Solar power, conservation-till practices and cover crops are steps farmers can take now to help reduce greenhouse emissions.

PAULDING COUNTY — For years, the McClure family contemplated installing solar panels.

For just the south barn full of hogs, they spent $17,269 on electricity bills in 2017. Energy is the biggest expense for their operation, said 58-year-old Terry McClure, a fifth-generation farmer.

A solar investment is a significant one.

“It has to pay its way,” he said.

As farmers across Ohio weigh the financial costs of offsetting their carbon footprint and increasing profits, researchers have painted a bleak picture of what will happen if greenhouse emissions are not reduced. Farmers say they will need financial incentives and more technological advances to eliminate their carbon footprint.

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Agriculture is an emissions-intensive industry. Agriculture, along with forestry, accounted for 1% of U.S. production in gross value, but produced 10% of the country’s greenhouse gases in 2016, according to the latest figures posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service.



In many industries, energy is the leading source of emissions, including for heating, engine fuel and electricity. However, agriculture faces additional challenges because of emissions from livestock and the way crops are planted and grown.

The Dispatch spoke to farmers and researchers at Ohio State University about what it would take to shift to carbon-neutral farming in Ohio.

Researchers have said that time is running out to slash carbon enough to avoid catastrophic damage. A recent United Nations report warns that 1 million species face extinction from a combination of causes, including rising temperatures.

Even if that doesn't happen, droughts and heat waves will worsen. Vulnerable populations such as the very young and elderly are expected to suffer health effects from increasing temperatures and declining air quality, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.



There are clear steps that would help reduce carbon emissions from agriculture, such as the development of electric tractors, which are not yet on the market, and a dramatic increase in the use of systems that convert animal waste into natural gas. Some farmers are using conservation tillage that strives to minimally move the soil to avoid erosion and help keep nutrients in their fields. They’re also using cover crops during the offseason to reduce weeds and improve soil quality.

But those steps, even if developed on a much larger scale, might not be enough to get emissions to the levels needed, according to experts.



"If they really want to go to negative emissions, they’re going to have to do more than that," said Brent Sohngen, a professor of environmental and resource economics at Ohio State. "The emissions from the nitrogen oxide on farms — if you want to offset that, you’ve got to have trees growing somewhere, right?"

Sohngren said that farmers might have to consider establishing grasslands, protecting wetlands and avoiding deforestation to help achieve that goal in the next decade.

There's already debate about establishing carbon taxes and credits to encourage greener farm practices.

"Any kind of carbon tax would have huge effects on agriculture because it is still one of the most energy-intensive sectors out there," Sohngen said.

Looking for solutions

Many farmers say they want to be part of the solution, but they also say that making drastic changes in their operations would have to make financial sense. At a time of a trade war with China and low profit margins, they voiced concern about additional taxes or regulations. Any change will not happen overnight, they said.

"The zero-carbon footprint is hypothetical ... unless you have a huge leap forward with technology," McClure said. "That also says everything we've got huge investments in is suddenly unusable.”

Jerry Klopfenstein, 51, who is a third-generation farmer in Paulding County, was the first in his area to install solar panels at his farm. Others, including the McClures, soon followed. The county is among the leaders in the state in wind-turbine installations, which dot the landscape.

In the 1980s, when Klopfenstein was in high school, the family farm was conventional, using tilling practices that dig and overturn the soil, he said.

Now, his farm uses conservation-till practices that minimally disturb the soil to prevent nutrients from running off; it also uses cover crops, which improve soil quality.

“I am not unique. I think there’s more people like me out there that are looking for more solutions and do the best job they can,” Klopfenstein said.

McClure decided with his now-35-year-old son, Ryan, to install the solar panels to provide power for their livestock operations. The farm keeps 8,800 hogs.

The McClures spent an estimated $180,000 to install a solar array adjacent to their south barn. It can tilt between 12- and 45-degree angles to catch the most sunlight.

A federal tax credit gives customers 30 percent back on their investment through this year. The amount drops to 26 percent in 2020, and then to 22 percent in 2021.

