USDA is investing $3 billion in approximately 140 projects under Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Learn more about the national effort: Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Overview Brochure (PDF, 2.3 MB). Details on selected projects are provided below. Projects are also viewable on our project dashboard.
- Dashboard of Finalized Projects
Projects by Funding Pool
- First Funding Pool Project Summaries
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A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would in
clude a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000An Integrated Approach to Scaling-Up Climate-Smart Practices for Crop, Livestock, and Agroforestry Production
This project will focus on a training program about climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in conjunction with financial incentives for ag producers who implement the CSA practices. The goal is to expand climate-smart agriculture markets throughout Missouri and serve as a teaching model for other states. To better engage small scale producers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers incentive funds to create climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations including cover crops and regenerative grazing. The project plans for farmers that sign up for incentive payments to provide data through the signup app on relevant farm management, including tillage, cover crops, rotation, nutrient management, and other practices for COMET-Planner assessment of each site. New high-throughput Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) gas analyzer technologies and soil carbon stock measures are planned to be leveraged to prove vital for a comprehensive understanding the impact of climate-smart practices. Out of the 25 partners on this project, 9 are private companies that plan to help with marketing, as will the three commodity organizations and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Specific markets planned to be engaged include biofuels, beef, specialty crop markets, and ESMC. To better engage small farmers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers the opportunity to create a demonstration climate-smart fieldscape on their farm with a dedicated pool of incentive funds for small and underserved farmers participating in climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations and by reserving at least 30% of the remaining incentive funds for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: The Curators of the University of Missouri
Other Major Partners: Lincoln University, MO Soybeans Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Corn Growers Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Cattlemen’s Association, MO Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, EarthDance, STAR Program, ESMC, MO Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Natural Resources, MO Department of Conservation, MO Agribusiness Association, MFA Inc., MO Fertilizer Control Board, Kansas City Food Hub, FarmRaise, MARC-IV Consulting, Nestle-Purina, Show-Me Energy, Mid-America Biofuels, MO Prime Beef Packers, MO Farm Bureau, NC State University
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Livestock, Oats, Pulses, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Building a Climate-Smart Domestic Rubber Industry and a Solution for Growers to a Water Crisis
This project will expand natural rubber production in the Southwest with lowered greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs in the region and for tribal stakeholders, and building a climate-smart rubber bioeconomy based on climate-smart and sustainable practices. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive, and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone, which is providing more than $35M in cost share to the project. The strategy would incorporate an integrated, robust, and comprehensive approach to data measurement and analysis, which includes soil carbon and plant measurements, ground level GHG measurements, flux tower measurements, soil carbon modeling, and holistic life cycle and techno-economic modeling. Data from field measurements and modeling is planned to be used to recommend large-scale adoption and feed directly into COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone. Bridgestone is providing more than $35M in cost share, demonstrating its commitment to the development of the climate-smart natural rubber commodity. Bridgestone is currently pursuing numerous market areas and has already engaged prospective customers in many of those areas. Some specific market activities by co-product/product including natural rubber latex and resin. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive regardless of yield and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Bridgestone Americas, Inc., Colorado State University, OpenET, Tohono O'odham Nation, Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mohave, Chemeuvi, Hopi and Navajo peoples)
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Natural Rubber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Building Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities in South Carolina
This project will utilize a coalition of 27 entities to execute a pilot project that provides incentives to farmers to implement climate-smart (CS) production practices. The project will examine and verify the benefits resulting from implementing CS practices and will support development of markets for the resulting CS commodities. The project plans to provide direct payments to producers to implement climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, reduced tillage, mulching, nutrient management, prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, tree stand improvement, and early successional habitat development and management. The plan to develop and expand involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. GHG benefits are planned to be estimated using COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm with direct field measurements of GHG emissions on a sample of the enrolled farms, forests, and beef cattle operations, as well as third party verification of GHG benefit estimations. The plan to develop and expand markets focuses on studying relevant aspects of consumer markets, participating and non-participating producers, the food industry, and the timber and lumber industry. The plan involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. The project plans for at least 50% of the participating farmers and landowners to be underserved and small. Additionally, there will be an annual recruitment of minority forest owners to form cluster sales.
Lead Partner: Clemson University
Other Major Partners: SC State University, American Peanut Council, CU Wood Utilization Institute, Forest Assoc. of SC, Help for Landowners, Mixon Seeds, Plametto Agribusiness Council, Petrichor Global, SC Cattleman's Assoc., SC Peanut Board, SC Southern SARE, SC Timber Producers Assoc., SC Forage and Grazing Lands Coalition, SC Farmers Markets, SC Specialty Crop Assoc., The Long Leaf Alliance, Tidewater Lumber and Moulding, US Endowment for Forests and Communities, WP Rawl, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, SC Black Farmer's Assoc, SC New & Beginning Farmers Program, Farmer Veteran Coalition of SC, Women in Agriculture, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Forest Products, Leafy Greens, Peanuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent AcceleratorPrimary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000California Dairy Research Foundation Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will build climate-smart dairy markets and provide financial incentives for dairy producers to adopt climate-smart manure management practices to reduce methane emissions, leveraging matching funding from non-federal sources. Financial incentives are planned on a per-cow basis to producers to implement vermifiltration, evaporative liquid waste processing systems, subsurface drip fertigation using liquid manure, weeping walls, aerated static compost piles, and others. On average producers will likely receive incentives that account for 30 to 50 percent of their total costs of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice adoption, while also receiving a premium for the climate-smart milk. This project plans to utilize partnerships designed to market climate-smart milk for a higher premium and conduct a consumer market messaging analysis to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of approaches to best promote climate-smart milk in multiple market channels. The project plans to have producers quantify estimated on-farm methane emissions reductions through a web-based calculator, and have universities provide in-field verification measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen excess reductions. Verification of practice implementation is planned to be through producer documentation and post-project site visit. The project plans for at least 10 percent of producer incentives to go to small and underserved producers and to provide partial advance payments to those producers. CDFA-funded technical service providers would work one-on-one with producers to help them evaluate practices and prepare an application to be considered for producer incentives, which will be particularly impactful to small and underserved producers, who may not have the resources or support to fully execute this task.
Lead Partner: California Dairy Research Foundation
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, California Milk Advisory Board, Dairy Cares, California Dairy Campaign, California Dairy Quality Assurance Program, Milk Producers Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Sustainable Conservation, Western United Dairies, California Farm Bureau Federation, University of California, Davis, University of California, Riverside, University of California Cooperative Extension, Truterra, California Dairies, Inc., Challenge Dairy Products, Nestlé
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $85,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Agriculture that is Profitable, Regenerative, Actionable, and Trustworthy (CARAT)
This project will enable partners to expand climate-smart markets and work with dairy producers in PA to implement climate-smart agriculture. An overarching goal is establishing successful and profitable partnerships between diverse producers, including underserved producers, and consumers, leading to a reduction of greenhouse gases, suppressing methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and storage of carbon. The proposal plans to market climate-smart milk by utilizing the CARAT advisory board to connect with companies interested in purchasing greenhouse gas credits or climate-smart milk. The project plans to utilize COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and CARAT-CALCULATOR. The goal is that funds devoted to small producers and underserved populations exceed 50% of funds allocated to technical assistance and incentives. It is estimated that about one third of participating farms would be small with representation proportional to the community of Plain-Sect., women owned farms and new and Beginning farmers. The project also plans to engage the large Latino workforces employed on dairy farms.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania State University
Other Major Partners: Center for Dairy Excellence, Proagrica, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, Red Barn Consulting
Primary States Expected: PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho: A Public-Private-Tribal Partnership
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 100 farms in Idaho through the provision of financial and technical assistance to producers, with a focus on barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, and hops. Project plans to direct 75 percent of funds to participant incentives for implementing a variety of practices including cover crops, no-till, biochar, cover crops with livestock grazing, interseeding of legumes and precision fertilizer application. The measurement and monitoring system are planned to be based on field and laboratory measurements using a spatially nested design to facilitate scaling-up of project results. The Carbon Management Evaluation Tools (COMET-Farm) are planned to be utilized throughout the project to establish baselines; this project also plans to generate data from field measurements of GHG emissions that will be used to improve COMET and other models for use within the western U.S. This project plans to focus on seven key commodities in Idaho with national and international markets: barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, hops and specialty crops. At least 30% of enrolled producers are planned to be from underserved communities, including mostly veterans, women, and small producers.
