Good points.   Indeed, what is needed now is a comparison of what the current SOC contracts are requiring? Based on what I have learned is the "contract" does not begin until a SOC/CO2e inventory is sold.  At that point there is a promise being made to the buyer in that the carbon credit they are buying has legitimate provisions: certification of the SOC stock to be sold is real and its location known; that the source of the SOC credit will maintain its inventory for 10 or more years depending on the contract; and that the carbon credit and its blockchain record is persistent.  At this time most of the soil CO2 credits offered terminate at their sale.  This means once transacted they are consumed and will not have a future trade value versus a "token" of the same.  A token has speculation value.

The carbon game at this time is that SOC credits are being bought at $15-$18/mtCO2e - NORI and IndigoAG. A common shadow price for mtC2e in the international scale is $26/mtCO2e mostly based on EU carbon market and its growth.  And those that are following how our States are attempting to create cap-and-trade designs, their target prices are $40+/mtCO2e.

It would seem to me that if soil sampling is part of your planning process, having a strategy to be able to first baseline where your carbon stock is now, followed with sampling strategies that monitor your carbon stocks, would provide your Soil Carbon Conservation Plan a jump-start?  Access to the COMET-Farm is free and likely will soon become the "program of record" for USDA interest in carbon inventory and build-up programs they may initiate.

Soil is measured in SOC.  The markets for carbon transact in mtCO2e's.  SOC converts to CO2e in 1: 3.67 ratio.

The SOC you are being asked to measure, model, and sell comes from the top-most 300mm or one foot where the SOC action is.

The soil profile below 300mm to a meter is where deep and more permanent SOC will accumulate. This inventory is a special inventory but if you fail to initiate a sampling design for its flux, it will not count until a valid spatial inventory is created.

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