San Carlos, CA – February 8, 2024 – Farmers Business Network, Inc. (FBN®), the global AgTech platform and farmer-to-farmer network, today announced updates to its Gradable platform, its sustainability partnerships & supply chain programs, and regenerative financing offers for farmers for 2024, all of which aim to increase the profitability of growers while enhancing sustainability.
“We’re excited to offer farmers a comprehensive range of opportunities that reward climate-smart practices for multiple types of farm businesses, including supply chain and financing incentives,” said Kurt Alles, Head of Sustainability, FBN. “We saw huge growth in farmer participation in 2023, with over 1,500 farmers across 1m acres enrolled. Through our work with premier large-scale partners like ADM and POET, we expect to at least double the number of farmers participating in programs in 2024.”
FBN has a range of sustainability solutions and partner programs for growers looking to optimize their crops and take advantage of these incentives. These include:
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Partnership with ADM®: ADM re:generations™ rewards producers for conservation practices like cover cropping, conservation tillage, and emission reductions. Participating farmers earn rewards up to $25 per acre. FBN and ADM announced that they expect to serve more than 3,000 growers representing more than 2 million acres of farmland across 18 states and three Canadian provinces. Eligible crops include corn, soybeans, wheat, peanuts, and canola (in Canada). Farmers can enroll in the ADM program through their FBN account here.
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Partnership with POET®: FBN and POET tripled the number of participating facilities in programs for 2023, which offer incentives up to $.04 per bushel for emissions scoring for corn across South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. Farmers can enroll in a POET program through their FBN account here.
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Regenerative Ag Finance Partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF): FBN Finance, Gradable, and EDF partner to provide a 0.5% interest payment rebate on operating lines to farmers that meet environmental eligibility criteria for corn, soybeans, and/or wheat. After being fully sold out in 2023, the program is expected to grow by 4x in 2024. Farmers can apply here.
“We’re proud to create new income streams for farmers that also benefit the environment, by aligning farmers to end markets,” said Alles. “With FBN’s Gradable platform we can attach positive environmental impacts to food, feed and fuel ingredients for downstream customers. Producers get rewarded for the great work they are doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality and soil health, and enhance biodiversity through proactive practices like the use of cover crops, nutrient management and reduced tillage.”
Multiple Demand Drivers Creating Opportunities
An increasing number of new markets and regulatory opportunities, both in the US and internationally, have created greater incentives and demand for climate-smart practices.
Many agribusiness, food, and consumer-packaged goods companies have established or are formalizing scope 3 emissions goals. These goals require solutions that farmers can implement to decarbonize supply chains and can lead to benefits such as increased soil health and reduced input costs. There is additional momentum from the USDA in the form of Climate-Smart Commodity Grants, which support innovative ways to implement practices and measure outcomes, while potentially reducing long-term costs and improving the quality of claims.
Voluntary regulatory markets, like the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), reward less emissions intensive corn and soybean production. The European Union Deforestation Regulation prohibits the production of soybeans on acres where trees have been removed since 2020. FBN provides partners and farmers with carbon intensity scoring, and computer vision technology to meet requirements for each regulatory structure. ADM has already shipped 2.4 million traceable US soybeans to Europe and plans to expand to other North American locations in 2024.
Under new rules under the Inflation Reduction Act, biofuel producers could receive new incentives for improved farm level carbon intensity scores and climate-smart practices. FBN anticipates utilizing existing Gradable infrastructure and tools to facilitate farmer rewards and enable new claims.
FBN empowers growers to better manage their operations and make decisions to expand profitability potential. Through its Gradable platform, farms are encouraged to incorporate sustainable practices into their operation by attributing value to their conservation activities. Growers submit data securely, allowing Gradable to validate their sustainable practices and calculate the corresponding environmental outcomes. FBN and Gradable enable farmers to access voluntary and regulatory rewards within the supply chain through practice and outcome claims created by partners like ADM and POET. Conveniently, farmers access this service and technology via the FBN app, the same place that allows them to securely link their ADM account information, providing them with a single app for viewing futures, cash grain bids, scale tickets, contracts and settlements while also staying updated with market relevant information, daily market news, and more.
