This short personal essay from “farmer Steve” in North Dakota appeared as a comment on WUWT here. I thought it was a succinct and clear message based on personal experience and values, and thus worth sharing. I’ve made some formatting changes to make it easier to read, otherwise it is exactly as he posted his comment. For background on the North Dakota carbon credit program extended to farmers and ranchers, see this, this, and the program home page. Anyone who wishes to repost this essay has my permission to do so. – Anthony
Carbon Credits
I have changed my mind about participating in the carbon credit program. And have resolved to give the money I received to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Here is why.
Recently I sat in the fire hall with a few dozen farmers. We had been invited to hear how we can get paid for carbon credits.
The speaker explained how their satellites can measure the carbon in our land individually and how much money we could get. Then asked for questions.
I asked “what is the source of this money”?
The presenter said it comes from big companies that pollute.
I asked “where do they get this money”? He had no answer.
So I answered for him, asking, “won’t it come from everyone who pays their power bill”? He then agreed and said “that could be”.
I then said isn’t this about the theory of man made global warming? he said “we are not going to talk about that”. Here they are on the prairie soliciting land for carbon credits tempting us with free money.
I believe that agreeing to take their money means you agree with taxing cattle gas also, because methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon. I believe taking this money without considering its source makes us no better than the bankers who lent money to people, knowing they could not pay it back. Collecting their fees then selling the bad loans in bundles to someone else. They did not care where the money came from either.
Let’s be clear.
Carbon is not a new commodity! No new wealth is being created here! Is this the way we want to make a living? Let me ask you, what if their satellites determine that your land has lost carbon? You will get a bill, not a check, right? If you make a tillage pass you will get a bill for emitting carbon, is this not correct?
It is also a fact that this income will, in short order, get built into your land cost. You will keep very little and be left with the burden of another bureaucratic program.
Let’s be honest, we feel compelled to take this money because of the need to be competitive, however we also need to hold true to our values and lead by example that means placing our principals ahead of money.
No good citizen is opposed to using the earth’s resources wisely, however, wisdom means a person who has both intelligence and humility. In my view many of the proponents of man made global warming have the first and lack the second. We are able to exercise our freedom in this country because we have abundant, reliable and affordable power. It is ironic that we sat in front of the flag in that fire hall and considered trading our liberty for money.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Roy Disney:
“Decision making becomes easier when your values are clear to you”
Oh, the farmer and these cowboys should not be friends…
One man likes to push a plough, the other likes to chase a cash cow…
Take it away, Okalahoma!
Had Diogenes lived today he would have died contented. Farmer Steve is an honest man. I hope he isn’t an anomaly.
I live across from Detroit, Michigan in Canada and all the farmers around here no till farm and have been doing no till for years. Works fine and is a lot less expensive and time consuming.
One of the main reasons to plow was to kill off insects and weeds by turning up the soil for the Winter. No with modern chemicals, weeds and insects are easily controlled with a little chemical warfare.
Shawn, comparing Prairie Farming to Ontario hobby farms is like comparing apples to Rubik’s Cubes.
Codetech
Little old France grows more wheat than Canada. The mighty prairies aren’t so mighty.
We produce far better crops around here than the prairie farmers could dream of.
Corn, soybeans, tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, etc. Stuff you can’t grow on the frozen prairies.
Shawn Whelan (07:23:00) :
Codetech
“Little old France grows more wheat than Canada. The mighty prairies aren’t so mighty.
We produce far better crops around here than the prairie farmers could dream of.
Corn, soybeans, tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, etc. Stuff you can’t grow on the frozen prairies”.
Yes Codetech, this is all correct but we have to take a close look at the agricultural history of France.
In the colder periods France was hit by severe crop loss due to cold and wet weather conditions.
These conditions triggered the French Revolution when hungry people took to the streets.
We are facing similar conditions short term world wide as the current cooling process continues.
With more mouths to feed and ample food reserves available and politicians blinded by the hoax of run away Global Warming a real disaster is in the making.
I’m sure there is a lot of truth to this.
But since we’re talking about a major change in conventional farming methods, I’d think the advocates might want to demonstrate — no, proove its effectiveness irrefutably. Otherwise, Ag offices should be running “experimental” farms to get the answers.
I’ll post two bits from Wickipedia:
I don’t know any farmers around here that don’t use no till, although they still work the soil sometimes.
They no till farm to save money and it works just as well at a lower cost. The only downside is that you need the chemicals to no till.
