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July 28, 2022
 
 
 
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Sustainability Takes Center Stage For Trusted Advisers At 2022 InfoAg Conference
 

This week, I drove through a record-breaking St. Louis rainstorm—nearly 9” fell in nine hours—to attend the InfoAg conference. If that doesn’t underscore the seriousness of working together to manage around volatile weather in our communities, I don’t know what does. At Trust In Food, we’re pleased to collaborate with our editorial colleagues at Farm Journal’s The Scoop in support of our partners at The Fertilizer Institute, who organize this impressive event that serves the trusted adviser community including agronomists, crop consultants, ag retailers and ag tech providers.

Sustainability took center stage at this year’s event, starting with the opening keynote by Jeff Blair, CEO and president of GreenPoint Ag Holdings. Blair encouraged audience members to think about carbon markets in the context of an emerging sustainable agriculture marketplace that offers tremendous economic and environmental opportunities—assuming there is progress toward achieving the goals of all stakeholders.

“If the ag supply chain doesn’t work, none of the rest of this works,” Blair points out. He stressed the need to coalesce around standards and a simplified system amid a competitive free market, one in which producers’ new and past investments could be rewarded and compensated with a points-based system, for example.

He noted many farmers already do some form of no-till, cover crops and split-application nitrogen—the three most common activities for which existing carbon marketplaces pay farmers. Exclusively emphasizing additionality misses the bigger opportunity for society and for farmers, whose goals include keeping costs in check, navigating severe weather and building a business that can be passed down to the next generation. A marketplace score could be one pathway to simplifying the process and potential benefits for farmers and better align with their lived experiences at the intersection of productivity, environmental stewardship and economic outcomes.

“If we start to solve the common problem, we’ll have not only a better world we’ll be living on, but our farmers will be better off,” Blair concludes.

During one of my sessions at InfoAg, I shared data and insights from farmer research conducted by Farm Journal and by our team here at Trust In Food. I emphasized the need to think about farmers as individuals—and the tremendous opportunity for trusted advisers to serve as a conduit with their customers, serving up information, knowledge, experts and curiosity.

There’s something each of us can contribute. What are you doing to make a mark for the American farmer and rancher this week?

Until next week,
Nate Birt
Vice President, Trust In Food

 
 
 
 
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News We’re Following

 

TNC Leads Minnesota Pilot With Hormel Foods, Target To Invest In Carbon Sequestration, Air and Water Quality

Shared by Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president, Trust In Food: Hormel Foods and Target will provide $1.7 million for Minnesota farmers to adopt practices such as cover cropping, reduced tillage and nutrient management. The goal is to enroll up to 50,000 acres. MBOLD, a coalition of Minnesota-based food and agriculture business leaders and innovators, served as the catalyst to bring the organizations together, and the pilot is part of the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium’s (ESMC) effort to launch a nationwide marketplace for agricultural carbon and water credits in 2022. Led by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the Minnesota pilot is actively signing up farmers on a first-come, first-served basis. 

 
 

Cargill To Pay Cotton Growers To Implement Regenerative Practices

Shared by Rebecca Bartels, senior director of strategic partnerships, Trust In FoodCargill will start enrolling U.S. cotton growers in its Cargill RegenConnect regeneratively-sourced cotton program, rewarding  cotton growers for the positive soil health practices they are already using. This new addition to the Cargill RegenConnect portfolio furthers Cargill’s role in giving farmers access to emerging market opportunities within sustainable, traceable supply chains, opening doors to Cargill’s downstream customers looking to achieve their sustainable sourcing goals.   

 
 

Truterra, AGI Partner To Engage Retailers To Automate, Streamline Data

Shared by Amy Skoczlas Cole, executive vice president, Trust In Food: Data capture and sharing can be a significant barrier to entry for farmers who want to participate in sustainability programs and carbon markets. With the retail channel already filling that role for many farmers for various operations, Truterra has partnered with AGI to use its Farmobile technology to produce a complete third-party Electronic Field Record – including high precision field activities – from ag retailers’ and farmers’ equipment that helps fulfill the data requirements necessary for potential participation in Truterra’s carbon programs.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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