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™ | 