The member-led Michigan Farm Bureau Carbon Credits Task Force has completed its work, crafting more than a dozen recommendations for consideration by MFB’s State Policy Development Committee at its Oct. 9-10 meeting.
Requested by delegates at the 2023 State Annual Meeting and later appointed by the MFB Board of Directors, the task force was asked to create guidelines for carbon credits.
“We wanted to stay focused on making recommendations that ensure growers are the ones being compensated for the credits that are being generated by the practices they’re implementing on their operations,” said Jake Isley, the Lenawee County Farm Bureau member who chaired the group.
Other task force members included Mark Bontekoe (Osceola), Jake Faist (Jackson), Kyle McCarty (Sanilac), Mike Milligan (Tuscola) and Greg Shooks (Antrim).
The full report and policy recommendations are available for members to review. Questions or suggestions for next steps can be directed to MFB Conservation & Regulatory Relations Specialist Tess Van Gorder.
“Carbon credits and other related topics such as regenerative agriculture, sustainability, and scope 3 emissions continue to be hot topics in the industry,” Van Gorder said. “MFB will continue to develop resources to add to the climate resource web page and share additional opportunities and resources to support farmers in understanding the landscape and where there might be opportunities for their operations.”
The task force proposes several additions to MFB Policy #74 Carbon Sequestration and Ecosystem Services Markets, under “We support:”
- An incentive-based market that provides a premium for agricultural and forestry products produced with positive environmental attributes from conservation implementation.
- Increased price transparency from agricultural carbon and ecosystem services credit programs.
- The American Farm Bureau Federation, Michigan Farm Bureau, and partners evaluating opportunities to enhance the transparency of agricultural carbon and ecosystem services credit programs.
- Sustainable/climate-smart tax credits, such as sustainable aviation fuel tax credits, being shared with producers when producers contributed to attaining the tax credit.
- U.S.-based companies and non-U.S.-based companies generating a significant portion of revenue in the U.S. prioritizing the purchase of carbon and ecosystem services credits generated in the U.S.
- Producers being able to utilize USDA cost-share programs alongside carbon and ecosystem services programs to better support the return on investment of conservation practice adoption.
The task force also recommends “A tax credit being developed for individual operations producing climate-smart agricultural and forestry” by adding language to MFB Policy #94 Taxation.
All the additions outlined above are also being recommended for inclusion within American Farm Bureau Federation Policy #503 Climate Change.
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