To increase yield, create more nutritious food and maintain more resilient fields, increasing our farmlands’ carbon content is crucial. To date, there’s no manmade technology developed to efficiently pull airborne CO2 emissions and trap them into ag soil. Luckily, sustainable ag practices sequester carbon naturally and, aside from the benefits of increasing farm productivity, we’ll need to engage in these efforts to reduce our overall national emissions. Now, all farmers need is incentive.

As it turns out, Sen. Grassley saw this coming and recently announced that he would work on and support the Growing Climate Solutions Act. The act empowers farmers to participate in the voluntary carbon markets that pay dividends for engaging in pro-business, pro-ag practices that pull CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. While the markets already exist, the act verifies and clarifies them. The premise is simple – ag soil has tremendous potential to sweep carbon emissions and farmers are on the frontlines on disastrous climate events, so let’s let markets pay them for being part of the solution.

It’s great to see one of the most well-respected senators taking the lead on such an important issue. Farmers in Iowa owe Sen. Grassley a big thanks as he supports pro-environment as policy that doesn’t create new regulations. Daryl Haack, Primghar, Iowa