Incentives could encourage farmers to cut greenhouse gas emissions

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — Michigan farmers who cut their fertilizer use could help reduce greenhouse gases. And if done through a new emissions trading program, they could get other industries to pay them to do it without harming crop yields. The method encourages farmers to lower emissions of nitrous oxide from fertilizer. Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas linked to human-induced global warming. “It’s a carrot rather than a stick,” said Adam Diamant, technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., which developed the method with Michigan State University scientists.