By Sara Wood, Vice President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture
Agriculture is often mentioned as a source of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, it is considered to be one of the only sectors with significant opportunities to remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it through a process called carbon sequestration – and sell what is known as carbon credits.
The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992, committing countries globally to emissions reductions targets. Knowing it would be hard for some countries and industries to meet their climate promises, the agreement included a system where those who can’t reduce their emissions enough can buy credits from others who can. This is called “offsetting” and is the basic idea behind carbon credits.
So how does farming fit in here? Carbon sequestration by agriculture supports the carbon credit system by capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere.
Plants naturally absorb CO₂ as they grow. Farming practices like planting cover crops, reducing tillage, and using compost or manure instead of synthetic fertilizers to grow crops help keep more of that carbon in the soil instead of letting it go back into the air. This process is called carbon sequestration.
When farmers use these practices, they may be able to measure how much carbon they’ve stored and sell that as a carbon credit. In this way, agriculture becomes part of the solution to climate change while also benefiting from the carbon credit market.
Many farmers, including our family farm in southwestern Ontario near the town of Mitchell, are actively using best management practices like reducing or eliminating soil tillage and using cover crops to build healthier soils that support carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
Canada’s dairy farming sector, for example, is working towards its goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Healthier, more productive cows are producing more milk with a smaller environmental footprint than in the past, and farmers are adopting new ways of collecting and storing manure that emit less greenhouse gases than others.
Canada’s beef industry has implemented the Certified Sustainable Beef Framework where farmers can demonstrate sustainable farming practices in five key areas, including environment and natural resources.
Through their Environmental Stewardship Award, Beef Farmers of Ontario annually recognize beef producers with exceptional dedication to environmentally sustainable farming practices. This includes minimizing feed waste, planting trees, implementing buffers around wetlands, soil testing to help apply cattle manure where it’s most beneficial, planting cover crops, reducing or eliminating soil tillage, improving cattle nutrition and more.
Sustainable Winegrowing Ontario Certified wineries and vineyards are recognized as environmental stewards, good community partners, climate action leaders, and invested in social equity and diversity. Those certified under the program are committed to land conservation, restoring natural habitats, water conservation, waste and wastewater reduction and more.
Although these practices are good for the environment and support both productivity and profitability on the farm, what isn’t yet happening on a broad scale is turning them into a revenue stream for farm businesses through the carbon credit market. That’s the case not just in Ontario, but across Canada and even globally.
That’s because the carbon credit market for agriculture is still in its infancy and it’s a complex subject. As well, it takes time to see the results of these types of practices. On our own farm, we’ve been growing cover crops and using minimum tillage for more than 10 years and we’re only now starting to see the positive benefits these practices are having on soil health, for example.
The Ontario Federation of Agriculture, where I serve as a Vice President on the board, has just released a new resource designed to give farmers a carbon credit starting point, including how carbon credits work, options to start carbon trading, what to watch out for before signing onto a program, and where to go for more information. This resource is available at ofa.on.ca/resources/youve-got-carbon-credit-questions-weve-got-carbon-credit-answers.
As farmers, we depend on the land, air and water to grow the crops and livestock that are part of the food and farm products we all depend on.
That’s why it’s so important for farmers to have the tools, knowledge and support to not only continue being good stewards of the environment—but also to be recognized and rewarded for it.
For more information, contact:
Tyler Brooks
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations
Ontario Federation of Agriculture
519-994-2578
comms@ofa.on.ca
