Chris Carl Named Verification Sub-Committee Chair for Soil Standard Development

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ST. LOUIS, MO, (GreenNewswire) - The second meeting of the Agricultural Carbon Sequestration Standard Committee was held on the St Louis, Missouri, Monsanto Campus on October 26-28. The meeting was held to hear presentations from noted USDA scientists on carbon sequestration and to give committee reports of activities since the first meeting held in August.

Three scientists gave presentation to the group to provide the latest information from their field experience and research.

  • Dr. Alan Franzluebbers, USDA/ARS in Watkinsville, GA

  • Dr. Jerry Hatfield, USDA/ARS - Nat. Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, IA

  • Dr. Mark Liebig, USDA/ARS - NGPRL in Mandan, ND

 Reports from sub-committees appointed in August included:

  • Permanence/Duration presented by Dave Miller of Aggregate

  • Quantification and Eligibility chaired by Patrick Splichal of SES

  • Verification chaired by Chris Carl of Tera-Vista.

 New sub-committees appointments included:

  • Definitions

  • Outreach and

  • Advisory Board.

Chief writer, Beth Hayden of B. Hayden Consulting, worked with the sub-committees on wording and content of the standard.

 ”The group has grown due to the interest in sequestering green house gases (GHG) in the soil and in developing soil-based carbon offset methodologies and systems that can be standardized and validated. We expect that the standards will then become broadly accepted,” says Gary Delong, Novecta’s Managing Director. “The standard development process has brought together parties from Canada, the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia who are currently working on similar validation methods to the US standard.”

 The meeting included presentations from sub-committees of Permanence/Duration, Quantification and Eligibility, and Verification. Chief writer, Beth Hayden of B.Hayden Consulting, worked with the growing committee on wording and content of the standard. Three scientists gave presentation to the group centered on the latest information from their field experience and research.

  • Dr Alan Franzluebbers, USDA/ARS in Watkinsville, GA,

  • Dr Jerry Hatfield USDA/ARS – National Soil Tilth Laboratory in Ames, IA,

  • Dr Mark Liebig USDA/ARS – NGPRL in Mandan, ND.

“As we continue to make great progress on this standard we invite other groups and individuals to join as observers of the process and to review the draft standard and provide input to the committee,” notes Delong.

 The standard committee was formed in August to create an industry-wide standard for validating carbon offsets resulting from soil carbon sequestration of greenhouse gas emission reductions at the soil interface. The committee has grown to over 40 committee members and observers from leading agricultural businesses to members of the carbon industry including aggregators, verifiers, exchange traders, soil scientists and others interested in carbon measurements. The group is being facilitated by Novecta. ### Novecta is a joint venture company of the Iowa and Illinois Corn Growers Associations. Novecta is active in auditing and implementing quality management systems in agriculture in grains and grain processing throughout the U.S. and Asia. www.novecta.com