Bill Dorgan (left) speaks with CAFA members about the possibile value of carbon trading for farmers and the extra income it could yield. Dorgan is part of a series that is going across western Canada with the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors annual meetings.
Bill Dorgan does not see the opportunities for Carbon Offsets as a get rich quick scheme, but he does see them as another possible revenue source for farmers in western Canada.
Dorgan was part of a day long event sponsored by the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors that is moving across the country. CAFA Executive Director Liz Roberston has put together a slate of speakers that is appearing at a series of meetings from Alberta to Ontario and Dorgan is one of the speakers.
He has been involved in several aspects of agriculture for input sales through a consultant role with Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Dorgan explained to the advisors assembled that the carbon offets allow farmers to sell the credit for the good they to in the environment to the polluters while they are in the process of bringing equipment up to standards.
His presentation included the details of what current standards are and how they will be moving downward in the next few years.
“Large corporations have two options,” he says. “One is to buy credits from people like farmers, the other is to change their methods of production and at this time it makes economic sense to buy those credits rather than face the penalties for harming the environment.” The actions of companies are included in their legal options and some of the fees raised go to a Research and Development fund that will look at ways of reducing the carbon imprint on the world.
He faced questions about the method of payment and said that some farmers in Alberta had already been paid for their offset credits, while payments were forthcoming in Saskatchewan he was not aware of Manitoba farmers who had benefited from the program.
“This is not going to go away,” he says. “This is something that will be here for years and farmers are well placed to take advantage of the economics of the sale of their offsets.”
Dorgan says that the buyers of Carbon Offsets do not want to deal with hundreds of individual farmers so he is involved with a group that helps consolidate the credits so there is a significant package that can be purchased by corporations who are facing penalties if they do not change their production or buy credits.
Dorgan says that, while the per-acre values are not large amounts, it is money that is being returned to farmers for their normal production practices.
