Ohio farmers are entering a new market: the carbon trade

Ohio farmers have been in the corn and soybean business for a long time.

But now, some are entering a new market: carbon farming.

That’s when farmers increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil — through practices like no-till planting — in exchange for credits, which they can then sell to corporations trying to reach net-zero emissions.

Organizations like Cargill and the Nature Conservancy have launched pilot carbon trading programs, and increasingly, Ohio farmers are trying them out.

“It’s picked up a lot of steam recently as so many companies have decided that they want to become carbon neutral,” said Brent Sohngen, an environment and resource economics professor with Ohio State University. “They look at America's farm and forest land as an opportunity to help them do that.”