NCEC Interview Questions

1. How does Carbon Chicken Project contribute to removing carbon from the atmosphere?

Carbon Chicken Project LLC contributes through a powerful and durable pathway known as biochar carbon removal. At our core, we are an environmental technology platform that transforms agricultural and industrial waste—like surplus poultry litter and forestry residues—into a portfolio of carbon-negative assets, and eventually a Carbon Negative Farming Ecosystem designed to balance nutrients in watersheds. Our original product, Carbon Chicken 80:20, is one of the first commercially available Soil Carbon Amendments on the market that introduces biochar, soil microbes, and composted poultry litter that is pelletized for precision application and slow release. CCP is working aggressively to create new demand for biochar through a national retailer strategy aimed at sequestering carbon as well as removing agricultural Phosphorus (Poultry Litter) that has resulted in a two-decades-long class action lawsuit, Oklahoma vs. Tyson et. al. in the Illinois River Watershed of Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma.

2. What are the biggest challenges you've faced in carbon removal?

Our biggest challenge has never been the science of carbon removal, but the economics of market creation. When we started, we realized that the greatest barrier to scaling biochar sequestration wasn't the technology to produce it; it was the lack of a large-scale, consistent, and profitable market for the biochar itself.

So, our primary challenge was to solve this "chicken and egg" problem. We had to create the demand before the supply could scale. We did this by engineering a superior, easy-to-use, value-added product—CarbonChicken™ 80:20—that home gardeners and farmers would actually want to buy. By getting this product accepted into trials with major national retailers, we successfully created a powerful, predictable demand signal. Now, our challenge has shifted from market creation to supply chain development—backwardly integrating to build the production capacity needed to meet the demand we've successfully generated.

3. Who are the key stakeholders in the carbon removal space?

From our perspective as a market maker, the stakeholders form a complete circle:

●      The End-User (The Demand Engine): This is the most important stakeholder. The home gardener buying a bag at a retail store and the farmer applying our product to their field are the ones who ultimately pull the entire system forward.

●      The Retailers (The Scalers): Partners like Tractor Supply and Walmart are the essential channel to aggregate that demand and make large-scale sequestration economically viable.

●      The Biochar Producers: These are our crucial supply-side partners. This includes technology providers like ARTi, and the sources of waste biomass themselves—the paper mills, the sawmills, and the poultry farmers.

●      The Capital Providers: This includes private investors, but also federal programs from the US Forest Service and the USDA's NRCS that provide the financial incentives to de-risk and accelerate the entire ecosystem.

●      The Verifiers: Independent registries like the Isometric Standard provide the trust and scientific rigor that underpins the value of the entire carbon market.

4. Who else is doing work like this in the field?

While there are many excellent companies focused on the technology of pyrolysis or the science of soil, our approach is unique. Most of the industry is focused on being "supply-first"—they build a reactor and then search for a market for their output.

Carbon Chicken Project is a "demand-first" company.

We flipped the model. We started by building a superior, value-added product that people wanted to buy. We took on the hard and expensive work of market education, brand building, and securing offtake from national retailers. Now, with a powerful demand signal established, we are backwardly integrating into production. This makes us a "market maker" for biochar. We are now the entity creating the bankable, long-term offtake agreements that make it financially viable to build new pyrolysis facilities, whether it's our own or a partner's. The eco-services team of our company is currently working on three major projects that will have a transformative impact on waste reduction and valorization in Northwest Arkansas when completed.

5. How is this a viable financial model?

Our financial model is a powerful "flywheel." It starts with our role as a market maker, which then enables a diversified "Financial Stack."

1. Product Sales (The Engine): High-margin sales of our "Trifecta" products create the foundational, predictable revenue that drives everything else. (2026 launch with Tractor Supply and Walmart.com)

2. Project Development (The Expansion): The proven demand for our products allows us to form joint ventures with waste producers (like the paper mill and sawmill groups). We are not asking them to speculate on a future market; we are the market.

3. Monetizing the System: These new production hubs then unlock the other pillars of the financial stack: recurring revenue from private-sector CDR credits, direct-pay cash incentives from federal 45Q tax credits, and other government programs via USDA NRCS conservation practices. The product sales de-risk and enable the entire ecosystem.

