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and 75% in 2006. The amount of conservation knowledge, and programs to improve quan-
tillage on corn acreage has been relatively flat tification of GHG from agriculture. She also
over that period at just over 60%. has worked at the White House Council on

Cover crop adoption varies widely by region, Environmental Quality as the director of
with some of the lowest levels in the Plains states legislative affairs and agricultural policy and
and some of the highest in the states bordering in the U.S. Senate as a senior staffer focused
the Chesapeake Bay, where the EPA has set pol- on natural resource and agricultural issues for
lution limits, according to a University of Illinois Nebraska Sen. Robert Kerrey.
analysis of USDA data. ESMC has launched nine regional pilot proj-
ects, four in the Corn Belt, three in the southern
Some 29% of the cropland in Maryland had
cover crops in 2017, compared to 4% in Iowa Plains, one in the Pacific Northwest and one in
and 3% in Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, and the Great Lakes region.
1% in the Dakotas. The projects include a collaboration with Gen-
eral Mills’ regenerative ag program in Kansas
Projects aim to slash cost of cli- involving wheat farmers, which the cereal maker

mate-friendly farming says will contribute to its effort to reduce its
absolute GHG emissions by 28% across its full
One of the more prominent efforts driving value chain by 2025.
research is being led by the Ecosystem Services
Market Consortium, which plans to launch Another pilot involves The Nature Conser-
a voluntary market to sell carbon and water vancy, McDonald’s, Cargill and Target. It’s a five-
quality and quantity credits for the agriculture year, $8.5 million, 100,000-acre project aimed at
sector by 2022. helping Nebraska farmers advance soil health.
ESMC’s funders include public and private One goal is to reduce farmers’ costs 75% from
sources: The Foundation for Food and Agricul- where they were when the projects started, Reed
ture Research, the Natural Resources Conserva- said.
tion Service, the Ida and Robert Gordon Family Reed said it’s tough to say what the specific costs
Foundation, General Mills, the Walton Family are because there have been different ways to
Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Noble measure them, and there has been little trans-
Research Institute, United Soybean Board, and parency. “But since we started this all fairly
The Nature Conservancy. ‘from scratch’, we are able to build our own cost
ESMC’s founders also include McDonald’s, models that we will then track over time. So, we
Danone North America, Nestle, ADM, Bunge, will aim to drop costs relative to our own start-
Cargill, Corteva Agriscience, Nutrien and ing costs.”
Syngenta. Johnson of The Nature Conservancy agrees that
“When we are quantifying outcomes for cost reduction is critical. “You’ve got to get it
ecosystem services markets, hand grenades down to where it’s inexpensive enough that you
and horseshoes are not enough — close is can do this.”
not enough — we need to be accurate,” says
ESMC Executive Director Debbie Reed. Low carbon fuel standard drives
DOE’s research rush
Reed previously led the Coalition on Agri-
cultural Greenhouse Gases, which supported The Energy Department’s Advanced Research
development of tools, support systems, Projects Agency (ARPA-E) is playing a big role

24 www.Agri-Pulse.com