Lead Partner: Regents of the University of Idaho
Other Major Partners: Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, The Wave Foundation, Desert Mountain Grassfed Beef, Salmon Safe/Kooskooskie Fish, LLC, University of Idaho, SaulGill, LLC DBA Arrowleaf Consulting
Primary States Expected: ID, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickpea, Hops, Potatoes, Specialty Crops, Sugar Beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset WampanoagPrimary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Demonstration, Expansion, and Quantification of the Benefits of a Climate-Smart Commodity: Verified Regenerative Bison Products
The project will develop a demonstration program on tribal lands, implementing and expanding multiple climate-smart markets and practices in production of American bison, and will showcase the benefits of regenerative bison production to rangeland, ranchers, and climate. It will also create a new entity to maintain standards of regenerative bison production, track climate benefits and payment for those benefits through the supply chain and establish consumer trust. This project plans to support planting riparian areas, transitioning from crop land to native grass for bison grazing and native grass inter-seeding of existing pasture. A bison markets specialist plans to focus on a full “hoof to horn” utilization to sell multiple products including specialty cuts, ground bison, hides and bone meal. A bison-specific verification program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value. The project plans to quantify GHG emission reductions associated with conversion from conventional cattle grazing to regenerative bison grazing. GHG measurement and accounting are planned to be included in the expansion of the Arapaho and Cheyenne regenerative bison production program, and the creation of the world's first regenerative climate-smart bison verification program. For this project, a bison markets specialist would focus on full ‘hoof to horn’ utilization to sell multiple products, including specialty cuts, ground bison, jerky cuts, hides, and bone meal. The bison-specific verification program created within Savory Institute’s Land to Market program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value to both producer and partners. The project lead is the Tribe, and the work is planned to be completed in tribal land to improve bison grazing in native grass acres added.
Lead Partner: Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Other Major Partners: Frasier Bison, LLC, Mad Agriculture, Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Program, Intertribal Buffalo Council, Texas A&M University, Collaborative Earth
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,000,000Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef Strategy
This project aims to generate knowledge of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions for the Fischer Farms beef production system, to inform future business decisions, and to generate science- based marketing tools that will enable buyers to actively participate in climate-positive purchasing and eating decisions. The project will include livestock producers, and it will support Fischer Farms’ market expansion into other areas. The project will utilize Dual Comb Laser Technology for measuring all greenhouse gas benefits. Rigorous sampling, first-of-a-kind monitoring, and innovative analysis will lead to a new science-based understanding of the potential to deliver beef to the market that is truly a climate-smart commodity. This novel laser technology is planned to measure methane and other greenhouse gases at both the barn lots and pasture settings at Fischer Farms network farms. This approach will provide detailed measurements of beef cattle GHG emissions on pasture and allow for the quantification of the impacts of algae feed supplement on reducing methane emissions with the Ultimate Beef production system. The research plan entails 1) relevant data collection and analysis of the Ultimate Beef system, 2) implementation of USDA’s COMET-Farm and IFSM modeling tools, and 3) development of an ISO-compliant Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the GWP benefits of Ultimate Beef relative to the conventional US system. A marketing manager and sales team will develop and execute the Climate-Smart marketing campaign with a goal of educating consumers on the impact of climate-smart meet and their purchasing decisions. They will leverage on-line platforms and print advertising as well as partner with whole-sale buyers. Project activities will involve expansion of marketing in Indiana, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. With an existing network of more than 100 diversified, small, veteran, beginning, BIPOC and other underserved producers committed to the brand, Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef ensures fair pay and equitable representation for farmers and workers in the value chain. Additionally, the project will provide a critical opportunity for market access to a network of small and underserved farmers who would otherwise be challenged to verify and enter climate-smart market channels. Special emphasis will be placed on expanding the network of farmers in underserved areas.
Lead Partner: Fischer Farms Natural Foods, LLC
Other Major Partners: Indiana University, Carbon Solutions
Primary States Expected: IN, KY
Major Commodities: Beef, Pork
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Growing the Supply and Market for Climate-Smart Grass-Fed Organic Dairy via Maple Hill Creamery
This project will expand climate-smart markets for dairy producers and enable a network of partners and producers to implement climate-smart practices by incentivizing implementation and providing training support. This will lead to greater environmental practices and enhanced viability for farms that implement them. The project plans to provide participants incentives for Avoided Conversion, Pasture Scoring, Training and Voluntary participation. Marketing plans include updated branding materials like packaging, advertising, social media and a website. The project plans to utilize a combination of core tools: COMET, a Pasture Scorecard, on-farm soil sampling, and third-party soil health measurements. The monitoring, measurement, and reporting is planned to be led by a technical expert with third-party verification and soil is planned to be sampled utilizing the soil sampling framework developed by partners. The project plans to update all branding materials, including the website, packaging, advertising, and social media to draw attention to climate-smart farming efforts and CO2 impacts to draw and expand upon consumer desire to support Climate-Smart grass-fed organic products – milk for yogurt, butter, and kefir. The project provides a number of incentives, including Avoided Conversion Incentive payments, Voluntary Incentive payments, Pasture Scoring incentives and Training incentives.
Lead Partner: Maple Hill Creamery LLC
Other Major Partners: Dharma Lea, LLC, Paul Harris Development, LLC, Stone Barns, Point Blue Conservation Science, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA), Open TEAM at Wolfe’s Neck Center, Shannon O'Sullivan, K&O Farm, James Young, Amber Waves, Spring Weather, Serenity Acres Farm, Evening Star Ranch, Reginelli and Aeschlimann, Adam Tafel, Periggo Farm, Whole Foods
Primary States Expected: NY, PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Oilseeds, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Growing Value for Producers
This project will create and pilot-test a farmer-friendly system that builds capacity with institutions interacting with a range of producers, including underserved producers, to support adoption of climate- smart practices and interact with commodity buyers in climate-smart markets. MMRV for this project involves a fully integrated, nationally scalable ACR Agriculture Registry designed, built, tested, and utilized for standardized quantification of GHG benefits using COMET Planner, automated cost-effective reporting, verification via plug and play design with data collectors, and linkage to a transparent registry system for the issuance to producers of serialized GHG Certificates for monetization to buyers. The project will spearhead a market development campaign including creation of a buyers’ club network to link producers and commodity/GHG certificate buyers. The project targets outreach to enroll at least 20 underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Winrock International Institute for Agriculture Development
Other Major Partners: Arva Intelligence, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Riceland Foods Inc.Primary States Expected: AR, MO, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Horizon II: A Climate-Smart Future for Corn, Soybean, Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas Production
This project will enhance climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve carbon sequestration in the production of corn, soybean, pork, and beef commodities, while creating opportunities for small and underserved producers and benefitting soil health, clean water, flood control, and habitats for native wildlife. Project plans provide financial compensation for producers to plant prairie grasses and cover crops to be harvested and converted to biogas and biofertilizer in digesters. Partners plan to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Three soil sampling areas, one area in each of the three predominant soil types, are planned to be selected in each field designated for soil organic carbon (SOC) verification using a GIS script to position soil sampling areas. The project plans to provide quantification services using two agricultural-based peer reviewed environmental models, COMET-Farm and the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). They also plan to evaluate GHG emissions during harvest, transport, and storage of cover crop and prairie biomass. The project plans to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Each partner has their own social media channels, digital marketing campaigns, and websites through which generated digital marketing assets is planned to be widely shared. This project plans to provide needed funding to fairly compensate farmers, including small and beginning farmers, to transition their operations and enter climate-smart markets, including the newly created market for climate-smart grassy biomass. The project team plans to work with farmers, livestock producers, landowners, and supply chain partners, including early adopters of practices and underserved producers, to ensure equitable access to the opportunities offered by the low-carbon agriculture of the future.
