Projects must focus on the on-farm, on-ranch or forest production of commodities and show reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or carbon sequestration as a benefit. The project description specifically mentions cover crops, no-till and low-till among the projects favored for selection, but indicates they won’t be enough by themselves.

After an unprecedented storm with massive flooding, Travis Forstbauer, a Chilliwack, British Columbia, farmer, was pleasantly surprised that his fertile soil stayed in place, thanks to his cover crops.

Environmental Defense Fund and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management have partnered to establish a new financial data gathering process for cover crops within the FINBIN database, the largest publicly available farm financial database and benchmarking service in the country.  

I may be a farmer now, but before I came back to the farm, I was in medical school and doing medical research, so doing on-farm experiments is second nature.