6. What happens to the carbon when removed?

●      Is there a market for it? Yes, but we are still building it. The primary market is the one we created for our own high-performance soil carbon amendments and filtration products. By embedding the biochar in our value-added products, we've created a profitable and scalable pathway for its use. The secondary market is the voluntary carbon market, where we sell the sequestration service to corporate buyers.

●      How is it stored/managed? The carbon is transformed into biochar and becomes a core component of our products. It is then permanently stored in agricultural, lawn, and garden soils across the country, where it not only sequesters carbon for 1,000+ years but also provides an immediate and tangible agronomic benefit by improving soil health and water retention. CC80:20 is a powerful regenerative tool, and farmers are beginning to wake up as their soils become dangerously compacted. In our unique geography, we are working with the Illinois River Watershed that has an unusual concentration of the world's largest poultry integrators, and a two-decade lawsuit that aims to solve the excess poultry litter problem.  Tyson Foods, Simmons and Georges are some of the major poultry producers in the world have long histories here because they were founded in these two counties in the IRW of Northwest Arkansas and Northeast Oklahoma.  In a 70-mile radius of Siloam Springs there are approximately 1900 broiler houses. Our Carbon Chicken Project was founded on a mission to remove this valuable nutrient and carbon dense material from the region having a Phosphorus surplus, to a region with a Phosphorus deficit, i.e. Southern Kansas or Southeast Arkansas. 

7. How are you measuring carbon removal? How is it verified?

As a market maker, our credibility depends on enforcing the highest possible standards.

●      Measurement: We use a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach for all biochar, whether we produce it ourselves or source it from a partner. We account for all emissions in the supply chain to arrive at a true, net removal figure. We work closely with Grain Ecosystems for these insights and services. We also plan to continue using qualified IBI labs to certify the quality of our biochar for our clients.

●      Verification: We have no active pyrolysis reactor projects as of January 2026, but we are committed to the Isometric Standard, which is the most rigorous, science-backed protocol in the industry. It requires direct measurement and radical transparency. This ensures that every carbon credit we generate or broker is of the absolute highest quality and integrity, which is what sophisticated corporate buyers demand.

8. How do groups like the New Carbon Economy Consortium allow you to further your progress?

Groups like the NCEC are vital for building market consensus around quality. In our role as a market maker and a future broker of biochar, having a respected, neutral body that helps educate buyers on the difference between high-quality, durable removal (like biochar) and low-quality offsets is essential. The NCEC helps create the very standards that will allow our premium, verified products to command the value they deserve.

9. How do you work with local communities?

Our entire business model is built on creating local, synergistic partnerships. We are the central hub that connects multiple community stakeholders:

●      We work with the US Forest Service and local sawmills in Southwest Arkansas to create a new, high-value market for their wood waste, which supports forest health and the local timber economy.

●      We work with industrial players like paper mills to solve their waste liabilities, turning a cost center into a profit center.

●      We work with municipalities in Northwest Arkansas on environmental remediation projects.

●      And most importantly, we work with farmers and landowners, providing them with the tools, the financing (through NRCS programs), and the new revenue streams (through carbon credits) to build a more resilient and profitable future.  Moreover, we are building a legacy of dark, carbon and microbial-rich soil that will produce healthy, nutrient dense (and more profitable) food crops at a lower environmental cost to our community.

10. Anything else you'd like to share?

The key takeaway is our philosophy. We believe that to solve these massive environmental challenges, you can't just create a new technology; you must create a new economic model. By focusing first on creating demand for a product that people genuinely want, we have de-risked the entire supply chain. This demand-first, backwardly integrating approach is our unique contribution to the carbon removal space, and we believe it is the blueprint for building a truly scalable and world-changing company.

I'll leave you with the quote that drives our entire company, from Buckminster Fuller: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

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FYI-Breaking News: Carbon Chicken Project LL, University of Arkansas, Beaver Watershed Alliance, University of Arkansas Discovery Farms have received a $1.4 million grant from EPA Farmer to Farmer Gulf of America program. This will be a 3-year study. UA is the PI, and the funds will be used to study biochar as a remediation and nutrient recovery tool in the Beaver Lake Watershed of Northwest Arkansas.

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