Rice à la Kyoto

Agriculture contributes nearly a quarter of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Eric Rey, president and CEO of Arcadia Biosciences, proposes to turn genetically engineered rice into carbon credits:

The seed, still in development, will cut their need for nitrogen fertilizer, which is among their biggest costs -- and a huge source of greenhouse gases. He then aims to sell the resulting carbon credits on a growing global exchange

The market for carbon credits is estimated at $30 billion but despite the size of the market, some foreign giants, like Monsanto, were frustrated with their experiences and subsequently pulled out of China. Mr. Rey's idea will take at least five year to be implemented, but he remains hopeful:

Rather than charging farmers a premium for genetically modified seeds -- the traditional business model -- farmers would pay for the price of regular seed, plus about half of the carbon credits generated by their reduced fertilizer use.