Trust in Food Initiative: Stackable Grants for Cover Crops and Soil Health Practices

0:00 Hey everybody Keith Burns with green cover here and I'm with my friend Andy Lion. Andy is with Farm Journal the trust and food project and this is part of a series that we're doing on climate smart commodity grants just getting you the information so you can make decisions about whether or not this might be a program that would work for you and your operations.

0:22 Andy thanks for joining us. We appreciate your time and tell us a little bit about the Farm Journal project that you guys have going on.

0:28 Thanks Keith. Our Farm Journal team is really excited to be here today to talk about our connected climate smart commodities project.

0:35 So the first question a lot of producers ask when we talk about our project is what is climate smart agriculture. And really it's the same things that most of the folks that are working with green cover seed are used to talking about: soil health, regenerative agriculture, conservation agriculture, really all just different ways to talk about how you know we can do a better job on the farm.

1:00 Improving soil health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and utilizing those ecosystem services that nature can provide. Yeah, so it's practices that are good for the soil and hey, if we can get paid for doing those, why not right? That's absolutely right.

1:15 Just a little bit about trust in food. Here at Farm Journal, our trust in food team was created back in 2018. We are the sustainability arm of Farm Journal and you know we really believe in that conservation pyramid approach that technical assistance, financial incentives and the cultural support are all really important and necessary. But producers are trying to make changes in practices towards regenerative agriculture principles.

1:45 So we really believe in that and really use that approach in this project. So again, the name of our grant, the connected a climate smart Commodities project, is a grant from USDA through the full climate smart Commodities Partnerships program. Farm Journal was awarded $40 million to.

2:03 Work with 500 producers across 19 states and so we're really excited about the opportunity we have to work across a whole range of different agricultural systems, different commodities, because again there's a tremendous amount of diversity out there in agriculture across the country. And how we implement practices is different across the landscape.

2:27 So here you can see a map of the 19 states that we're working in. You'll see three different colors there on the map. We have broken those states into three different pods. All practices that we have available are eligible across all 19 states. We do place a little more emphasis on livestock practices in that Northern Great Plains pod, a little more focus on nutrient management in crop systems across the I States and through the Carolinas and Tennessee. And then as we move down into the Southeast pod, we have a little more focus on specialty crop production. But again, producers of any size and commodity are eligible across all 19 states.

3:14 Of the other keys to our grant besides practice implementation on the ground for producers is trying to utilize data to help understand the impact that we're having by implementing these conservation sustainability practices and then being able to hopefully be compensated for the good work that we're doing on the ground.

3:38 Each producer that participates in our grant will also be given a subscription to a data management platform for the next three years and again we believe these data management platforms will be profitable for producers in a couple of ways. One is simply having better data to make the on-farm management decisions. Having better data, more data is important and helps you make better decisions.

4:08 But the second reason is because as we look at the world of carbon markets, ecosystem service markets right now, we don't think they function real well for agriculture and what we believe is important in the future is to build a system where the environmental

4:28 Benefits that are gained from the sustainability or conservation practices that are implemented are connected as attributes to the commodity itself. They are not split apart into a carbon credit and a commodity that you sell, but rather the benefit is attached to that commodity as that commodity goes through the supply chain. And in that way, we can really look at supply chain supply sheds and hopefully get producers a way that they can be compensated for those environmental benefits that are being generated when they grow those crops.

5:11 So we believe these data management platforms are a key way that we create and store that data and then are able to transfer that data through the supply chain. We will be with all 500 producers in our grant on the ground providing technical assistance both in the form of helping to understand the nuances of implementing the practice itself on the ground. Certainly, we'll be engaging with local experts as well, knowing that we certainly can't be the expert on all different cropping.

5:44 Systems across 19 states, so we will have local expertise available as well. We will also be providing coaching around that data management process that I talked about a minute ago. So in that way we will be providing numerous forms of support to the producer that works through our grant. And then finally, just to touch on the practices that we offer financial assistance for, on the left side of your screen you'll see a number of practices that relate more to rowcrop agriculture. On the right, practices that are more livestock related. But we can mix and match across all of these different practices. We're really looking at trying to take a holistic approach, trying to build a conservation system that best serves the producer over time. And so we can also mix and match if a producer is already implementing some of these practices. We can still help on some of those existing practices, but we can also look to build new practices in there as well, and in that way kind of.

