American farmers have a pivotal role to play in tackling climate change, but they shouldn’t sacrifice their own livelihood in the process. RIPE100 is uniquely designed to ensure that climate policy will not hamper farmer profitability, and illustrates the larger public contributions farmers provide by rewarding conservation practices’ water, soil, and other environmental benefits in addition to carbon.
As the 117th Congress considers climate policy, including the proposed USDA Carbon Bank, they have an opportunity to change the partisan climate dialogue with a policy designed to address farmers’ economic needs.
The RIPE100 program:
- Differs from other plans that focus solely on carbon payments. RIPE100 payments of $100 per acre reflect the value to society for carbon, soil health, water quality, and other environmental services. Existing carbon payment programs average around $15 per acre.
- Covers the full cost of implementation, including the increased costs of inputs affected by climate policy, plus a reasonable return beyond participation costs that reflects the combined public benefits.
- Makes enrollment easy and supports practices that are currently implemented.
of farmers support a climate policy that pays $100 per acre for voluntary adoption of conservation practices
of farmers support a policy that pays for practices that improve soil health and water quality as well as carbon capture over a policy that pays solely for carbon capture
Independent survey of farmers conducted by Trust In Food