Lead Partner: Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC
Other Major Partners: Conservation Districts of Iowa, Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa State University, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Smithfield Foods, The Nature Conservancy, University of Missouri, Verdesian, Veterans in Agriculture, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: IA, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Pork, Beef, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000National Pork Board's Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value Proposal
The goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing climate-smart agriculture practices within the feed supply, thereby maintaining market demand and price premiums in a rapidly evolving consumer world. The geography of focus – Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri – encapsulates a concentration of pork facilities supported by local grain production, representing a key region of the overall supply chain. Planned practices include cover crops, livestock integration in cover crops and manure management. The project plans to offer participants, including small-scale and underserved producers, free initial soil testing, technical assistance from partner agronomists, cost-share for practice adoption and tuition or scholarships for participating producers to attend advanced soil health training workshops through peer-to-peer networking. The proposal plans to deploy a Sustainable Environmental Consultant's Ecosystem Practices software platform which uses the COMET-Farm GHG tool and Nutrient Tracking Tool for estimating Soil Organic Carbon stock changes, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, and nutrient and sediment losses, and use soil sampling to benchmark results. The project plans to utilize a number of processes to ensure adoption of practices, including precision farm data, work orders, seed purchase receipts, tagged images, remote sensed analytics, on-farm field inspection, and GHG results are planned to be aggregated from a field basis to the required spatial domain and will be delivered through dashboards and reports. Once published the quantified GHG benefits of U.S. pork and all the continuous sustainability improvement information derived through this project may be used by many entities, organizations and companies marketing pork globally. The project plans to support farmers to market their climate-smart commodities in a manner that best suits their production system and individual operation goals, empowering and incentivizing continuous improvement over the long-term (even after the grant is complete) including if they choose maturing environmental offset markets while also providing communications capacity to engage both producers (supply) and end-of-supply chain consumers (demand) in marketing resulting commodities and potential value-added. Priority ranking is planned for small and underserved producers. Technical and financial assistance will include 1) Free initial soil test and baseline reporting 2) Free Technical Assistance (TA) from DU agronomy, SEC staff, and Millborn seed optimization specialist 3) Cost-share payments for CSA practice adoption 4) funded opportunities for participating producers to attend an advanced soil health training workshop (peer-peer networking).
Lead Partner: National Pork Board
Other Major Partners: Nestle, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, Ducks Unlimited, Trust in Food (Farm Journal), Farm Credit Council, Millborn Seed, Nastrade
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Pork, Soybeans,
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000NCBA CLUSA USDA NRCS CSC Project – Puerto Rico
This project will lead a consortium of cooperatives, farmer organizations, and minority serving institutions in Puerto Rico that will offer financial incentives to underserved farmers to adopt climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices for product and cover crops. The project plans to implement a wide variety of on-the-ground climate-smart practices including reduced tillage, strip-tillage, forest farming, and cover crops. The project aims to increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities by increasing the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. Due to limitation of USDA’s COMET Planner in PR, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or other U.S. Territories, the project plans to use the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Carbon Calculator (http://afolucarbon.org). Developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Winrock International, the AFOLU Carbon Calculator (ACC) uses Intergovernmental Panel on Climate CO2 Change (IPCC)-based accounting methods to assess and quantify sequestration potential of a range of AFOLU practices, including agroforestry, cropland management, and grazing land management. Third-party verifier SustainCERT plans to verify the greenhouse gas benefits generated by the project and its associated processes. NCBA CLUSA plans to work with several commodity buyers to market CSCs produced through this pilot project (large market chains, National Restaurant Association, hospitality sector, and McDonalds). The PRFA has a “100% Puerto Rico” seal it uses for locally produced products and has agreed to extend the seal for 100% PR Climate-Smart Coffee for differentiation. The project also plans to engage Rainforest Alliance, a leading third-party certifier for certification of CSAF coffee for export to external markets. Beyond the quantifiable benefits to farmers’ bottom lines, the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems would increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. PROCAFÉ estimates that this project would enroll thousands of coffee farmers in PR (where the vast majority of producers are underserved).
Lead Partner: Cooperative League of the United States of America
Other Major Partners: Productores de Café de Puerto Rico, University of Puerto Rico, National Co+op Grocers, Fondo de Inversión y Desarrollo Cooperativo, La Liga de Cooperativas de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Farmers Association, SustainCERT
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Coffee, Citrus, Plantains, Bananas, Cacao, Lumber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000NYS Connects: Climate-Smart Farms and Forests
Utilizing behavioral systems approach to break through social norms/barriers, this project will build on strong existing partnerships in the conservation and agricultural communities in NY state to expand climate-smart markets. This project will fund ag producers/forest landowners to implement multiple climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, utilize modern tools to quantify results of climate-smart agriculture, and build connections between landowners and companies with a demand for climate- smart commodities. COMET-Planner is planned to be used to assess each climate-smart practice in the project. For key practices, including the pilot practice areas in methane mitigation, enhanced weathering and agroforestry, the project plans to use International Panel on Climate Change methods, empirical data collection by Cornell University and Soil and Water Conservation District staff, and other tools. Utilizing existing data, along with new data collected from implemented climate-smart practices during the project period, a new decision support tool will be created to more accurately assess carbon sequestration for farmland and GHG mitigation as a result of implemented practices. The Ecological Platform for Assimilation of Data (EcoPAD) platform, developed and scientifically validated over the past two decades and deployed primarily for research in C cycling, will be further developed to allow New York State to use the system to determine the best incentive practices that balance economic activities with GHG emissions mitigation and C sequestration. Blockchain Technology will be part of the mechanism to track carbon through supply chain ecosystem. A pilot project will be developed for New York’s building sector to help transition to low carbon construction materials. A New York State Climate-Smart Commodities Label ecosystem will be created. The New York Climate-Smart label would track & promote climate-smart commodities through the value chain by commodity type to the final product. The project plans to engage directly with underserved and socially disadvantaged producers through an extensive network of service providers including the Cornell Small Farmers Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Specialists and Soil & Water Conservation Districts, planning to reach at least 200 small and underserved producers with financial incentives. The project plans to give participants the option to have cost-share paid directly to the contractor to help overcome financial barriers to practice implementation associated with upfront funding needs.
