ST. PAUL, Ore. — Organic Valley, the largest organic dairy cooperative, is establishing incentives for climate-smart agricultural practices at members’ farms.

The co-op has set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

Rather than achieving that goal by purchasing carbon offset credits from elsewhere, the co-op’s new Carbon Insetting Program aims to generate carbon savings from within, directly benefiting local producers and the communities they serve.

“I like to think of it as the opposite of carbon offsets,” said Nicole Rakobitsch, director of sustainability for Organic Valley. “We’re going to invest in farmer-members in our supply chain who produce the milk and other products we put on (store) shelves.”

The announcement was made March 11 during a panel of climate experts, farmers and food brands at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif. Rakobitsch said Organic Valley expects to be the first major dairy brand to reduce farm emissions without relying on carbon offsets.

“We will be providing a direct incentive from the co-op to the farmer who is installing a new practice,” she said.

Organic Valley represents approximately 1,700 dairy farmers in 34 states, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. That includes about 25 farms in Oregon.

For the Carbon Insetting Program’s first year, Rakobitsch said Organic Valley hopes to enroll 30-50 new projects.

Eligible practices are broken down into three categories: energy, improve manure management and agroforestry.

Energy projects can include anything that improves overall efficiency or reduces consumption — such as installing LED lighting or upgrading plate coolers for milk.

The category also covers renewable energy, such as installing solar panels, and on-farm electrification, such as investing in electric tractors and other equipment.

Improving manure management specifically refers to technology that separates liquid and solid manure typically stored in open-air lagoons, Rakobitsch said. The more solids can be removed and used as fertilizer or in compost, the less chance it has to break down and emit methane, a harmful greenhouse gas.

Finally, agroforestry is the practice of planting trees around or among pastures and cropland to help sequester carbon. Practically for dairies, tree plantings could be done to provide shade for cows, or as windbreaks for crops.

While the focus of the program is to help achieve carbon neutrality, Rakobitsch said they come with a suite of environmental co-benefits, including enhanced soil health, air quality, water quality and biodiversity.

“Carbon insetting is about so much more than simply reducing a company’s carbon footprint,” she said. “It is about businesses investing in the ecosystems their suppliers and farmers depend on to increase their resiliency and provide significant, measurable benefits to communities surrounding the value chain.”

Rakobitsch said the co-op is working with SustainCERT, a third-party firm, to certify carbon savings from individual practices.

Though prices continue to fluctuate, Rakobitsch said Organic Valley is trying to be competitive with other carbon offset markets that offer around $15 per metric ton of carbon.

Enrollment in the Carbon Insetting Program will likely take place later this summer. As part of the deal, Rakobitsch said the farmers must agree not to enter any external carbon offset markets “to ensure there’s not a double-counting of that same carbon.”

Steve Pierson, Organic Valley board president and fourth-generation owner of Sar-Ben Farms in St. Paul, Ore., said his family operation will be among the first to enroll in the program.

Pierson plans to install a new, more efficient separator to pull solid manure from the waste generated by the farm’s 320 dairy cows. The manure solids can then be composed and sold as organic fertilizer.

“This is definitely a more efficient system than what we had,” Pierson said. “It will reduce up to 20-25% more solids than our old system did.”

There is no question agriculture contributes greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, Pierson said, though he added farmers can and should be part of the solution.

“Our co-op is trying to do exactly that, by incentivizing our farmers to reduce our sources opportunities for emissions,” he said.