“It’s not going to pay the bills,” said Bethany Huls, carbon customer success manager with Bayer.
Huls was joined by representatives of Cargill, Truterra, which is the Land O’ Lakes sustainability division, and Indigo Ag, an agricultural start-up, in outlining the opportunities and challenges that come with the emerging carbon credits market.
Truterra rolled out its carbon credit program for farmers in Midwestern states south and east of Minnesota last year.
They have pledged to reduce their carbon footprints, and need to buy carbon offset credits to do so.
He and the other speakers are confident the carbon credit market will grow, but said that they believe it represents a 10-year window of opportunity for farmers.
Farmers are paid for carbon credits in different ways.
For the most part, the speakers acknowledged that credits are provided to farmers for implementing changes on cropped acres, and that “historical” or “legacy” acres do not receive carbon credits.
The speakers continued to emphasize that the carbon credits are part of a voluntary, private sector market, and that all of the current projections see demand exceeding supply for some years to come.
He urged anyone who is thinking about adopting sustainable farming practices to at least look into the opportunities of carbon credits before the window closes on them.