Jason Rowntree, the C.S. Mott Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University, has been appointed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to serve as a member on the Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program Advisory Council.

 

The council was established under the Growing Climate Solutions Act and is informally referred to as the Growing Climate Solutions Act Advisory Council. It supports the Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Program, which facilitates farmer, rancher and private forest landowner participation in voluntary environmental credit markets promoting the prevention, reduction or mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon from the atmosphere.

According to the USDA, the 36 appointed members will review and recommend changes to the protocols recognized by the program for generating environmental credits, as well as the qualifications entities are required to have for providing technical assistance and third-party verification to producers, and the activities available under the program for preventing, reducing or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

They’ll also advise the secretary of agriculture on current methods used in voluntary environmental credit markets to quantify and verify the prevention, reduction or mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, ways to reduce entry barriers into markets for technical assistance providers and third-party verifiers, and strategies to increase market participation among farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners, amid other topics.  

“We’ve conducted leading-edge research at Michigan State University on the influence of agriculture management on ecosystem services — including carbon uptake — and I believe having and sharing that experience will shed some light on the policies that are yet to come from the USDA on how we market carbon and track greenhouse gas emissions through the system,” Rowntree said.

In addition to holding the C.S. Mott Professorship of Sustainable Agriculture within the MSU Department of Animal Science, Rowntree serves as the co-director for the MSU Center for Regenerative Agriculture, where he collaborates with farmers, policymakers and industry partners to develop and implement regenerative ag techniques that enhance soil fertility, improve water management and increase biodiversity. He is also the faculty coordinator for the MSU Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center and Lake City Research Center.

Currently, he co-leads a $19 million project funded by the Noble Research Institute and Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research entitled, “Metrics, Management, and Monitoring: An Investigation of Pasture and Rangeland Soil Health and its Drivers.” The goal of this research is to investigate grazing management systems and their impact on ecosystems and producer well-being.

This story originally appeared on the AgBioResearch website.