Advanced BioFuels USA

by Chris Clayton (DTN The Progressive Farmer)  Ohio corn farmer Fred Yoder returned late Friday from a frustrating week in Poland listening to foreign ministers and others talk about what they think farmers globally must do to address climate change.

As chairman of the North America Climate Smart Agriculture Alliance, Yoder took part in a workshop as part of the 24th United Nations Conference of the Parties, described in climate talks as “COP24.”

Yoder had expected a discussion about the pillars of climate-smart agriculture, which highlight increasing production sustainably, adaptation and resilience, and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. But the talks took off in a different direction, and Yoder was taken aback by views that modern agriculture is broken and needs to be radically altered.

“During the workshop, they had a huge room with all of these different countries miked up, and I couldn’t believe how many people came with positions not to our liking,” Yoder said. “It’s very anti-animal protein, and they want to go to a plant-based diet. They had an agenda, and that’s the problem. It’s not so much just about reducing greenhouse gases but being anti-animal agriculture.”

Yoder finally got his chance to talk after hearing from people who want everyone to stop raising meat, champion only grass-fed production or overhaul production of commodity crops. Talk arose about reducing meat consumption 40% or putting a tax on meat globally.

First, Yoder noted how few actual farmers were involved in the 24th Conference of the Parties on climate change.

“I was kind of off-the-cuff, but whatever program they come up with, if they don’t have farmers, whatever they come up with is dead in the water,” Yoder said. “So I’m thinking to myself if we hadn’t been there, silence is considered approval. The people supportive of mainstream agriculture were silent except for us.”

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Yoder said farmers might one day get a price for the value of carbon and a scientific measure for what can be sequestered or reduced. “I’m still looking for the pony in the pile,” he said.

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Members of the South Dakota Corn Growers Association have been researching just how much carbon farmers in the Northern Plains can store while growing corn. The effort began roughly a decade ago as SDCGA’s leadership began to build the case that ethanol can show a lower carbon footprint because of practices on the farm. Because California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard scores greater value to fuels with lower carbon values, there are potentially hundreds of millions of dollars at stake for ethanol plants that can demonstrate lower carbon footprints.

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Currently, California’s LCFS does not take into account farm practices to reduce the carbon footprint of ethanol, but that door could swing open for farmers in the future. So the South Dakota Corn Growers got a peer-reviewed study, later reviewed by the Union of Concerned Scientists, looking at corn production practices and carbon storage.

“We have to figure out how to measure carbon lifecycles on the farms,” Richardson said. “There is significant work going on in this space. I know, for us, this is one of our biggest research efforts, because we believe there is an opportunity.”

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The American Coalition for Ethanol produced a white paper recently on properly measuring the low-carbon benefits of corn ethanol. The paper analyzed life cycle modeling to ideally build more consensus for expanding corn-based ethanol production and use beyond the obligations of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

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California has a cap-and-trade program, which has given carbon-credit pathways for rice growers in parts of the country, as well as wheat growers in the northwest Palouse region. More groups are looking at the cap-and-trade pathway, but the value for corn farmers is in the liquid-fuel market, Richardson said.

“A $100 carbon price (per ton) is worth about $80 an acre in South Dakota,” Richardson said. “That would mean part of the benefit goes to the ethanol plant, and part of the benefit goes to the farmer.”

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As part of the South Dakota carbon sequestration study, the group Applied Ecological Services was hired to study the carbon sequestration on the farm of Ron and Keith Alverson near Chester, South Dakota.

Applied Ecological Services found that the Alversons’ farm has been storing about 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide per acre going back over the past 32 years. Not only is the farm operation carbon neutral, but it’s carbon negative. The Alverson farm sequesters enough carbon dioxide to offset all greenhouse gases tied to the farm, along with the emissions from 370 cars.

The Alversons use a ridge-till system that creates high seed beds, making it more high and dry when spring weather is still cool and moist. The practice makes it effective for growing high-residue continuous corn. The organic matter in the soil has grown from an average of 3.2% to 4.5% to 5% levels.   READ MORE

‘Carbon removal is now a thing’: Radical fixes get a boost at climate talks (Washington Post)