Conservation leader says carbon programs need to include early adopters, better pay

One of the early innovators in Wisconsin’s recently-expanded producer-led watershed protection grant program says farmers should not be left out of new carbon sequestration programs because they started doing the right things a decade ago.

Jeff Endres is a dairy farmer and the chairman of Yahara Pride Farms, a farmer-led watershed protection group focused on keeping nutrients out of the Yahara River, which feeds the lakes surrounding Madison, Wisconsin.  Endres tells Brownfield many farmers have implemented cover crops, no-till, and other practices but so far, won’t benefit from the proposed carbon programs.

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