6:55 Mix and match between existing and new practices. See a little bit of additivity for that producer and really help the producer take some steps forward.

7:07 I think one of the things that we really hope producers will see in our grant are some of the innovative practices that are available to us that perhaps are not available in other programs at the moment. Just a few examples would be with some of our nutrient management related practices, being able to stack some of those practices together, raise the per acre payment to the point where a producer could improve or increase some of the technology that they're using on their own operations, maybe the way that they're putting nutrients on with a planter for instance. We know that's a great practice. We know that it's very cost prohibitive. We're trying to help overcome that with our grant.

7:53 And then as we look over at the livestock side, really thinking about technology, we're really interested in looking at some of the virtual fencing options that are out there.

9:13 Yes we absolutely want to stack these practices together and create that systems approach. And yes the payment does go up for each one of those practices that you implement. And is there a maximum payout for per participant on this? I'm assuming there probably is, can you share just a little bit about what that looks like?

9:33 Yeah, yeah, for each producer in our grant we do have a rough cap of around $40,000. Now some producers that are very large scale will implement some practices and maybe max out at that $40,000 in one year. Other producers will be able to work with us for multiple years. And that's really part of that technical assistance that we provide, really planning that system out. And we understand that through our grant, no producer is going to meet all of their long-term conservation and sustainability goals. What we really hope to do through our project is help producers take another step down that path and hopefully an innovative step. And by doing so, you know, make those.

10:17 Next steps to come even easier. Again we work very closely with the USDA, the NRCS, the FSA offices so that we're doing this in partnership with them. And so when you are already working on some equip projects, maybe on some CSP projects, we can stack this program on top or use it in conjunction with what you're already doing and not to be seen as maybe a completely different or set aside program.

10:51 And the 40,000 cap that's for the program not per year I'm assuming. And if I sign up for this am I signing up for a three-year commitment, a five-year commitment? What's the commitment level here? Yeah so the good news is we just have annual contracts. We sign up each year at a time. When you sign up with us, some of the nice things are is that you own all of your own data that's generated. We will ask you to share some of that data with us for our reporting back to USDA. But you own all your own data. You also retain the rights to any ecosystem service market, any carbon.

11:32 Market that you can take advantage of. Now the project is working with a number of CPG consumer product goods companies, food and beverage companies, to make more opportunities available to sell those carbon credits, those greenhouse gas emission credits. But again you retain the rights to decide which way you want to market those.

12:00 In other words, I'm in this program when the program ends or if my commitment ends, I can still use this as a launching point. You can help connect us to people that can bring value down the road on some of these practices as well.

12:14 Yeah, that's absolutely right and is really a key tenant of our grant, trying to make more opportunities available for producers to take advantage of these value added markets.

12:25 Yeah, well this all sounds great Andy. What do people do if they want to get more information? Because obviously there's a ton of questions that people will have about these different practices. How do they get connected with you folks to get more?

12:40 The best way is to go to our website and that's www.trust.com. From the website you can see more in-depth information about the things that we've talked about here today. You can fill out the questionnaire to get signed up for our grant. At that point we would directly reach out to you and start that conservation planning process. You're also free to reach out to me directly as well, and my email is Alon farm journal.com. So please reach out to us if you have any questions. We'd love to talk with you and talk about your farm and what your conservation goals are, and talk about if this opportunity might be right for you.

13:26 Folks, I would encourage you to do that, check out their website, email Andy directly if you have questions. There is a lot of assistance, a lot of money, a lot of encouragement out there for people who want to either implement some of these practices or expand on what they're already doing. So please reach out if you have any interest, and we'll be doing more of these with other opportunities. Andy, thanks again for your time. We sure appreciate it.

13:49 Thanks Keith, appreciate you.