We’ll hear Tim Baye and Jessica Niekrasz discuss efforts to develop programming that supports Wisconsin farm carbon management initiatives. Wisconsin Legislative leadership with contributions across the stakeholder spectrum have recently launched an investigation of a comprehensive Farm/Energy/Water/Carbon policy program. The essence of the project is to establish or expand voluntary, market-driven options for animal agriculture operations’ to more effectively and aggressively manage their farm’s carbon footprint. Components of the project include carbon accounting, electricity, nutrient management, building market-place for lower carbon inputs, carbon offsets and carbon labeling.

This project promotes and supports measuring, managing, and monetizing the value of carbon at the farm. Valuing what’s already accomplished, integrating assets and practices to reduce carbon intensity, and add (sometimes significantly) to the bottom-line while addressing risks (compliance, price, and technical). Using Wisconsin animal enterprises as an initial “targeted” industry, the program intends to demonstrate that by using off-the-shelf technology and proven practices, farmers can move to optimize financial benefits from decreasing the carbon intensity of their products.