Know Your Farmer/Rancher, Know Your Carbon Offsets
Did you know that healthy agricultural soils can remove carbon from the atmosphere? Avoiding imminent tillage on threatened native grasslands can also store (sequester) carbon for at least 100 years.
When soils are farmed unsustainably, carbon stocks from the soils are lost to the atmosphere and contribute to global climate change.
Carbon offset payments provide farmers and ranchers with conservation opportunities that lock up soil carbon in healthy soils for 100 years or longer. In addition to raising sustainable food and fiber, farmers and ranchers can help us address global climate change by being stewards of our nation’s soil carbon stocks.
That’s right, through carbon offset payment programs farmers and ranchers are given economic incentive to farm carbon on our nation’s working agricultural lands.
Are these farms and ranches restricted from future farming and ranching due to the carbon offset requirements?
No. Farmers and ranchers are permitted and encouraged to continue ranching grasslands, but they must be good stewards and legally commitment to leaving soil carbon stocks undisturbed. There are many intricate details, but, in summary, farmers and ranchers are paid to forego tillage and manage soil carbon stocks.
These transactions create financial incentive to set aside land to farm carbon in addition to traditional farming/ranching practices. Our nation’s farmers and ranchers are becoming part of the New Normal where carbon sequestration and reduced greenhouse gas emissions hold monetary value in our nation’s economy. Telluride Mountainfilm, our enthusiastic partner in this PCI offset initiative, has branded this paradigm shift the New Normal to describe a nation that values climate science and the ecosystem services of Earth’s atmosphere, mobilizes money to make a difference, and empowers farmers and ranchers through rural economic development.
Are farmers and ranchers required to participate?
No. This is an entirely voluntary program. Farmers and ranchers can participate if their land qualifies and has an imminent threat of tillage, but they don’t have to. Farming carbon is not for every farmer/rancher, but we have found a few that are keen to participate in climate change solutions.
Let’s meet the ranchers that have joined the Pinhead Climate Institute and MountainFilm to generate third-party verified carbon offsets.
The May Family of Prowers County, Colo. have been land stewards for generations. Today, the family’s 16,480-acre May Ranch, with abundant water, superb soils, and plenty of sunshine, is under an extreme threat of conversion to tillage. In fact, an aerial view of the ranch and surrounding properties shows clearly that tilled fields completely surround it. Yet the May’s are willing to forego the tillage opportunity FOREVER thanks to a conservation easement with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust and our Pinhead Climate Institute carbon offset payments.
Because of the family’s willingness to participate in the voluntary carbon offset market, the May Ranch’s soil carbon stocks will remain intact forever. Conservation easement and carbon offset payments allow the May’s to be part of the solution to climate change. As compensation for adopting this newly monetized form of agriculture – carbon farming – they are fairly and equitably paid.
What type of farming/ranching is permitted? And, what about cows? Don’t they emit methane through enteric fermentation (burps) and their manure?
Thanks to carbon offset payments and conservation easements, the May family has committed to locking up more than 14,000 acres (that’s 85 percent!) of their prime Southeastern Colorado ranch land. The land remains working, but by farming carbon rather than conventional row crops, they serve as soil carbon stewards for the next century. There is a rigorous and complex quantification methodology that must be followed, and the family must provide documentation and agree to a third-party verification of their sustainable ranching activities.
The May’s will continue to graze cattle on their ranch by using the same sustainable management practices that have kept the family ranching for multiple generations. In this way they’ll avoid the overstocking and overgrazing common to poorly managed ranches the same as they always have. The difference now is that they’ve chosen to forgo any future tillage options, leaving the soil carbon and soil structure intact forever.
And, yes, while it’s true that animals, ruminants in particular, leave a carbon footprint of their own, this reality will be factored into the number of carbon offsets generated on the May Ranch. Still, by using good management practices, the animals can provide benefits to the land as well as food for humans.