Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
This project is an Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program (OV-CIP), focused on building a multi-stakeholder path to produce, market, and promote climate-smart commodities across the U.S.
Farm Eligibility
Apr-23
CA, CO, ID, NM, OR, UT, WA, IA, IL, MN, MO, SD, WI, IN, KY, MI, OH, MA, MD, ME, NC, NH, NY, PA, TN, VA, VT, WV
Cover Crops
- Forest Stand Improvement
- Hedgerow Planting
- Pasture And Hay Planting
- Prescribed Grazing
- Range Planting
- Reduced – or No-Till
- Riparian Forest Buffer
- Silvopasture
- Tree/Shrub Establishment
- Waste Separation Facility
- Waste Storage Facility
- Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment And Renovation
Practices must be newly implemented in order to qualify
Money Matters
To reduce financial barriers to adoption, OV-CIP will pay farmers for the anticipated year-1 carbon reductions or removals upfront when the practice implementation is verified by program staff (i.e. after the practice has been installed). Farmers will then receive annual payments for the duration of the practice term and upon receipt of annual practice management reports.
Base price per ton: Years 1-2: $20; Years 3-5: $25
Verification of a climate-smart commodity project to the VCI Guidance ensures that the Supply Shed principle is upheld and that the GHG benefits of these commodities may be credibly claimed by corporate partners along the commodity’s supply chains while safeguarding against double counting.
Inset
Contracting Info
5 years contracts starting from April 2023
Contract start date, total field area, commodity type, yield for the past three years, current land use information, historic land use information, and planned practice information
Organic Valley and its partners will lead farmer recruitment activities including the dissemination of program promotion and enrollment materials, program webinars and in-person events throughout the grant period. Organic Valley will leverage existing, proven farmer communication platforms and activities (in-person and virtual) to recruit farm participants, e.g., Organic Valley Annual Membership Meeting, twice per year Regional Meetings, bi-monthly virtual Pasture Walks, etc. Members of the co-op’s Farmer Carbon Committee will engage in farmer-to-farmer recruitment activities as advocates of the program.
The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. A nationwide network of CSAF Technical Service Providers will deliver one-on-one farmer technical assistance to plan, design, budget, baseline, implement and monitor farm practices. Organic Valley will serve as a hub to align network partners in the delivery of technical assistance.
Technical Info
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
COMET-Farm and/or COMET- Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification.
Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry (CSAF) practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol.
A buffer pool of reductions/removals is included in the annual carbon abatement forecast to account for any potential reversals