Eco-aid: Cotton could help South Plains farmers go green
With all the attention paid to reducing carbon emissions and cutting back on industrial greenhouse gases, farms may be the last place one would look for pollution. But Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack grabbed producers' attention in recent weeks with a different approach to dishing out government aid: asking farmers to go green.
The newly appointed Vilsack made a case to several farm organizations for the beginning stages of his proposal in hopes the green payments can replace funding safety nets put in place by the 2008 Farm Bill. The plan focuses on reducing carbon emissions by encouraging farmers to engage in practices that capture and store more carbon in the soil while using less equipment to manage their fields.
Reactions within the agriculture community have been varied, and farmers on the High Plains are especially concerned because of the difficulties presented by farming green in a semi-arid climate.
Steve Verett, executive vice president of Plains Cotton Growers, said many in the industry are confused as to how the system could take over for direct payments that farmers depend on to get loans for their operations. Changes in operations also pose an added financial burden to producers that may be hard to balance out with new payments unless they're relatively high, Verett said.
"Farmers are not opposed in general to green payment, but they haven't come to the point that a farmer and a banker can say 'hey, yeah, those are replacements to current farm payments and the safety nets we have in place today,'" he said.
Some methods of reducing emissions include low-till or no-till planting, reducing irrigation and encouraging farmers to plant crops known for their carbon-absorbing abilities. But depending on how the rate of absorption is measured, the system could work out poorly for cotton farmers in the region.
Frank Hons, a professor of soil science at Texas A&M, said cotton has not traditionally been viewed as a crop that absorbs a large quantity of greenhouse gases. Coupled with some farmers' reluctance to rotate cotton with less-profitable crops, Hons said a carbon-credit system could mean big changes for producers in West Texas hoping to cash in.
"I think it would have to be a significant payment for carbon to shift many attitudes," he said. "In certain cases you're almost relegated to a certain crop by the climate that you're in and the soil that you have. It's not easy to shift out of that."
New research may challenge those views, however, as ongoing studies reveal there may be more to cotton's carbon-storage ability than meets the eye. With a focus on increasing biofuel production in the U.S., the waste left behind by the woody parts of cotton plants could create a new market for materials used in producing biodiesel, said Darren Hudson, chair of agricultural competitiveness at Texas Tech.
Combined with the amount of carbon stored in cotton lint and the relatively large yields produced with small inputs, Hudson said becoming an alternative fuel source would greatly enhance cotton's standing in the green community. "Cotton being a woody plant sequesters more carbon," he said. "Then there is a tremendous amount of potential energy, cellulosic energy, stored up in waste."
While other plants capture more carbon on site, Hudson said he believes attitudes toward cotton, especially dryland cotton, may shift dramatically. Though other crops could stand to benefit from the disadvantages facing cotton producers, members throughout the agriculture community are looking for ways to keep the industry afloat without major changes to what's produced.
Hannah Lipps, communications director for the National Sorghum Producers, said despite grain's inherent ability to store carbon, there is concern on how green payments would affect farmers as a whole.
"I think the message is that agriculture needs to band together here and let the secretary know that this is an important part of our business structure," Lipps said. "I realize that it's a good concept, but it's all in the implementation of the program."
Like many policies proposed in recent weeks by President Barack Obama's administration, the changes are a long way from becoming law, but Verett said a lot of farmers are as uncertain as ever about the future of their business.
"Whether you agree that climate change is happening, or to what degree, or all of that, it does not matter," he said. "We have to try and prepare and try and understand what's happening so our producers can take advantage or be hurt the least by these policies."
By Joshua Hull | Avalanche-Journal |Sunday, March 01, 2009
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