Ontario Set to Test 3 Carbon Offsetting Projects with Farmers

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While all the fuss about carbon tax continues in the Canadian media, we also now have Ontario testing some carbon-cutting pilot projects in the agricultural sector. Ontario signed the Western Climate Initiative not long ago, and the province will probably have a cap-and-trade system by 2012, as all members in the Initiative agree on that.

Ontario’s plan now is to initiate three pilot projects to offset emissions. The first one will have farmers utilize nitrogen fertilizers in a more eco-friendly way. The second project is about implementation of low-till and no-till practices in agriculture. It is expected that at least 50 farmers will collaborate with the government on these two projects. A third one coming later is about afforestation, which refers to planting of trees in deforested areas.

“On a national scale we are 10 per cent of the problem with greenhouse gas emissions, but we can be 20 per cent of the solution,” asserted Don McCabe, VP of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.