FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 29, 2008

Contact:  Sandy Courtnage

NFU Carbon Credit Program Generates $551,000

for Montana’s Farmers and Ranchers

GREAT FALLS, MT (July 29, 2008) – More than 100 Montana farmers and ranchers will receive checks in the mail this week for capturing and storing carbon dioxide in their soil through the National Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program.

Montana Farmers Union President Alan Merrill said total earnings from no-till and seeded grassland offsets generated more than $551,000 in income for 2006 and 2007 practices. To date, $8 million has been earned by producers across the country since the voluntary program began in late 2006.

“We are happy to be able to provide this service to Montana’s farmers and ranchers,” said Merrill.  “This voluntary program can result in greater profitability for many operations.”

Nationwide, this pool of enrollments sequestered carbon dioxide from 2.8 million acres using no-till cropping practices and by converting cropland to long-term grass stands, as in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres. After third-party verification of the enrolled acres, the tons were registered and sold on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) over the last several months. That amount of stored carbon dioxide offsets the estimated annual emissions of 320,000 automobiles.

Farmers Union was approved as an aggregator for the CCX to pool and market carbon offsets in 2006 and has since become one of the largest providers of agricultural soil carbon offsets to the CCX. The CCX is the world’s first greenhouse gas emissions registry, reduction and trading system, trading more than 86 million tons of carbon offsets to date.

Over the next three to five years, these farmers and ranchers will receive annual payments based on the acres they have enrolled and the price of the offsets traded. In addition to no-till and seeded grass offsets, credits can also be earned with prescribed grazing on native rangeland, tree-planting projects, and methane capture projects. Additional pools of these offsets will be marketed in the coming months.

While enrollment is ongoing, the next pool deadlines will be August 1 for the prescribed rotational grazing offsets and August 15 for no-till/seeded grass offsets. The program is entirely voluntary, but contracts are considered legally binding once signed. More information on the program can be found by contacting Montana Farmers Union at 800-234-4071 or by following the links at www.montanafarmersunion.com.

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