US Secretrary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's acceptance and promotion of the ACES carbon trading plan for farmers was presented this week. The underlying key to this being a help to American farmers is a plan called "forest management offsets". In fact, over 3/4 of the "offsets" that are being calculated to offset the higher costs of farming (long-term net income decreases of 7.2%) is attributed to "forest management offsets".
So, what is "forest management offsets"? In simple terms it is growing trees where farms once existed and getting paid for it. Sounds good -- if you don't pay for your feed. Because in Vilsack's plan over 40 million acres and pastures of prime farm production land would be taken away to grow trees to get carbon credits. This would artificially drive up corn and feed crop prices.
But seriously, the reality is that these "forest management offsets" will simply not materialize. And farmers will not recover the 7.2% long term net income decrease.
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