Connect with:
Friday / November 22. 2024
HomePosts Tagged "greenhouse gas"

The two-year trial is designed to evaluate the fertiliser’s performance on crop production, soil health and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

As part of Nestlé’s 2050 net zero roadmap and its work to spark regenerative agriculture, the company tests many new, innovative ideas. Those that prove effective and scalable are rolled out more broadly. In the UK, Nestlé is launching a pilot to assess whether cocoa shells from a confectionery site in York can be used to create a low-carbon fertiliser. 

The two-year trial is designed to evaluate the fertiliser’s performance on crop production, soil health and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If successful, up to 7,000 tonnes of low-carbon fertiliser could be produced and offered to farmers in Nestlé’s UK wheat supply chain. This amount of fertiliser equates to around 25 per cent of Nestlé UK’s total fertiliser use for wheat. 

The production and use of conventional fertiliser accounts for approximately 5 per cent of global GHG emissions,1 and more than half of the carbon footprint of wheat grown in the UK is related to fertiliser use. 

Recycling valuable nutrients from waste streams within the food system provides a promising opportunity to create a lower-emissions supply chain. Scaling up low-carbon fertiliser production can provide farmers with a more sustainable product at a reliable price.

The cocoa shells are supplied by Cargill, which processes the cocoa at the York facility to become key ingredients in iconic products like KitKat and Aero. A trial volume of cocoa shell has been processed and pelletized by Swindon-based CCm Technologies.  

“Farmers often find themselves to be among the first groups exposed to global issues, and these risks are then borne by the food system we all depend upon,” said Matt Ryan, Regeneration Lead at Nestle UK & Ireland. “We have to find ways to build more resilience into the system and optimizing our use of natural resources is a critical part of this.”

“This project is a small, but very meaningful step towards a net zero future, where farmers, local enterprises, and nature all stand to benefit,” added Ryan.

The trials, which were designed and are being overseen by York-based Fera Science Ltd, are currently taking place on arable farms in Suffolk and Northamptonshire.

This project is an example of the innovative solutions that Nestlé is investigating to help achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Nestlé has also committed to sourcing 50 per cent of its key ingredients from regenerative agricultural methods by 2030.

The two-year trial is designed to evaluate

The groundbreaking methodology will help beef producers better understand the impact of feed supplements, enabling projects to measure and quantify the reduction of methane emissions

Cargill partnered with TREES Consulting to develop a Gold Standard-approved beef methodology that offers the global beef industry a framework for measuring methane emissions reduction using feed supplements incorporated into beef cattle diets, such as SilvAir. Gold Standard’s certification process allows climate and sustainable development initiatives to quantify, manage and maximise the impacts toward climate security. It requires a verifiable impact toward three or more of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The new beef methodology defines a set of parameters that beef producers can adopt to quantify reductions in methane emissions, a greenhouse gas (GHG) that is derived from enteric fermentation (digestion process) in cattle through eructation (burping), as well as from manure handling. The new methodology is now available for beef producers worldwide to quantify, audit and verify methane reductions, enabling them to register their GHG mitigation project for Gold Standard certification. Gold Standard’s Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) can be traded in carbon markets, allowing credit purchasers to directly support the projects.  These efforts can also be recognised in corporate value chains, whereby beef producers and food companies account for the reduction in supply chain GHG emissions, which contributes to their Scope 3 targets.  

As a leader in animal agriculture and the beef supply chain, Cargill is in an ideal position to support its network of beef producers with the resources and innovation they will need to meet sustainability challenges. Through its Reach4Reduction program, Cargill is taking a holistic approach to methane reduction by uncovering the potential of feed management and nutrition to do more with less, helping to ensure food security while protecting the planet. Although methane emissions from the enteric fermentation of cattle are a regular occurrence, Cargill recognises the opportunity to reduce methane’s intensity through its global animal nutrition business.

“We know that the industry is looking for more accurate tools to measure methane reduction,” said Joanne Sharpe, Cargill’s global ruminant sustainability lead. “As producers look at their current levels of production efficiency and work toward sustainability goals, we are committed to finding ways to ensure they can be recognised and rewarded for their efforts. As part of our methane reduction priorities, this methodology is a key step toward opening new possibilities to reduce GHG emissions in the beef supply chain.”