Lead Partner: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Other Major Partners: Dept. of Agriculture and Markets, Energy Research & Development Authority & Soil and Water Conservation Committee, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Evidn, Michigan State University, Mercy Works, Cornell Small Farms Equitable Farm Futures Initiative & Veterans FarmOps program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY urban ag team, International Refugee Committee NY, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden, Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, SCRE Design, Innsure
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Fruits, Grains, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Portfolio of Partnerships for Hawaii Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will help overcome climate-smart implementation barriers through investment and incentives, improve technical assistance capacity through community-based organization networks, build decision support tools for modeling/verification, and generate internal momentum for a market- based climate-smart sustainable food system embedded within resilient and abundant landscapes across Hawaii. The project plans to use a statewide producer engagement team to spearhead a phased approach to producer engagement and equity. It also plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies, develop a locally grown and climate smart communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchases, tourism industry, food hubs, retailers and distributors. The project plans to establish a technical team with domain expertise for monitoring/verification activities. The project plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies in Year 1 that will draw on recent data on visitor willingness-to-pay for food produced in Hawaii. The project plans to develop a “Locally-grown and Climate Smart!” communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchasers, the Hawaii tourism industry, various food and community resilience hubs, food retailers and distributors, and existing branding initiatives. Expanded opportunities are anticipated in Phase 2 for smaller, less well-connected producers - many of whom are indigenous, immigrant, minority, and/or homestead farmers and livestock producers.
Lead Partner: Lynker Corporation
Other Major Partners: Hawai'i Producer Engagement Team, Hawai'i Cattlemen's Council, Oahu Resource Conservation and Development Council, Hawai'i Farmers Union United, The Kohala Center, Pacific Gateway Center, Forest Solutions Incorporated, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Hawai'i, University of Florida, Colorado State University, Natural Resource Data Solutions, Inc., Hawai'i Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Oahu Agriculture and Conservation Association, Hawaii Ulu Cooperative, Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council, Kane Plantation
Primary States Expected: HI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Avocado, Beef, Breadfruits, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Sugarcane, Taro, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High- Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000SmartAgGro Pilot Program Provides Technical and Builds Partnership Markets to America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers, & Forest Owners to Strengthen U.S. Rural and Agricultural Communities
This project will implement a scalable climate-smart marketing strategy to assist underserved farmers in Mississippi Congressional District 2 to adopt climate-smart practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in production of beef and other products. This project aims to apply cover crops, low till/no till, nutrient management, buffers, feed management, grazing plans and manure management. The project plans to provide marketing training to participating farmers to help them develop marketing strategies and retrain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets and effective promotion and advertising. Partners plan to work with Historical Black Colleges and Universities to reach their networks of underserved growers. This project intends to utilize an FMS probe equipped to collect farm management practice data and help reduce uncertainty in modeling greenhouse gas emissions from the field and potential carbon sequestration and streamline the verification process for premium carbon credits which may be traded on a marketplace and serve as an additional source of income for producers. The probe would be used to support the monitoring and modeling for soil organic carbon (SOC) percentage and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, opening the door to use this technology in support of carbon and ecosystem services markets. The project plans to train farmers how to recognize when strong demand exists; how to develop strategies to supply products or services to meet that demand; and how to enter the local market on a small scale and retain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets, building relationships with buyers, packaging, and labeling products properly, negotiating and delivering products to buyers in compliance with the opportunity and marketing contract, meeting market specifications, possessing logistics and transportation, securing decent prices, and effective promotion and advertising. The Smart-Way Incentive Program (SWIP) is the innovative Financial Assistance Plan for Team Vanguard. SWIP prioritizes support to small and underserved farmers by ensuring access to fair and equitable funding. Team Vanguard is partnering with Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and their networks of undeserved growers to deploy a soil analytic technology (FMS) on farms in Mississippi.
Lead Partner: Vanguard (OTE) Consortium
Other Major Partners: Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Amerimac Chemical Corp, Enviro-Remediation Educational Services, Heifer International, Monroe Street Animal Clinic and Boarding Services
Primary States Expected: MS
Major Commodities: Beef, Hay, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Sonoma Marin Ag and County Climate Coalition
This project will build on successful carbon farming and local/regional food systems partnerships across two counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The purpose is to expand climate-smart markets, including a regional supply chain and innovative marketing campaign for climate-smart agricultural products. This will create a scalable, regional carbon finance program that is sustainable and scale implementation for the long term. The project plans to provide at least 75 percent of project costs for participants, with a special round of funding for underserved and small-scale producers. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, interactive marketing campaign, climate-smart badge and educational farm tours. The potential GHG benefits of each practice, as applied at the farm scale, plan to be estimated using COMET-Planner, or local peer-reviewed research where applicable and available. The project also plans to use a Project Tracker tool that manages data for planned and implemented projects. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, an interactive marketing campaign and climate-smart badge, and educational farm tours. The project plans to host a special round of funding earmarked for underserved and small producers. Cost share may be waived or reduced for underserved producers to promote equity.
Lead Partner: County of Sonoma
Other Major Partners: Agricultural Institute of Marin, Marin Resource Conservation District, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Carbon Cycle Institute, Sonoma County Department of Agriculture, Sonoma County Regional Climate, Protection Agency, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, University of California Cooperative Extension, MarinCAN, Marin County Sustainability Team, Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Marin County Department of Agriculture, Marin County Cooperation Team, Sanzuma, LookInto
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Fiber, Grapes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Supreme Rice, LLC's Climate-Smart Initiative to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Water Use Through the Adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation Practices in Rice Production
This project will expand climate-smart markets and provide financial incentives for underserved and small-scale rice producers to reduce methane emissions through alternate wetting and drying irrigation and adopt other sustainable growing practices to reduce emissions and water consumption. Project plans to offer financial incentives for changing management practices and reducing perceived risk barriers. A multi-faceted campaign is planned to educate consumers and recognized participating producers. Pre-established baselines are planned to be used to quantify methane emissions in rice by peer-reviewed research. Automated water level measuring devices, Crop Links, are planned to be deployed at a rate of 1 per every 100 acres. The project plans to design a campaign to educate consumers and bring recognition to the farmers and climate-smart commodities in the project. This campaign would be multi-faceted in nature, through the use of focused storytelling, TV Ads, Radio, YouTube Videos, Facebook Ads, Cooking shows, and Billboard Ads. Supreme plans to ensure that growers who fit the “underserved and small grower” category are informed and have every opportunity to participate in the program. The project expects to enroll 769 growers and 166,415 program acres attributed to underserved rice growers.
Lead Partner: Supreme Rice, LLC
Other Major Partners: Southern University and A&M College, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Rice Growers, Arkansas Rice Growers
Primary States Expected: AR, LA
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Sustainable Market Approaches for Regenerating Territories with Agricultural Goods in Puerto Rico
The project will support and empower smallholder coffee farmers in Puerto Rico to transition to climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices through identification of viable practices and support for their implementation on farms. The project will also account of greenhouse gas-related benefits and co- benefits throughout the supply chain and develop of a unique Puerto Rican branded climate-smart coffee label and voluntary program. This project plans to focus on implementing agroforestry and afforestation practices on working lands, application of biochar as a soil amendment and multi-story cropping. Caribbean Regenerative Community Development (CRCD), Gnarly Tree Sustainable Institute (GTSI), and University of Wisconsin plan to co-establish the MMRV plan and local monitoring teams, coordinate baseline and follow-up data collection, build databases useful for the implementation of COMET-Planner and iTree on agricultural lands in PR, and engage with local universities to support student research opportunities and data collection; this task would encompass field monitoring, primarily through soil sampling and testing, as well as the development of lifecycle carbon accounting methodologies. The team also plans to evaluate MMRV methodologies that may support participants’ entry into carbon markets. CRCD and GTSI plan to partner to develop a climate-smart certification brand for Puerto Rican coffee and chocolate. CRCD’s marketing specialist plan to spearhead the development of the name and tagline, design a climate-smart certification that is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards, develop the brand story, provide product validation of the name, language, and design in both Spanish and English, create a brand website and social media starter kit, and launch a brand activation program to generate interest and excitement in PR’s premium quality, ethical, and sustainable coffee; GTSI and CRCD plan to ensure the climate-smart certification is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards and lead outreach and recruitment efforts with farmers. A woman-led 501(c)(3) non-profit founded and based in Puerto Rico that supports the development of sustainable agriculture and food security on the island plans to focus on small and underserved coffee producers in Puerto Rico.
