2008 Annual Report for ENE07-103
Carbon Trading Provides New Market Opportunities for Agriculture
Summary
“Carbon Trading: Market Opportunities for Agriculture" informational workshops were held May 20th in Voorheesville, NY with satellite links to sites in DE, NH and PA. 120 educators attended the various sites.
The Workshop and educational materials provided participants with informational tools for explaining the marketing options of different agricultural practices and compliance requirements as they relate to carbon trading. The educational modules covered: 1) Basic Cap-and-Trade and Market Opportunities; 2) Northeast Policy Perspectives; 3) Qualifying Agricultural Practices; 4) Contracts; 5) Whole Farm Planning; and 6) Farms with Experience.
The program and resource guide information was evaluated by a focus group of local experts prior to the Workshop.
An evaluator is preparing the tools to verify transfer and application of gained knowledge.
A review of the literature showed that while there is ample information available on many of the scientific aspects of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and some information about policy issues, there is very little extension educator material available about how to market carbon credits from the landowner/farmer perspective. The Resource Guide and Website will go a long way toward addressing this need.
Objectives/Performance Targets
Educators from across the Northeast SARE Region have begun to use the knowledge and skills they gained at the "Carbon Trading: Market Opportunities for Agriculture" workshop to initiate outreach by one or more of the following: organizing local education sessions, giving presentations, working with individual farmers, answering questions, referring colleagues/farmers/landowners to educational resources.
Accomplishments/Milestones
Well over 1,500 extension, NRCS and NGOs and other educators received an announcement of a regional "Carbon Trading: Market Opportunities for Agriculture" workshop, via email, phone contacts, written notification and verbal invites.
141 educators registered and 120 attended the workshop and received a resource manual, which included fact sheets (38 in total), PowerPoint presentations (8 in total) and articles in print. Additionally, they have been directed to this information on the <www.agcarbontrading.org/learn> website.
Approximately 20 Educators have begun to share information, learned at the workshop, with colleagues and farmers/landowners, as well as referring people to the website.
Approximately 15 Educators have held or scheduled outreach through local educational sessions and are giving presentations on marketing carbon credits and other information learned at the workshop. Approximately a dozen workshops are currently planned for a March to June 2009 time frame.
Consultants continue to be available and assist participants with preparation of local presentations.
Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes
The "Carbon Trading: Market Opportunities for Agriculture" workshop was held May 20th in Voorheesville, NY. Video link sites were arranged for: Greensburg, PA; Georgetown, DE; and Boscawen, NH. PowerPoint presentations were presented along with fact sheets, which were included in the Carbon Credit Trading Resource Manual, and distributed at the 4 sites.
Website development was also completed and handled workshop registration and now serves as an electronic resource, which contains the fact sheets and PowerPoint presentations from the workshop, as well as other resource information. To date there have been more than 550 hits, 160 first time users, on the website.
A list serve was created for Workshop participants to share information and obtain assistance. At this time, 38 attendees have signed up to the list serve located at: http://groups.google.com/group/agcarbon?hl=en.