Farmers Already Working To Lower Carbon Footprint

How can the farm community lower its collective carbon footprint? But as Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue recently pointed out farmers have been working on that goal for some time.

"Using techniques like cover crops, and no-till types of things that can capture that"

Perdue noted during a webinar last week that farmers are not yet fully implementing some of these techniques. Which raises the question, "how do we incentivize farmers to take those steps?"

For years, there’s been talk of creating a workable carbon trading market for agriculture. Some lawmakers have talked about possible legislation along that line. Sonny Perdue said, "I’m a believer in the best solution for sustainability if profitability. And if a carbon trading system is developed, I can assure you that farmers will figure out how to participate in that."

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com