Lead Partner: Caribbean Regenerative Community Development, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, University of Wisconsin, Cafiesencia (Cafi-Cultura Puertorriqueña, Inc.), University of Puerto Rico
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Texas Climate-Smart Initiative
This project, the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative (CSI), is a five-year multi-commodity pilot project to transition Texas' large agricultural sector to climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) practices and develop new markets for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to provide financial incentives for a wide array of climate-smart practices including cover crops, forestry practices, grazing and pasture management practices and nutrient management. Planned marketing efforts include brand creation and cost-benefit analysis tools for producer use. The project plans to verify practice implementation through site visits and remote-sensing methods, evaluate soil organic carbon stocks and GHG emissions using a combination of direct sampling and modeling techniques, and adapt the Texas Best Management Evaluation Tool for reporting and tracking of carbon and GHG benefits. Innovative aspects of the project would involve the evaluation of new sensor technology to assess changes to soil organic carbon to reduce MMRV costs, as well as development of a mobile application for the producer to use for verification of climate smart practice implementation. The project plans to develop decision tools for producers based on a cost-benefit analysis of CSAF practices; create and evaluate a “Climate Smart” brand for its ability to develop and expand new markets for commodities produced with CSAF practices; cultivate additional relationships with downstream entities to build marketing channels and traceability for climate-smart commodities in the supply chain; and establish a protocol for determining ownership of carbon benefits through each step in the supply chain. The project aims to ensure recruitment of small-scale and underserved producers. Recruiting materials are planned to be available in English and Spanish, and events in the South are planned to include Spanish speaking speakers. In some areas, equipment is planned to be available to accomplish project objectives and overcome adoption barriers.
Lead Partner: Texas A & M Agrilife Research
Other Major Partners: Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board, Prairie View A&M University, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, Tarleton State University, BCarbon, Nori, Plains Cotton Growers Association, Texas Wheat Producers Board, TX Corn Producers Board, TX Sorghum Producers Board, TX Rice Producers Board, U.S. Rice Producers Association, TX Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, TX International Produce Association, TX Citrus Mutual, TX Pecan Growers Association, TX Small Farmers & Ranchers Organization, 100Ranchers, TX Cattle Feeders Association, TX Association of Dairymen, TX Poultry Federation, TX Forestry Association, TX Chapter of National Women in Agriculture, Global Revive, Small Producers Initiative, American Plant Food
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Citrus, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Forest Products, Grapes, Hemp, Livestock, Olives, Pecans, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sorghum, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefits
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, WheatApproximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Unlocking the Benefits of Regenerative Almonds: Partnerships to Develop and Expand Global Climate-Smart Market Opportunities through Grower Incentives
This project will promote the adoption of climate-smart and regenerative practices on California almond farms, including those operated by underserved producers, and expand market opportunities for climate-smart almonds through development of verified claims, business-to-business reporting, and supply-chain greenhouse gas quantification. This will support the development of a market-based mechanism for almond buyers and incentivize almond growers to adopt climate-smart practices. The project plans to provide incentives for almond grower adoption of cover crops, conservation cover, hedgerows, and whole orchard recycling. The project plans to develop a third-party verification and chain of custody system to support marketing efforts. And explore how to best leverage products as propriety brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. The project plans to have all growers quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits using the COMET-Planner tool as employed in California for the CDFA Healthy Soils Program. The project also plans to develop a system of monitoring, reporting, and third-party verification of climate-smart practices. The project plans to engage third-party verification and chain of custody systems to support climate-smart claims that relate to product labeling needs and customer expectations. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. About 85% of the requested funds are planned to go to specialty crop growers of almonds to implement Climate Smart practices.
Lead Partner: Blue Diamond Growers
Other Major Partners: Cool Farm Alliance Pollinator Partnership, Project Apis, SureHarvest, Where Food Comes From, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Almonds
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
- Second Funding Pool Project Summaries
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On December 12, 2022, USDA announced its investment of $325 million in 71 projects under the second funding pool of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. The second funding pool was particularly focused on innovative projects that emphasize enrolling small and underserved producers and invest in measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying the benefits of climate-smart practices at minority-serving institutions. The total investment from both funding pools to over $3.1 billion for 141 selected projects. View round two projects below; view round one and two projects here.
A Climate-Smart Strategy for the Michigan Foodshed: Nourishing Our Land, Farmers, and Rural Communities
The project focuses on beginning and women farmers growing climate-smart wheat, dry beans, food grade soybeans and oats. Participants can receive payments for inputting and sharing data; increasing their Truterra tool score; receiving Advanced scoring in the Truterra tool; for taking unproductive land out of production and for expanding their food growing operation by piloting food grade oats. Star of the West plans to promote climate-smart commodities with its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants. MMRV will include GHG benefit quantification via the Cool Farm Analysis, COMET-Farms tool, and Truterra Sustainability tool; practice implementation monitoring via on-farm verification by the Climate Smart Agronomist and from satellite imagery system included in the AgriEdge tool; and reporting and tracking through AgriEdge and Truterra. The project will work with current food customers to establish accepted parameters around the marketing of the Climate Smart Commodities, including an anticipated five-star system, focused on one star for each of the climate-smart practice category options implemented. Star of the West will promote this new Climate Smart Commodity "CS5" to its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants and will lean on partners to explore and help create new markets in Michigan for climate-smart grains and legumes through institutional procurement. The project anticipates working with multiple beginning or women farmers each year. This grant plans to allot funds for technical and financial assistance for women and beginning farmers. The project will host strategic learning circles, field days, and climate smart leadership trainings specifically for beginning and women farmers and will further reach beginning farmers by providing summer internships and working with Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapters, college ag students, and the Michigan Farm Bureau Young Farmer program to engage beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Star of the West Milling Company
Other Major Partners: Michigan Agriculture, Artisan Grain Collaborative, Shiftology Communication
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Dry Beans, Food Grade Oats, Food Grade Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,650Activating Food Hub Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Rural Revitalization
This project promotes climate-smart agriculture practices among small and underserved producers, including tribal producers, principally by equipping food hubs to finance and advise on-farm climate-smart practice implementation and marketing to wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. Participating farmers, who would receive technical assistance and training, would implement intensive rotational grazing; multispecies cover crops, crop rotation and reduced tillage/no-till; compost and biochar. The MMRV plan emphasizes soil carbon and soil health testing as a fundamental benchmark of climate-smart agriculture, while also recording analyses of water, cover crop tissue, and cash crop tissue to assess the impacts and efficiencies of climate-smart management. Working Landscapes and the food hub network, in collaboration with project partners, will market the climate-smart commodities produced. The project will focus on capturing a premium for climate smart commodities, and in some cases climate-smart attributes will be coupled with others (such as locally grown). The marketing plan includes two primary focuses that will be used to reach and inspire mission-aligned customers, including wholesale buyers, institutional buyers and individuals. The project will utilize qualitative and quantitative storytelling about climate-smart commodities (including their GHG reductions, social and economic impacts to small and underserved producers and other farmworkers, and the environmental resilience of climate-smart agriculture) in a variety of formats, including online multimedia, print materials, signage, point of sale displays, climate-smart farm tours, and more) to market the climate-smart commodities produced through this project. Over the course of the agreement the project expects to provide financial support and direct technical assistance, as well as educational opportunities to small and underserved producers. In addition to focusing on underserved farmers, the project will work with food hubs that are women-and/or people of color-led. In particular, as a Native American woman-led food hub that sources from Native American farmers and supplies a Native tribe, Working Landscapes will be able to establish entirely Native-led value chains for climate-smart products.