No till is not something new.
Oklahoma Winter Wheat and Spring Freeze
Today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day.
http://epod.usra.edu/
Oklahoma Winter Wheat and Spring Freeze
Today’s Earth Science Picture of the Day.
http://epod.usra.edu/
Earth Science Picture of the Day for April 14, 2009
Like a lot of people, after a moderate February and March the last thing I want is any more cold weather. I think it’s spring! Well, wheat is the same way. Give it warm weather in late-winter (see chart below) and the last thing the plants need is a dose of really cold weather. When it is abnormally warm, the plants rev up their maturation schedule and become more vulnerable to freeze events. Unfortunately, that scenario played out in Oklahoma earlier this month during a spell of unusually cold weather. The moisture was much needed, but the cold was not. Wheat damage from the frigid weather following the storm resulted in various levels of injury from cosmetic damage to total sterility.
As shown above on the above freeze duration map from the Oklahoma Mesonet, temperatures dipped below freezing across the entire state the nights of April 5-7, in some places for 20 hours or more. Obviously, the colder and longer the freezing temps occur the worse the damage will be. It’s not just wheat that can be damaged; any vulnerable crops, including those of an ornamental variety in urban settings, are at risk during these types of cold snaps.
No-till Farming In Dryland Cropping Systems, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources
http://cropwatch.unl.edu/input$/no-till.htm
and
Conclusions: The “no-till drill” beats walking through the field with a pointed stick and a bag of einkorn seed.
A link from climate depot led me to this and another article here
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/116877/
I maintain if you want to know about climate,ask a farmer.They would have records going back (I don’t know how far)
One smart farmer.
It’s time to scrap cap & tax and anything else to do with the global warming scam.
‘Farmer Steve’ is smarter than 99% of the politicians, journalists and college professors in this world. We should thank him for his integrity and ethics.
Cassandra King (09:59:54) :
Here you have the capitalist holy grail, a product that costs nothing to produce giving a 100% return with no outlay, no wonder the money grubbers are loving this latest snake oil scam, they are trading thin air and who pays in the end? the individual consumer of course.
The carbon traders/the UN/governments will make lots of money and that I fear is the prime motivator here, carbon traders stand to rake in billions and the administration costs will be huge, the UN will increase its income stream and power and the governments will make lots in taxes, everybody wins eh? Well not quite everyone, ordinary people will suffer hugely but who cares about them? certainly not the snake oil salesmen thats for sure.
Sorry Cassandra, this isn’t capitalism, it’s rent-seeking. It’s the opposite of capitalism. These companies are lobbying to have the government force these schemes upon us. Capitalism does not rely upon coercion, but instead relies upon free people acting upon their own free will.
Progressive like hide behind words like ‘industrial policy’ when hatching these schemes. A better word for it is ‘extortion’.
This is great I found this yesterday 6th of May on the 5th of May I called the people we signed up for carbon credits a year ago. When we signed up our farm I knew it was a scam. But at the time I thought it was a bunch of Al Gore people living in big house’s feeling guilty and buying green tags. Al Gore himself said I use 11,000 in electricity and buy carbon credits. So we thought if it makes them feel better to pay us for nothing??? Who are we to deny them the opportunity to feel good about them selfs (heaven knows they need something). Well then all this Cap and Trade came out. I called last summer (after WA wanted to pass a state Cap and Trade) to cancel contract and got talked out of it by company but told I could still cancel prior to sell. So on the 5th MAy I called again to cancel. Got the big guy on the phone, he said that these credits aren’t for the coming federal laws those won’t come in until 2013. These credit are going to be bought up by companies like Ford who volunteered to lower their footprint. I asked him who pays Ford?? He said this will help farmers offset some of the carbon taxes in the future. We went round and round I told him that it was a scam. We would be going along with this whole scam if we took this money. And is it fair to get money for this and my kids and friends how live in apts. pay by higher energy and car prices and everything… And it was wrong period. I was told that I would get a bill for my share of the verifying cost and he would get back to me on the cost to cancel. I told him fine. And will write back when I get the bill.
I live in texas and a land owner. I have been approached about carbon credits from the Fedaral Goverment. It looks like to me they want to pay me 5 dollars per acre and then in turn sell these credits to carbon producing power plants at a much higher rate. Also trade these credits on the open market. This really looks like you might see more coal fired power plants getting built. We will to go back to living off wild game.