Michigan State University scientist partners on biofuel policy for a carbon-neutral agricultural future
- Michigan State University
- Aug 22
- 3 min read
As global carbon emissions continue to hit all-time highs, strategies for achieving net-zero emissions have only become more important.
Specifically, bioenergy has an important role in displacing fossil fuels and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
Therefore, a team of economists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Madhu Khanna and Gal Hochman), the University of California-Berkeley (David Zilberman) and USDA (Jeffrey O’Hara), including Michigan State University environmental scientist Bruno Basso, came together to propose a groundbreaking “climate-smart” biofuel policy that could revolutionize the agricultural sector’s role in mitigating climate change and improving ecosystems services.
The policy, informed by a recent study published in Science, aims to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation, among other industries.
The study highlights how farm-specific carbon-intensity (CI) scores can incentivize climate-smart agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and enhance soil carbon sequestration.
“This policy is about turning farms into drivers of rural prosperity and stewards of our natural resources,” said Basso, study co-author and sustainable agriculture scientist in MSU’s colleges of agriculture and natural resources, and natural sciences. “By rewarding practices that store carbon in the soil, we can cut emissions, improve soil health and create new revenue streams for farmers and rural communities.”
Leveraging carbon benefits
Biofuels, which are fuels produced from renewable sources such as plants or organic waste, have long been recognized as a key tool for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, but current policies often overlook the climate benefits of sustainable farming practices.
The policy proposes to reward farmers for adopting management practices such as no-till farming, crop rotation, cover cropping, precision agriculture and emerging technologies like biochar and enhanced rock weathering.
The environmental benefits from these practices lead to a lower carbon footprint of the bioenergy feedstocks then transformed to biofuels.
“By aligning biofuel policies with climate-smart agricultural practices, we can create a win-win scenario for farmers, the environment and the biofuel industry,” said lead author Khanna.
The policy would leverage existing biofuel markets, such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, to provide financial incentives for farmers.
Unlike traditional conservation programs, which are limited by budgets, this market-driven approach would scale based on policy targets.
Farmers would benefit from premium prices for low-carbon feedstocks, while biorefineries could reduce their supply-chain emissions.
Policy benefits
Key components of the proposed policy include farm-specific carbon footprints, which incorporate soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse-gas emissions into biofuel CI calculations.
Using multimodel ensembles (MMEs) recently developed by Basso and others, soil carbon changes [and] greenhouse-gas emission of climate-smart practices could be more easily and accurately assessed.
The policy also proposes long-term contracts between farmers and biorefineries to ensure sustained adoption of climate-smart practices and cost-effective systems like mass-balance or book-and-claim approaches to trace CI reductions.
The researchers acknowledge challenges, such as the reversibility of soil carbon sequestration and potential off-farm emissions leakage.
They emphasize, however, that even temporary carbon storage has climate benefits and that advancements in digital technology, predictive modeling and policy design can address these issues.
“Delaying action while waiting for perfect solutions will be costly,” Basso said. “We need evidence-based policies that can adapt and evolve as we learn more. Advances in modeling and digital technologies now make it possible to track CI score, support farmers economically, and help communities reduce their overall environmental footprint. These tools can also enhance other positive ecosystem services from management practices that improve farm profitability and environmental health.”
The study highlights the potential to extend such policies beyond biofuels to include food, animal feed and fiber crops, paving the way for a larger transformation of agriculture.
