carbon sequestration

Whether it’s from the USDA or early Farm Bill conversations, producers are hearing more and more about climate smart ag, and how to incorporate the practices into everyday operations.  But if you’re like most farmers, you’re hesitant to spend a lot of money for practices or equipment with which you’re not familiar.   That’s where UNDO can he...

Oregon State University has been awarded $50 million by the USDA to work with potato farmers to reduce their carbon footprint.  The Pacific Northwest accounts for roughly 60% of potatoes grown in the United States, and spuds are a $2 billion dollar crop locally in the Pacific Northwest but harvesting spuds creates a lot of soil disturbance.  OSU pro...

The Department of Agriculture plans to invest $8 million to support and expand carbon monitoring in soils.  The investment also supports the assessment of how climate-smart practices affect carbon sequestration.  The investment is part of USDA's efforts to build out a national soil carbon monitoring network, which was kicked off with soil carbon monitoring on Conservation Reserve Program acres in

Farmer sentiment improved in August as the Purdue-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose 14 points above its July reading to 117.  Both the Index of Current Conditions and the Index of Future Expectations increased last month, meaning producers were less worried about their farm’s financial situation than in July, although they remain concerned about a possible cost-price squeeze.     When... Read Mo

While there is a lot of talk about carbon markets for farmers, one expert says, "I wouldn't consider there to be a working market right now for carbon." Dr. Joe Outlaw, Texas A&M University economist, said there's a lot of inconsistency in the values and prices attached to the same exact farm practices with, sometimes, no clear explanation given for those prices. ...

In the fight against massive wildfires across the west, many in the ranching community say the best tool isn’t a helicopter or a shovel. It’s a herd of grazing cattle. Mark Pratt, President of the Idaho Cattle Association, said cattle can remove the fine fuels that allow fires to grow at a breakneck pace. “My und ...

A new report shows agriculture can provide 10%-20% of the additional sequestration and emissions reductions needed for the nation to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The report released by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology summarizes the different ways agriculture can provide mitigations to climate change and sequester carbon dioxide ...

According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the USDA is encouraging climate smart farming on many fronts including programs already familiar to the farming community. "We're going to enlarge our CRP Program, which is our Conservation Reserve Program ...

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research recently awarded a $10 million grant supporting U.S. dairy’s Net Zero Initiative. The funding will support a six-year project titled Dairy Soil and Water Regeneration. The project focuses on building soil health to reduce greenhouse gases and improving water quality, along with enabling new economic benefits. A ...

The USDA’s Farm Service Agency announced an initiative to quantify the climate benefits of CRP contracts. The multi-year effort will enable USDA to better target CRP toward climate outcomes and improve existing models and conservation planning tools while supporting USDA’s goal of putting American agriculture and forestry at the center of climate-smart solutions to address climate change. "C