“Without (federal) tax incentives, we couldn’t make it work,” Terry McClure said.



So far, that investment is paying off. Energy policy, net electricity metering agreements and the rate structure could change the amount of benefits. In 2018, the McClures’ power bill for the same barn plummeted to $6,417 — a 63 percent drop from the previous year.

>> Video: Solar-powered hog farm pays dividends

Even on a cloudy day in April, the panels produced a little energy (specifically, 14.7 kilowatts).

“It’s doing at least what was expected. Maybe more,” McClure said.

As of April 30, the monitor showed that the panels had offset 102 tons of carbon since they were installed.

Although McClure said the panels are paying off, he still wants to be connected to the electrical grid. If the panels were to malfunction, that backup power is necessary because most of the electricity is used to aerate the barns that house thousands of hogs, he said.

Challenges ahead

Experts say it will be challenging to make environmental gains in agriculture. For example, while researchers say that farms in Lake Erie's western watershed are responsible for phosphorus draining into the lake, causing algae blooms each year, the state’s environmental regulatory agency has no control over farmers.

“Historically, (agriculture) is one of the most significant contributors of ... conventional pollutants to waterway systems, but now (also) greenhouse gases from a climate-change perspective,” said Cinnamon Carlarne, an expert in environmental law and climate-change law and policy at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law. “But it is historically a lot harder to regulate than our other main sources of emissions, including coal-fired power plants.

“The primary reason for that is because we think of coal-fired power plants and our big energy facilities as large corporate actors. ... We understand fully the human health impacts, and we’re more comfortable regulating them,” she said.

When it comes to farming, though, the public perception is much different.

The public doesn’t see corporations. Instead, Carlarne said, there is a “romanticized idea of agriculture” that celebrates “American pastoralism and our views of ourselves,” even though many people are removed from farming by generations.

In Ohio, family farms typically cover about 2,000 acres, and those who have livestock sometimes have thousands of animals to care for in an effort to answer consumer demands.

“Agriculture has been historically much better at evading large-scale, top-down controls,” she said.

Experts say it’s better to get buy-in from the agriculture community to effect change.

“If sequestration of carbon in soil is a potential solution (for emissions), we’re not going to get people to do it because they want to address climate change,” said Robyn S. Wilson, an associate professor of risk analysis and decision science at Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources. “We’re going to get people to do it because better soil is going to increase your yield and decrease your input and do all these other good things for you.”

More outreach to farmers will be needed as the effects of climate change become stronger in the coming years.

After 2050, the negative effects of climate change are expected to increase; more weeds, diseases and pests are likely to reduce the productivity of most crops and livestock, in addition to weather-related stresses, according to projections by a National Climate Assessment.



"I think a lot of it is going to be through outreach — at the intersection of, 'Here’s how climate change is going to affect you,' and 'Here's how to minimize those effects,'" Carlarne said. "Finding ways to maximize kind of win-win scenarios at the intersection of mitigation and adaptation in agriculture seems like the most viable root."

Farmers, by their nature, are environmental stewards, Klopfenstein said.

“When you’re working around something for two, three, four generations, that’s proof enough that you love what you’re doing and love what you’re working with," he said. "And if you love something … you’re going to take care of it and do the best you know how.”

Frank conversations among farmers, he said, are taking place about these issues already.

"The problem where people get real defensive ... when you're trying to do something, and someone out of town, out of state, out of the industry, comes in and says: 'It's all your fault. You're not doing anything' — to me, that is so counterproductive," Klopfenstein said. "You're so much better to sit down and say, 'What have you done?'

"I think there is climate change. I think there are weather shifts. I think we need to be careful saying it's this sector of society that's causing it. I think we can all work together, and we can all do a better job."

This story is part of a multi-newsroom collaborative project called Middle America's Low-Hanging Carbon: The Search for Greenhouse Gas Cuts from the Grid, Agriculture and Transportation. The effort, led by the nonprofit news organization InsideClimate News, includes 14 Midwest newsrooms and aims to give readers local and regional perspectives on climate change.

bburger@dispatch.com

@ByBethBurger