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Shift to carbon neutral companies and implications for agriculture
There are a growing number of businesses with carbon neutral goals and an Ohio State University professor says farmers will continue to be called to help meet these goals and mitigate climate risks.
Brent Sohngen, professor of environmental and resource economics, says there is a focus on agriculture because it is energy intensive and carbon intensive.
“What does this mean for farmers,” he says. “So, what I think it means is that as part of the global supply chain farmers are increasingly going to be asked to measure their net carbon emissions and report it. I think it’s going to happen, maybe not in the next 5 years or 10 years but maybe in the next 10-15 years.”
He says there will be more opportunities for farmers to participate in carbon markets.
“There are some pretty interesting companies that are starting to help farmers and have had contracts go through now to help farmers produce carbon stocks and increase carbon stocks on their lands,” he says. “It’s great to see companies doing this because this is going to help get over the quantification question of how we quantify and keep track of this.”
Sohngen spoke during the recent OSU Ag Policy and Outlook Conference.