Nov. 22, 2006: ND farmers: Clearing the Air Pays Off

Media Clip
Posted November 22nd, 2006 by elena
in

A new program offered through Farmers Union pays producers for their efforts to protect the environment. It's called the Carbon Credit Program, and North Dakota farmers have taken the lead in signing up for it.

Prairie News Service
Nov. 22, 2006

ND Farmers: Clearing the Air Pays Off

Jamestown, ND- They can't haul it to the elevator or save the seed for next spring, but a number of North Dakota farmers will soon be cashing in on a new commodity... clean air. Thanks to a program offered through the Farmers Union, farmers who make a five-year commitment not to till farmland or to continually grow certain types of grasses can receive payments from the Chicago Climate Exchange. Director of the national Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program Dale Enerson says it works a lot like the Chicago Board of Trade. The difference is this commodity cannot be readily seen or measured...

"Just like corn can be traded on the Board of Trade, Chicago Climate Exchange trade tons of carbon dioxide. A ton of carbon dioxide today is worth about $4 a ton so four-tenths of a $4 ton is about $1.60 a gross per acre for the farmer for doing the no-till practice. "

The first payments to farmers could be out as early as January. And Enerson says if anyone else is interested in signing up, that's still open. And it's easy too. He says the forms are all on their web sit at www-dot-Farmers Union-dot-org.

Enerson says it's a good demonstration of how farmers can be some of the best stewards of the environment.

"Agriculture has somewhat of a role to play in the debate of carbon dioxide causing global warming in the sense that as other companies and industries pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we can offset a portion of that with the things that we are doing in agriculture."

Tag: North Dakota farmers committed 800-thousand acres to the program when it opened in May. Since then, producers in thirteen other states have come aboard bringing the total national acres up to one-point-one million.