Carbon Sequestration and the Income it May Generate For Farmers

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Warren Formo the Executive Director of the Minnesota Agriculture Water Resource  Center (MAWRC) was my guest on today's AM Minnesota Program. The MAWRC is now in its 14th year. It is funded by agri-business in Minnesota along with many of the commodity groups using check-off funds. One major part of the MAWRC is Discovery Farms which conducts on-farm measurements of sediment and nutrients that may move off of the farm with water.

Actually, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture is involved with the instruments and monitoring of the Discovery Farms. Warren said this provides a buffer for those that may say this is just research provided by farmers and not credible. It is great to have data from a lot of growing seasons, wet as in past years, and dry like this one!

The MAWRC is also a source for information on carbon sequestration.

What is Carbon Sequestration?

The USGS defines carbon sequestration as "the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change.

The carbon cycle is related to water too. Warren added there is a lot of interest and excitement around carbon sequestration and the income it may generate for farmers. However we do not have a lot of information and as the old phrase says, "the devil may be in the details." The problem is ideas may be well ahead of the science to be able to measure results.

There apparently is a lot of venture capital moving into carbon sequestration all trying to make money. It makes you wonder if any will be left for farmers? Click play below and listen to Warren on today's AM Minnesota Program.