Lead Partner: Working Landscapes
Other Major Partners: North Carolina State University Center for Environmental Farming Systems, North Carolina A&T State University (BCU) Cooperative Extension, Resourceful Communities Partnership of the Conservation Fund, Haliwa Saponi Tribe, Weaver Street Market, Fruitful Innovation Group, Bender Farms, CEFS North Carolina 10% Campaign, Farmer Foodshare, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, Men & Women United, TRACTOR, Emory University
Primary States Expected: NC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Corn, Fruits, Pork, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,941Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops
The project would promote climate-smart food production practices including strip cropping, multi-story cropping and others for desert adapted crops within four agrisystems. Producers would receive payments for implementing and auditing these practices and for additional practices as well as technical assistance specialized based on culture, language and experience. Through its partners, the project will create a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets. The project also plans to lease a commercial test kitchen for identifying culinary qualities of climate-smart crops, conducting consumer research, promoting a Desert Seed-to-Table program, and advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project will rigorously monitor and measure production shifts through adapting the COMET-Farm calculators and GAP tools of the USDA to six production practices and several crops that these tools do not currently cover in depth. MMRV will include portable photosynthesis systems to measure rates of CO2 uptake, and fossil fuel and water consumption monitoring. The project will also conduct an ecogeographic analysis to identify and prioritize crop varieties adapted to current or future growing conditions in Arizona that may lower GHG emissions through reduced agricultural water and energy inputs. Through its partners, the project will market and promote climate-smart food crops in a variety of ways including through the creation of a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets: advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project has targeted outreach strategies for engaging Native American/Indigenous farmers, beginning and transitioning farmers, including through engaging existing organizations, tribal communities and networks; providing specialized technical assistance; and creating an experiential learning curriculum.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Local First Arizona
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beans, Cactus, Desert-adapted Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,782,261BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Biochar for Climate-Smart Farms in Missouri
This project would provide direct on-farm assistance and support to convert on-farm ag-waste into biochar, a soil amendment, for Missouri farms and measure and market the resulting climate-smart commodities. The Missouri Organic Association (MOA) plans to launch a pilot program to provide Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable climate-smart farm inputs. MOA and partners would conduct a multi-pronged program to develop and expand markets for climate-smart commodities produced by participating farmers and producers. In turn, the marketing development team would provide comprehensive and well-balanced coverage of marketing specialties. Measurement/Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification is planned throughout the project including in-field monitoring systems, soil quality assessments, GHG emissions, water quality assessment, and economic impacts. The field system will monitor and record environmental changes to the crop fields, including soil temperature, soil moisture, CO2 respiration, pH and a selection of nutrients. Models will be developed to predict plant growth and microbial activity for amended soil application rates. The GHG emissions will be quantified by the tracking of the farm types of farm residue reduction into biochar, monitoring of the soil amended field for plant growth and environmental parameters with field test data over two years and measuring scope 1 thru 3 farm emissions with detailed impact assessments. Scheduled nitrate, carbon, and COD/BOD sampling of the water nitrate concentration at the edges of the field, or streams and the applied watering of the crops will be conducted. A GHG Life Cycle Assessment based on ISO 14040 and 14044 protocols along with project technical reporting will be led by a Missouri-based energy and environmental consulting firm. The project will evaluate direct marketing, wholesale marketing, and value-added marketing of climate-smart, sustainably grown crops. Additional market development assistance including direct support to connect climate-smart commodity producers with buyers will be provided. Missouri State University and marketing consultants will develop individually focused, commodity specific marketing plans for Phase 1 farms based on their specific commodities and market opportunities. The project will lead in the development and execution of comprehensive marketing support materials including participant tool kits, which will assist the farmers in telling their "story" and differentiate their offering from others at market. The project plans target outreach to low income and minority areas of Missouri to enroll underserved participants, providing Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable Climate-Smart farm inputs in the form of biochar. The project will leverage partnerships with Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, an ag nonprofit with established relationships through the Henry Kirkland Scholarship program and Veteran Apprenticeship program, as well as Lincoln University Innovative Small Farmer Program through in person outreach efforts, direct mailing and phone calls. Specific targeting of outreach to underserved farmers and ranchers using data from the census of agriculture and the utilization of in person outreach, digital media networks in counties with higher concentrations of these populations.
Lead Partner: Missouri Organic Association
Other Major Partners: Missouri State University, Lincoln University, Five Star Family Farms, Inc., Seidel Research and Development Company, LLC, Green Tribes Consulting, LLC, Carbon Cycle
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Poultry, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,935,825Blue Carbon, Green Fields: Mobilizing Marine Algae to Benefit Sea and Soil in the Pacific Northwest
This project plans to pilot a mutually beneficial collaboration between aquatic and terrestrial farms in the Puget Sound region, revolving around the removal and reconveyance of nuisance seaweed for application as a Carbon-sequestering soil amendment. This product would be used on small, direct-to-consumer, specialty crop and diversified farms and the crops would be marketed to pre-existing regional markets that support demand for climate-smart commodities. Shellfish farmers would benefit from new revenue streams from nuisance seaweed, the value of improved shellfish health and seawater quality and the potential for new marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with implementing a verified climate-smart practice. The project will engage in a three-tiered approach to quantification of GHG benefits, with Tier 1 involving use of the COMET Planer tool, Tier 2 based on a simple biomass and soil sampling regime, and Tier 3 involving a more complex replicated experimental design to provide a robust knowledge base for interpretation of Tier 2 results. The MMRV framework will be organized around a verification system developed and overseen by Puget Sound Restoration Fund and the Hershman Fellows during the project time period and designed to be simple enough to continue beyond the project timeframe without undue burden or costs to participants. The marketing plan for this project is centered around building strong local supply chain connections between terrestrial farms utilizing this innovative sea-to-land practice and pre-existing regional markets that already support demand for climate-smart commodities. The project will focus on the potential for new climate-smart marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with the business’ implementation of a verified climate-smart practice. Recruitment efforts and subsequent technical assistance and market development will be focused on small direct-marketing specialty crop producers. Initial recruitment will take place through one of the largest and most comprehensive farm incubator programs in the country. The farm incubator program provides access to equipment, infrastructure, land, marketing, and capital as well as bilingual training and education in sustainable and organic agriculture practices to beginning farmers with an emphasis on underserved populations.
