This fall, USDA announced historic investments to support farmer-led projects to fight climate change. Up to $2.8 billion through 70 projects spanning the ag industry were initially selected as part of the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities funding opportunity, including 16 projects in Wisconsin.
The USDA partnership program included a $25 million award to Organic Valley under the project name: Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S. The grant is focused on helping small organic family farms establish and measure on-farm practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Cashton dairy farmer Tucker Gretebeck says these carbon incentives are beneficial not only to the environment, but a farm’s’ bottom line. Earlier this year, Gretebeck’s family planted 1,200 trees to provide shade to their grazing dairy cows. It’s also how the farm is reducing carbon for Organic Valley’s new net zero carbon initiative: Organic Valley’s Carbon Insetting Program.
Gretebeck says it was too expensive for him alone. But with help from Organic Valley, NRCS, and environmental groups, he was able to get the funds and labor he needed to plant the trees back in May. He tells Mid-West Farm Report that severe storms in 2018 washed out dams and his shady pasture. That’s why this project was so important.
While the funds for Gretebeck’s project were not directly from the new USDA ‘climate smart’ fund, the new monies will allow Organic Valley to give technical and financial resources to more projects. The cooperative aims to accelerate the adoption of 1,200 new carbon reduction and removal projects on 500 Organic Valley member-farms across rural America over the next five years.
Through this program, Organic Valley will include direct farmer payments for carbon reduction and removal, as well as cost-share for design and implementation of climate-smart agriculture practices. This includes improvements to grazing, pasture and croplands, manure management, feed supplements, agroforestry, and solar energy.
The resulting carbon reductions and removals will be applied to Organic Valley-branded products and will help lower the carbon footprint of dairy and eggs. A portion of the carbon insets will also be shared with participating ingredient supply chain partners and applied to their products and climate goals.
“Facing the increasing impacts of the climate crisis, this action from the USDA is vital for the future of farming in the U.S. to weather the current and coming storms,” says Nicole Rakobitsch, director of sustainability at Organic Valley. “Organic Valley is creating a model approach to reducing carbon emissions, and we believe that model can be replicated across the food sector. “
Listen to a recent interview with Rakobitsch:
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