The C-AGG Mission

The agricultural sector has significant potential to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store, or “sequester” carbon to reduce GHG emissions, in many cases at relatively low costs. C-AGG seeks to promote agreement on and development of the proper incentives, tools, and information to enable the agricultural sector to find value in GHG emissions reductions and sequestration opportunities that provide mutual benefits to society and our stakeholders. The agricultural sector currently emits an estimated 7% of annual U.S. GHG emissions.  With the appropriate incentives, agriculture can play a significant role in meeting the US goal of achieving an 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050.

Executive Director

Debbie Reed
Debbie, who is based in Washington, DC, is responsible for overall leadership, direction, and planning of C-AGG activities and meetings. She receives oversight and guidance from the C-AGG Steering Committee and project support from Monica McBride, C-AGG's Project Manager, and Ashley Markgraf, C-AGG's Meeting Planner. Debbie can be reached at [email protected].

Project Manager

Monica McBride
Monica is based in Washington, DC and her primary responsibilities will be further developing C-AGG’s corporate supply chain relationships, supporting the planning, execution and follow-up associated with C-AGG meetings and workshops, and helping the Executive Director build out C-AGG’s partnerships both domestically and internationally with an initial focus on Brazil. Monica can be reached at [email protected]. 

Meeting Planner

Ashley Markgraf
Ashley, who is based in Chicago, IL is responsible for the day to day C-AGG activities including communication with Steering Committee, website management, and mailing list correspondance to all members.  Ashley also plans and manages the in person workshops and meetings that take place throughout the year.  Ashley can be reached at [email protected].

Facilitation & Meeting Support

Chris Chopyak, Owner, Arlosoul
Arlosoul is passionate about creating new ways of thinking to drive business results. Chris and Alece excel at combining facilitation and business strategy with pictures, visual images and metaphors to engage teams, organizations and companies in the futures they want to create. Alchemy works with all types of organizations and businesses from Fortune 500 to small NGO's and cit governments. 

Steering Committee

Agricultural Sector
Paul Buttner, California Rice Commission
Thomas Driscoll, National Farmers Union
Chad Frahm, Innovation Center for US Dairy
Michael Formica, National Pork Producers Council

Environmental NGO
Jimmy Daukas, American Farmland Trust
Robert Parkhurst, Environmental Defense Fund

Carbon Markets/Financial Sector
Leslie Durschinger, Terra Global Capital, LLC
Sheldon Zakreski, The Climate Trust

Academic/Government/Think Tank
Rich Conant, Colorado State University
John Kadyszewski, Winrock International

Guiding Principles

Members of the Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases propose the following guiding principles for designing policy
to enable the agricultural sector to participate effectively in the effort to mitigate climate change.

GHG Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG)

These demonstration projects have received competitive funding via the USDA’s Conservation Innovation Grant Program. C-AGG provides a convening opportunity that allows the participants to grapple with common challenges and seek solutions to achieve successful outcomes.

Thank you for your generous support!

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation's goals, through the use of grants, are to improve the lives of children, enable creative pursuit of science, advance reproductive health, and conserve and restore earth’s natural systems.

©2015 Coalition on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (C-AGG). All rights reserved.