Lead Partner: University of Washington
Other Major Partners: Washington State University, Viva Farms, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Baywater Shellfish
Primary States Expected: WA
Major Commodities: Beans, Fruits, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,865,136Building Markets and Resiliency: Addressing Climate and Food Access with Northern NJ Livestock Farmers
This project would offer technical assistance and financial cost-share incentives to livestock producers to implement priority climate-smart practices, with higher cost-shares available to underserved producers. This project would provide increased business opportunities for underserved and small farmers to be competitive in purchasing land in a market dominated by corporate sprawl and development pressure. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the development of a climate-friendly farm certification, a consumer marketing campaign, and the expansion of equitable food access. This project’s MMRV approach involves three distinct phases: 1) expanding the use of an open-source, low-cost soil GHG reader 2) working with Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) utilizing their monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocols for environmental outcomes, and 3) utilizing NRCS COMET-Planner. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the following: 1) Development of a Climate Friendly Farm Certification,2) Consumer marketing campaign, 3) Expansion of Equitable Food Access. The Climate Friendly Farm certification will enable producers to continue to be recognized for implementation and management of climate-smart practices beyond the 5 years. All of the farmers participating in this project will be small or underserved. This effort will support making healthy proteins and other locally produced foods more accessible to NJ residents of all income levels, while also increasing economic opportunities for Northern NJ farmers. The project was developed with consideration of potential marketing opportunities for producers and affordable high-quality options for diverse consumers.
Lead Partner: North Jersey RC&D Area, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Foodshed Alliance, NJ Audubon (NJA), CLA Consultants, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), City Green, William Penn Foundation, Rutgers, Farm Credit East
Primary States Expected: NJ
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Chickens, Goats, Lamb, Livestock, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,574,207Building Profitability for Underserved Producers with a Pipeline of Land Access, Regenerative Agriculture, and Market Development
This project aims to provide resettled refugees access to low- or no-cost land and technical assistance to create scalable and profitable agricultural small businesses through the creation of demand for commodities produced using climate-smart practices. Project plans for farmers to use climate-smart practices. These producers would also receive technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations. The project will partner with CultivateAI to manage greenhouse gas benefit quantification. Farmers will have access to a private data silo to safely store their farm records and input data. CultivateAI will use its innovative, app-based software to establish digital records of both operational activities and Climate-Smart practices at the farm or field level and uses the COMET model for quantification. CultivateAI will work with partners and farmers to build a custom application for easy documentation of farming practices using icons/symbols to minimize barriers for farmers with low literacy and/or limited English. By working collectively on behalf of participating farmers, partners will open access for small-scale producers that might otherwise be closed, including both retail and food assistance markets. Producers will be able to both sell products and educate consumers about the value of climate-smart commodities, creating a demand premium. Underserved producers targeted for outreach to enroll in this project largely consists of refugees that have been resettled in Iowa. These producers will benefit by receiving access to land, technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations.
Lead Partner: Dalla Terra Ranch Foundation (In Harmony Farm)
Other Major Partners: Lutheran Services of Iowa Global Greens, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Small Farm Land Access Program, Iowa State University Agronomy Department, Iowa International Center, CultivateAI, Fareway Food Stores, Food Bank of Iowa, Des Moines Area Religious Council
Primary States Expected: IA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $1,437,202.64Building Whole-Farm Designs and Market Infrastructure to Provide Premiums for Climate-Smart Farming among Mid-Sized Agricultural Enterprises in the Ohio River Valley
This project plans to model and develop whole-farm carbon sequestration systems geared towards mid-sized polyculture farms that produce crops and beef. Farmers would receive a sign-up incentive, free technical assistance, and cost-share to implement climate-smart practices. Partners would include African-American food system organizers who would ensure engagement with minority, unrepresented, and socially disadvantaged growers. Partners would offer a Climate-Smart Beef product line to current retail and wholesale customers and provide avenues for grain producers to market and sell their products. This project also aims to continue the long process of adapting the complexity of “Entity Scale” quantification and improve capacity to apply emissions factors and sequestration estimates in real world situations using lessons from literature, on farm assessment of practice changes, and soil testing.
Lead Partner: Mt. Folly Enterprises, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Mt. Folly Farm, Eastern Kentucky University, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Rich Earth Grains LLC, Riverside Meats, Sourwood Forestry, Ale-8-1 Bottling Company, Gallagher Fence, Brambleberry Farms, Rural Action Silvopasture, Holistic Management, Sprouted Wellness
Primary States Expected: KY, OH, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Hemp, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,000Climate Resiliency for the Farm and Market Development: Economically Viable Low Carbon and Climate-Smart Practices for Soybean Farming
Team Climate-Smart Soybean plan to provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. Participants would use cover crops, no-till, climate-smart soybeans, crop rotation, bio-fertilizers, and biochar. Led by a Hispanic-serving institution, project assistance would be provided in a culturally relative approach. As a Hispanic-serving institution. monitoring, reporting, and verification activities for climate-smart practices will be developed at UT-Arlington in collaboration with researchers, agricultural economists, and commodity developers at Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, University of Missouri, and Texas Valley Grain. The project will use COMET, to evaluate carbon sequestration and GHG reductions associated with specific production practices (baseline) and field-based data collection, soil gas fluxes of CO2, N2O, NO, and CH4 measured via portable Gasmet DX4000 FTIR Analyzer, plant tissue analysis and direct soil sampling. The research team, named "Team Climate-Smart Soybean", will participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. The project will provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices which result in generation of verifiable GHG reductions and carbon sequestration. At the completion of this project, multiple small/underserved soybean producers from each state enlisted will have integrated climate-smart farming practices into their land management strategies, giving them and their immediate neighbors access to information on these innovative technologies that are scientifically proven to curb GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and bolster a more regenerative approach to modem agriculture. Bringing these technologies to small/underserved farmers and seeing the production outcomes, market share for climate-smart commodities will increase due to demand by the early adopters.
Lead Partner: University of Texas at Arlington
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Missouri, Tarleton State University
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,991,439Climate-SMART (Specific Management for Arizona Resilience and Transformation) Agriculture Best Management Practices
Participants in this Arizona-based project would be paid to apply climate-smart practices that reduce pesticide and fertilizer inputs; reduce tillage, use diverse cover crop, rest pastures and use rotational grazing. The project would emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing between Native American producers and other participants and would market climate-smart commodities through partnership networks. MMRV for the project will include the use of management evaluation, COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and soil sampling, with technical assistance staff monitoring progress with participants twice per year to assess continuation of chosen Climate Smart Farming practices. Combining the GHG quantification methodology with the producer reports on practices implemented, the project will calculate more specific estimates of GHG benefits generated per farm, and per project and will report the overall project benefits per dollar expended. The results of the project will be uploaded in COMET-Planner. The project will create markets of varying scales for enrolled producers, including a new "Climate-Smart” category on the Organic Trade Association's business directory, and local marketing of Climate-Smart goods with partners, Local First AZ and Pinnacle Prevention. The Organic Trade Association will connect buyers from across the U.S. to Organic and Climate-Smart products. Arizona State University Swette Center will guide producers who want to be certified organic through the process with training guides to sell products through the well-established organic certified market. The project seeks to focus on underserved populations and to create collaborative partnerships between indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK) and conventional producers to emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing. Those farmers and ranchers who have already adopted USDA Organic standards and regenerative practices will also be engaged as our “early adopters” and help with the transfer of knowledge to conventional producers.
