We have heard a lot about climate change and sustainability as the Biden administration takes shape. At this week’s Commodity Classic, the nation’s top production executives discuss their vision.
All along the supply chain, agricultural companies are setting new goals to reduce carbon emissions in product manufacturing and on the farm. Bayer recently wrapped up its first farmer-based carbon market pilot program, it is now heading into commercial launch in 17 states and millions of acres.
According to Bayer’s Chris Turner, “This is going to bring added revenue opportunity for our customers, not just for adopting new practices starting 2021 and moving forward, but also recognizing previous practices that have been taking place the last five to ten years and today’s offer is a $9 dollars per acre added income opportunity for participating farmers in those 17 states.”
Syngenta originally launched its “Good Growth Plan” in 2013, with the goals of net zero productions and keeping people healthy.
“We renewed it again in 2019 with significant, additional investment that was really focused on new technologies and accelerating innovation and then we unveiled some new targets this last year as well which are really about accelerating innovation for farmers and nature and striving for this carbon footprint to be neutral,” Syngenta’s Justin Wolfe explains.
Scott Kay, Vice President for BASF Crop Protection, sees digital farming and data management as key drivers of innovation over the next 20 years.
“I think we are going to continue to learn over that time period, not just race ahead, and I think we are going to be able to learn and start to leverage some of these tools so that we are bringing these better practices,” Kay states.
He says that it is important for farmers and companies to have tangible evidence to show consumers, as a way to improve revenue and build transparency.
“The farmer’s got a great story to tell,” Kay adds. “Transparency is not a problem. I think that’s what’s going to propel the ag industry into being a leader and having a seat at the table, is transparency is a message we should tell.”
BASF helps farmers market cotton through its E3 program, which measures producers on eight different sustainability metrics, which are then translated into a branding campaign for consumer products.