With multiple carbon credit options and incentives now available, an economist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has compiled a comparison of programs and what is being offered to farmers. The report was covered by Discover Muscatine.
Alejandro Plastina, associate professor in economics and extension economist at Iowa State, compared 11 private voluntary programs, across 26 characteristics, in a new report called, “How to Grow and Sell Carbon Credits in US Agriculture.”
The programs compared include two carbon and ecosystem services credit entities (Ecosystem Services Market Consortium-ESMC and Soil and Water Outcomes Fund), two carbon credit entities (Indigo and Nori), four input suppliers (Agoro Carbon Alliance, Bayer, Corteva and Nutrien), and three data platforms (CIBO Impact, Gradable and TruCarbon).
“We thought that creating these comparisons would serve as a baseline for farmers, policymakers, extension personnel, and others to help understand what is known and unknown at this point,” said Plastina.