She and Parkhurst say that in order for an agricultural industry to carve out a GHG credits system that it would have to make economic sense to change practices to obtain certification to make sales.

“We need to maximize the ability to produce food while minimizing the environmental footprint and do that in a sustainable matter,” Parkhurst said.

“We can’t work against agriculture; we have to work with agriculture. They’re the ones getting their hands dirty and making it happen.”

EDF helped rice growers develop a carbon offset protocol that won air board approval in June.

“Rice was the first to go through this,” Ludwig said. “We’re riding on their coattails and sorting out what it takes for growers to participate.”

Parkhurst says developing the rice protocol was a challenge as the industry looked at ways to address methane issues created by the flooding of fields and anaerobic conditions. He says modifying practices was done in a way that took into account the beneficial aspects of having some standing water for bird populations.

“It’s a fabulous challenge, a multidimensional chess game,” Parkhurst said.

EDF touts other successes that include working with the Climate Action Reserve which approved a new protocol that rewards farmers for avoiding the conversion of grasslands to cropland.

It is hoped that a “fertilizer protocol” could be a part of the ARB system, and that the protocol could then be modified as needed for other cropping systems.

“The vast majority of crops use fertilizer,” Parkhurst said. “How can we leverage the similarities and respect the differences among crops with an umbrella protocol?”

Ludwig says challenges for agriculture include the fact it is not a “factory, smokestack” industry that can be more easily monitored. And she says many in California are wary of buying and selling of cap-and-trade credits and carbon offsets.

“They want to sure that every pound (of GHG) is being removed,” Ludwig said.

Agriculture’s move into the credit system would be a voluntary effort, says Ludwig, and there would have to be a certification system in place. Moreover, it would be necessary for growers to modify their current practices and quantify results.

It would not be enough, she says, for almond growers, for example, to simply point to a recently released report on research that showed that using byproducts from producing and harvesting almonds is a key to lowering the industry’s carbon emissions.

University of California researchers conducted what they called “a cradle to grave” look at the industry that showed almonds have a relatively small carbon footprint and that it could be further reduced with some changes in management practices.

In almond production, the emissions are largely from nitrous oxide, which is emitted when growers add nitrogen to the soil through the use of synthetic fertilizer. 

“Everybody is still learning in this process,” Ludwig said. “We hope that in the next three-to-six months we can outline something (as a protocol) and come back to the growers and try it out.”