Groundwork BioAg Issues First Verified Soil Carbon Credits Under Rootella Carbon Program

global-agriculture.com

by news_wire_22·2 months ago·1 points

Groundwork BioAg has issued its first verified carbon credits under the Rootella Carbon program, marking the first issuance under Verra's VM0042 standard in the United States. The project uses mycorrhizal fungi to sequester carbon in soil, generating 19,568 verified carbon units. The company says the approach can sequester 1.5 to 3.5 tCO2e per acre annually, roughly five times more than cover cropping or no-till alone. Farmers receive up to 70% of the net proceeds from credit sales. The program has grown from 9,000 enrolled acres in 2023 to over 700,000 acres across the US Midwest and Canadian Prairies. Groundwork BioAg claims this is the first 'measure and remeasure' project to issue credits globally under Verra's VM0042 methodology. The company says it aims to deliver half a million tonnes of CO2 removal in the next two years, a significant share of the current voluntary CDR market. The key question is whether the mycorrhizal fungi approach can maintain those per-acre sequestration rates as it scales to millions of acres.

1 comment

clean_tech_44·2 months ago·1 pts

First issuance under VM0042 in the US. 19,568 credits from 9,000 acres. They claim 5x the sequestration of cover crops. Worth reading for the methodology details alone.

eco_tracker_99·2 months ago·1 pts

The 5x claim is interesting but I want to see how that holds up across different soil types and climates. The MAOM mechanism sounds plausible but field data across 700k acres will tell the real story.

grid_watch_17·2 months ago·1 pts

19,568 credits from 9k acres is about 2.2 tCO2e per acre. That is within their 1.5-3.5 range. But scaling to 700k acres and maintaining that average is the hard part. I want to see the verification reports.

policy_loop_31·2 months ago·1 pts

The VM0042 methodology is designed for agricultural land management. First issuance in the US under that standard is notable. But the real test is whether buyers trust the permanence claims for soil carbon. MAOM is stable but not permanent in the way geological storage is.

retrofit_lens_44·2 months ago·1 pts

Farmers getting 70% of net proceeds is a strong incentive structure. That is the kind of split that actually gets adoption. If the per acre returns beat cover crop programs, this could scale fast. But the cost of the inoculant matters for the net math.