Holly Spangler
BUYING CREDITS: ADM is buying carbon credits from Illinois farmers as part of a 2021 pilot project from Ecosystem Services Market Consortium. The program will have a full launch in 2022, impacting more than 10,000 Illinois acres. An Illinois pilot project plans to pay farmers for both improving water quality and storing carbon.
Growing soil organic carbon with cover crops and conservation tillage pays in more ways than just improved soil health, says Broadlands, Ill., farmer Joe Rothermel. He’s using both practices on his farm and earning an annual paycheck for his efforts.
Rothermel is one of 12 Illinois landowners earning income from storing carbon in a 2021 pilot program from the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium. He hopes to make $10 to 15 an acre following the 2021 growing season, but prices could fluctuate above or below that. ESMC doesn’t set a price, relying on price discovery on the open market instead.