The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Accounting and Regenerative Science-Based Incentives Project lays the foundation for supporting and expanding markets for regeneratively grown commodities across Michigan. A new Specialist within the Regenerative Agriculture Unit will be hired to support regenerative commodity farmers and will also support this project and the successful contractor. The goals, objectives and tasks listed below have been identified within the Regenerative Agriculture Unit Strategic Plan. The specific project objectives are listed underneath each strategic plan identified task: Goal 3, Objective 3 from the Regenerative Agriculture Strategic Plan: Increase market opportunities through regenerative value networks Strategic Plan Identified Task: Expand internal database with current and potential institutional buyers. Project objective: Define Michigan “supply shed,” including landscape of brand buyers and co-ops including (but not limited to) Michigan Milk Producers Association, Unilever, Nestle, Dannon, Materne and Start of the West. Strategic Plan Identified Task: Explore carbon market opportunities, such as Section 45Z of the Inflation Reduction Act. Project objective: Recommend up to five priority commodities based on an assessment of GHG reduction opportunities and other regenerative agriculture ecosystem service benefits. Assess and quantify GHG reduction opportunities for priority commodities, including recommendation of best management practices for specific regions and cropping systems. Project objective: Survey/Interview buyers to learn perspectives on quantifying co-benefit outcomes, the desired structure of grower payments, requirements for corporate GHG accounting, and interest in participation in a consortium facilitated by the state. Project objective: Leverage initial pilots in Michigan—for example from USDA Climate Smart Commodities projects—to test project governance frameworks, pricing mechanisms, and incentive structures. Project objective: Build project financial model for pilot and implementation at scale, accounting for grower value proposition, brand payments, and costs required for project administration. Articulate options for incentive payment structures and co-financing that meaningfully motivate practice changes based on modeled costs of implementing regenerative practices. Goal 3, Objective 4 from the Regenerative Agriculture Strategic Plan: Develop and track impact of meaningful ecosystem service metrics Strategic Plan Identified Task: Coordinate with partners to identify metrics used to track impact of ecosystems services. Project objective: Build project frameworks for a corporate regenerative agriculture outcomes program, leveraging governance utilized by prominent brands and consumer packed goods companies. These tools should account for shifting procurement, potential for double counting, claims making, and potential allocation and pricing of GHG claims, and other ecosystem services benefits. Project objective: Align with corporate partners on project frameworks for data access, quantification tools, functional units, verification intensity, GHG reporting calendar. Leverage datasets from ClimateTrace using sub-county level data from at least 23 commodities in Michigan and FARM-ES 3.0 dairy sustainability model. Project objective: Develop a sub-county level inventory of crops and commodities produced in Michigan agriculture and produce state-wide estimates of greenhouse gas impacts, utilizing advanced modeling such as a multi-model ensembles of biogeochemical models. Strategic Plan Identified Task: Review impact of third-party certification and verification systems for increased adoption Project objective: Share frameworks with peer state regenerative agriculture projects to evaluate opportunities for project linkage.
