and sustainability for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, wrapped up the event and spoke convincingly about the importance of farmer engagement across the board with trade associations, departments, suppliers and bipartisan involvement in order to shape policy and the 2023 Farm Bill. 

“Prior to the symposium, I had a limited understanding of carbon credits and how they were utilized. This was my first more in-depth exposure,” said Don Clifton, a farmer near Milton in Sussex County. Clifton also serves as executive director for the Delaware Farm Bureau.”

“Much of the agronomy was somewhat familiar, but the discussion of soil structure included new things for me. The economics of how carbon credits currently come into play was mostly new material, as well as the legal aspects,” Clifton said. “There is more to learn. I think I speak for a lot of Delaware farmers when I say there is a lot more than we need to understand.”

Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse echoed the same sentiments. “At the end of the day, a lot of those who participated left with a lot more questions than maybe they came with because there's still a great deal of uncertainty, but the speakers did a really great job of explaining where we are today.”

Scuse said the symposium is an important first step with additional outreach to follow.

“As more and more information becomes available, there'll be an opportunity for us to maybe have a second symposium in order to work with the University of Delaware and Cooperative Extension to get the message out to the producers, because there needs to be some clarity brought, so I think we'll work together to make that happen,” Scuse said.

The entire symposium is available for viewing on YouTube . Agricultural stakeholders may elect to earn additional credits by entering verification keywords on an accompanying online form.