“Changing agricultural practice can help reduce methane emissions, and this new methodology provides beef producers with a way to reliably measure the impact of those changes,” said Margaret Kim, CEO, of Gold Standard. “Cargill’s support is helping pave the way for the animal agriculture industry to reduce methane emissions and complements Gold Standard’s other efforts to reduce the impact of agriculture on our planet – such as our recently published methodology which reduces the methane emitted by rice production”.

In practice, projects using the new methodology establish a baseline for emissions during business-as-usual” activities for at least three continuous years. The cattle given feed supplements must be identified and tracked throughout the project. The project crediting period is set at five years and can be renewed for an additional five years, excluding the baseline years.

The groundbreaking methodology will help beef producers

The new program equips the almond cooperative’s growers with resources and incentives to implement climate-smart practices in their orchards

Blue Diamond Growers launched its USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant Program with its 3,000 grower-owners. The program is a major step in expanding the use of climate-smart practices in almond orchards.

The initial launch of the Blue Diamond USDA Climate-Smart Grant Program offers almond growers no-cost seed and a financial incentive for implementing cover crops and/or conservation cover on their land. These practices will not only work towards sequestering carbon but will also enhance the biodiversity of orchards while improving soil health. As part of the program, growers will work with civil society technical partners, Pollinator Partnership and Project Apis m. to implement these practices.

“This is an exciting and unique opportunity for growers outside of the traditional federal, state, and local resources that are typically available to them,” said Dan Sonke, Sr. Director of Sustainability at Blue Diamond Growers. “We know that cost and technical barriers are the largest hurdles to overcome when implementing climate-smart practices. This project provides resources to accelerate our grower-owners’ advances in soil health, biodiversity, and climate-smart agriculture.”

The program will also work to identify almond-specific methods for quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of implementing climate-smart practices and will explore market-based mechanisms to reward growers for their stewardship work.

The USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant Program further extends Blue Diamond’s current Orchard Stewardship Incentive Program (OSIP). OSIP currently has more than 50 per cent of Blue Diamond’s acreage enrolled, the largest amount of almond acreage in the world participating in a sustainability program, with over 15 per cent of Blue Diamond’s acreage being Bee Friendly Farming (B.F.F.) certified.

“Not only does this program benefit growers, but food companies and retailers as well,” continued Sonke. “Customers can partner with Blue Diamond to support the use of climate-smart practices which benefit the climate, soil health, and orchard biodiversity, and thereby procure almonds with a measured GHG reduction quantification that helps meet their own climate and sustainability targets.”

The new program equips the almond cooperative's

The credits were issued by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), a globally trusted carbon market offset registry

AgriCapture is issued the first-ever avoided grasslands conversion carbon credits in Texas through a partnership with the property’s landowner and the Texas Agricultural Land Trust to protect soil carbon and ensure that the property’s native grasslands will not be converted. 

The credits were issued by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), a globally trusted carbon market offset registry, to a Bailey County ranch. Located in the High Plains of the Texas Panhandle, the area is recognised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a New Dust Bowl Zone, where preserving native grassland habitats and preventing land use conversion is especially critical.

“We are proud to deliver the first avoided grasslands conversion carbon credits in the history of the state of Texas and thrilled that AgriCapture’s programs will unlock significant value for Texas landowners,” says Kam Kronenberg, AgriCapture Board Member and Texas landowner.  

 Based in Nashville, AgriCapture was created by a group of agriculture specialists, passionate environmentalists, and economists to combat climate change through sustainable agriculture. AgriCapture verifies Climate-Friendly agricultural practices on farms, ranches, and grasslands to track environmental benefits and boost profitability for agricultural partners across the country.

AgriCapture’s Avoided Grasslands Conversion Project is dedicated to protecting native grasslands and ranches from conversion to cropland, allowing the land to naturally sequester carbon, and prevent agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To facilitate the generation of carbon credits, AgriCapture methodically collects data on soil types, vegetative cover, land use history, and ranch operations to submit for registry verification and credit issuance under CAR’s Grasslands Protocol. The AgriCapture team quantifies avoided GHG emissions and monitors ranch operations to protect underground carbon storage.

The Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) partnered with AgriCapture on the Bailey County project and holds the conservation easement that will protect the land from being converted or developed. The easement contains provisions that make the property eligible to receive carbon credits for sequestering and storing soil carbon, as well as eliminating emissions that would be associated with crop production. 

“We believe this bellwether project could result in future carbon credit revenue streams for agricultural landowners in Texas and beyond,” said Chad Ellis TALT CEO.

The credits were issued by the Climate Action