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Carbon Credits Carbon Credits are quickly becoming an important and much discussed topic around the world.  What are Carbon Credits you ask?  Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs).  The United States emits approximately 7,000 million metric tons (Tg) of CO2 annually.  The largest source of these emissions comes from electricity generation thru coal with the second largest source being transportation.  What does this have to do with agriculture and your farming practices?  Farmers that engage in no-till or strip till practices can be eligible for carbon credits at a rate of 0.6 credits per acre.  If you have any cropland that was recently converted to permanent grass; recently being anytime after January 1, 1999; then those acres are also eligible for carbon credits at that same rate of 0.6 credits per acre. There are guidelines that must be followed in order for a farmer to receive credit for those acres. After an implement has been through the field, there must still be a substantial amount of residue present and the soil disturbance must not be full width. Also, no credits will be earned if the residue is burned or removed. If you go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/energy_and_environment/ you can get an overview of the Energy and Environment Plan that President Obama and Vice President Biden plan to pursue. One of the main goals of the plan will be to reduce our Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 80 Percent by the year 2050 and make the United States a leader on Climate Change. The government is looking at putting caps on the amount of carbon emissions for some of the larger industries. Agriculture is the largest sector in the economy which will likely be excluded from the caps, for now anyways. We will continue to learn more about the Carbon Credit Program and pass that knowledge on to you. If you would like to learn more about Carbon Credit, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to explain the process.