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“Certainly a $40 price will be
I’ve .talked .to .some . more attractive than $15,” says
(farmers) .who .were .offered . Hernandez. But the $15 for
farmers, meanwhile, “changes
$10 .a .ton, .and .that .is .25% . the way they farm, such that

less .than .seed .for .a .cover . it also reduces their costs and
crop, .or .even .less . . increases their revenue … mak-
ing the farmland more resil-
—Rattan Lal, .Ohio .State ient, holding water. The profit-
ability equation is changing.”

Indigo’s Hernandez said payments for soil Planting cover crops can cost
carbon have been more typically about $3 a a farmer up to $50 an acre, depending on the
ton, so the $20 in Indigo Ag contracts “is a big type of seed that’s used and other factors, but
change,” and is intended to make contracts growers can also save on fertilizer, weed control
“worth it for farmers.” and erosion control costs, according to experts.

She said the soil carbon price “will change over A study by the Sustainable Agriculture Research
time” as does any product as its market develops. and Education, a federally funded program, esti-
mated that cover crops would yield a net return
Carbon prices need to increase a lot, accord- to corn growers of $17.90 after five years.
ing to Rattan Lal, an Ohio State University
soil scientist who was awarded the 2020 World In California, ‘inconsistent’ funding
Food Prize for his work in promoting carbon and few ag offsets
sequestration to address global environmen-
tal challenges, including climate change. He California’s pioneering effort to reduce its
believes the price of carbon has to be closer to greenhouse gas emissions has fueled the
$40 a ton to truly make an impact on green- building of methane digesters across the
house gas emissions. state’s huge dairy industry, and the cap-
and-trade program also has provided some
“I’ve talked to some (farmers) who were offered financial assistance for installing new farming
$10 a ton, and that is 25% less than seed for a
cover crop, or even less. If you want to grow practices. A limited number of farms also can
earn offsets that they can sell to companies
Daikon radishes as a cover crop, the price of that need to offset their emissions, which is the
seed is very high,” he said.
goal of ag carbon markets.
The Soil Health Institute estimates that farmers The California program works by imposing
are only using cover crops on 4% of U.S. crop- limits on refiners, power plants and other emit-
land, and the practice won’t grow until there are ters, requiring them to buy allowances for their
better incentives, Lal said.
emissions. The sale of those allowances in turn
Credible benefits for storing carbon are has helped provide cost-share assistance to dairy
needed even more worldwide, Lal said, farms to install digesters, which capture the
especially with small-stakeholder farmers in methane gas from manure and use it to generate
America and “in Mexico, Honduras (central electricity. Polluters can also purchase a limited
America and Caribbean) … where they have amount of offset credits, mostly generated by
nothing. Paying them a few pennies (for car- forestry projects but a few by dairy producers’
bon) is not enough” he says. systems for capturing methane.

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