Farmers, starting in 2025, will get paid for corn delivered to ethanol plants based on a carbon intensity score (CIS). This is part of the Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (BIRA) which has to do with trying to reduce climate change impacts. The BIRA program starts in January 2025 and runs for 3 years. Farms with a lower CSI may get higher premiums while farms with higher CSI may not even be able to sell their corn to an ethanol plant. Farmer’s need to start planning, collecting data, and even change some farming practices to lower their CSI if they want to take advantage of the program. BIRA pays ethanol plants and biofuel companies (biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuels) to collect the data and they are the ones that get paid the tax incentives and tax credits. According to Mike Estadt, OSU Extension Educator, “The government decided it was easier to work with close to 100 ethanol plants and pay them to conduct the program then to try to collect data from 100,000 farmers.” Mik...

  The following revised article came from information provided by Jon Stika. Jon Stika is a retired Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil health instructor. He is also the author of A Soil Owner’s Manual: How to Restore and Maintain Soil Health. Farmers are looking at carbon markets, just as they look at crop markets, to improve their bottom line. The goal is to transfer carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil. The real question is what conservation practices increase soil carbon? If a farmer is looking to sign a carbon sequestration contract, it makes sense they understand carbon cycling and soil carbon storage. Carbon market contracts use the term “sequestered carbon”. Sequestered carbon includes oil, natural gas, and coal; carbon that is tied up. Do farmers want to sequester carbon or recycle soil carbon more efficiently? Soil carbon is one of the most limiting nutrients for improved crop production. With an estimated world population of 8 billion people today...