Agricultural Groups Supporting Senate’s Growing Climate Solutions Act

URBANA, IL – The Growing Climate Solutions Act passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee recently and has been met with praise by many farm and ranch organizations. Though very few of the “climate-change” solutions being touted by Congress receive bipartisan support, this one does because the legislation includes opportunities for farmers to access carbon markets. According to a group of researchers at the University of Illinois, these carbon markets have been in place for more than ten years and offer farmers payments for carbon sequestration practices. The details, however, have presented challenges to the industry as farmers and ranchers struggle to find credible sources of information about participation in the new marketplace. The primary concern regarding greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) has been carbon dioxide, of which more than 77 percent is generated by the transportation, power generation, and industrial industries, while agriculture only contributes 10 percent at most. USDA currently lists 35 farm and land practices as beneficial for sequestering carbon through their Greenhouse Gas and Carbon Sequestration Ranking Tool.

For more information on their research, visit Farmdoc Daily.