Lead Partner: Arizona Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance, Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University (ASU) Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Arizona, Local First Arizona, Pinnacle Prevention, Soil Health Institute, Northern Arizona University, Organic Trade Association
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Livestock, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,902,482Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Commodities and Market Development within the Chickasaw Nation: Restoring Power to Small Farmers and Communities Through Pecan and Specialty Crop Engagement
Participating farmers would receive incentives for climate-smart practices, including reducing chemical applications on pecan trees and conversion of pastures to multiple species of native grasses. Through this project, the Chickasaw Nation plans to work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans would be sourced to sale for any industry interested in climate-smart pecans and to local consumers. The project will use an evaluation tool to record impacts of applied climate smart practices made to the land through best management improvements. These verification processes will be developed and overseen by two advisory teams. The verification process will be recorded in a digital Working on Regenerative Management Systems which is an easily accessible digital format. WORMS will capture change within fields over time including soil sample data and is an ESRI 123 Survey document to capture in field data improvements. COMET-Planner will be utilized to evaluate carbon capture improvements. The Chickasaw Nation (CN) will work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans will be sourced for sales with partners. Marketing for specialty crops will focus on restoring lost engagement between underserved farmers and consumers within CN which will establish a fundamental blueprint to be utilized throughout other tribal nations and underserved communities and focus on utilizing opportunities through established programs to provide wholesome food to citizens through farmers markets through their nutrition division. Marketing will highlight the benefits of climate-smart commodities for consumers and allow an opportunity for increased profit for verified climate-smart specialty crop farmers, providing a direct link to those producers and consumers. In addition, the Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association will provide a state and national resource to pecan organizations and those markets. Most of the communities within the Chickasaw Nation’s treaty territory falls into nationally underserved categories. The Chickasaw Nation and project partners will work in collaboration to teach integrated management systems within native pecan groves not only to improve carbon capture but also to decrease carbon emissions among current underserved and small farmers. in addition, this project will focus on expanding climate smart education to local specialty crop farmers.
Lead Partner: Chickasaw Nation
Other Major Partners: Murray State College, Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association, Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Pecans, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,977,388Climate-Smart Fiber Hemp: A Versatile Thread Connecting the Nation’s Underserved Farmers, Climate Change Mitigation and Novel Market Opportunities
This project would be a collaborative initiative to expand the production of industrial hemp as a climate-smart commodity, evaluate its greenhouse gas benefits (GHG), and promote the value of market development to a cross-section of production agriculture, including small, medium, and underserved producers across the state of Tennessee. Special efforts are planned to identify and recruit underserved producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans), as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed. An interdisciplinary business approach to research and development with corporate partners will be implemented with the goal of defining the material specifications necessary to scale a market for particular product applications. This will include exploring the development of a climate-smart, socially responsible classification system and certification program for hemp fiber and pulp and providing the raw material outputs from the basic processing of the hemp grown under the Project to interested corporate partners in the automotive, plastics, textiles, paper/pulp, and building materials industries to identify applications within defined and prospective markets. The Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) approach will involve direct monitoring at the on-farm and on-station pilot plots. The project will implement intensive greenhouse gas (GHG) and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration monitoring in response to fertility and rotational agronomic managements at the TSU and UTK on-station trials and on-farm locations representative of key agricultural regions in the middle and west TN. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Tennessee State University, the project is focused on serving small and underserved producers both as incentivized program participants receiving direct subsidies, but also in the targeted dissemination of insights resultant from virtually all program research through technical assistance outreach. Special efforts will be made to identify and recruit underrepresented producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans) as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed, to result in an anticipated estimate of greater than 60% of producer participants from underserved groups who will receive financial assistance.
Lead Partner: Tennessee State University
Other Major Partners: Hemp Alliance of Tennessee, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Tennessee Department of Agriculture
Primary States Expected: TN
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,972,898Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Climate-Smart Sustainability Certificate
The project will expand Climate-Smart markets with particular outreach to small and underserved producers and would create the Climate-Smart Sustainability (CSS) Certificate to quantify the value of existing and newly adopted climate-smart interventions. The development of the CSS Certificate would substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities and small-scale underserved and limited resources farmers. The project teams plan to connect with networks, producers, processors, and Agri-Technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The data-backed CSS Certificate would provide a solution to value and document the carbon and environmental co-benefits embedded within purchased grains and other food crops so that buyers of U.S. commodities can certify GHG reductions within their supply chain. The project will include the evaluation of new type of interventions (i) algaeslurry/granules, (ii) rock powder (RP) and Silicon (Si) along with existing crop management practices. Various high technology sensors will be used to quantify the GHG such as CO2, CH4 and N2O. The project teams will connect with networks, producers, processors, and agri-technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The development of the CSS Certificate will substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities. This Historically Black College or University (HBCU) will work together with the University of Houston, which is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander - Serving Institution (AANAPISI), to reach small-scale, underserved and limited resource farmers.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Michigan Aerospace Corporation
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Leafy Greens, Sorghum, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,381ClimateSmartGoods.com - Set Your Table and Lower Your Footprint
The project plans to select farms in Mississippi and South Carolina to demonstrate the implementation of conservation/production plans – “Smart Crop Plans”, supporting the creation of a corresponding knowledge-based training platform. Project partners also plan to provide professional marketing consultant to advise on packaging, branding and marketing of “ClimateSmart” products and connecting the products with retail and wholesale markets. The project will utilize multiple models including COMET Farm and APSIM. High tech, real-time probes installed at each farm with data transmission and drone technology will be used to allow tracking of climate performance. The project will develop a marketing toolkit for each farm and commodity, including a Climate-Smart UPC and PLU for each product, where the commodity can be barcoded and ready to enter a distribution system which will result in transparency and ready tracking of climate-smart commodities. The project will also include robust producer training in the branding, marketing, pricing, and technology. All subawards and prime awardee are experienced with underserved and socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers. The project will include a comprehensive training program in marketing and selling that relies on peer mentoring and training with early adopters within community.
Lead Partner: Up in Farms LLC
Other Major Partners: Up in Farms, Center of Resilience Excellence South Carolina, DRA Resources, Florida A&M University, Warehouses 4 Good, Teralytic, Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities
Primary States Expected: MS, SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Fruits, Goats, Hemp, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,483Colorado Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
Participating producers would receive financial assistance for implementing climate-smart practices in beef production and monitoring project outcomes. The project would model a successful, durable, and transferable climate-smart commodities market model to regenerate working landscapes. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in Colorado.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Multiplier Working Lands Conservation, Central Colorado Conservancy, Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: CO
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,963.37Commodities and Practices to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Pacific Island Agriculture and Forestry Systems
This project plans to market climate-smart commodities and achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in Pacific Island agriculture and forestry systems while improving affordable food and nutrition security of disadvantaged, at-risk, island communities. Partners plan to employ an inter-disciplinary, culturally sensitive approach when working with local farmers and forestry managers. Technical workshops are planned to showcase various climate-smart practices and underserved producers and landowners are planned to receive stipends for participating in the project. Partners plan to conduct market research to better understand emerging and untapped markets and customer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for climate-smart commodities. University of Guam will be using DAYCENT. The DAYCENT process-based model will be used because it has been applied and tested for estimating GHG emissions from forested ecosystems in a wide range of climatic regions and for cropland, grazing lands, and cultivated wetlands. GHG emissions will also be estimated using the COMET farm tool, where applicable. Connecting the consumer with the climate-smart commodities will happen through a variety of ways. UOG will partner with locally owned supermarkets to facilitate the selling of these commodities using the results of the market survey to show consumer demand for the products. Commodities will also be sold at the local Farmers Cooperative market. The communications lead will assist in strategizing the best way to get information about these commodities to the demographic-user groups who expressed willingness to pay in market surveys. Climate-smart products will also be advertised on social media, news talk radio, and newspaper, ideally directly linking consumers to producers. Additionally, the Guam Green Growth Network will promote the climate-smart commodities produced in this project. Most producers participating in the project will be underserved producers, including producers of Asian and Islander ethnicities, small-scale farmers, and farmers that rent land. A place-based, culturally sensitive, outreach strategy will be developed to ensure the wide participation of the farming community in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The heart of this project rests in the Farmer Incentive Program, which will provide participating farmers and producers incentives and stipends to participate.
Lead Partner: University of Guam
Other Major Partners: Government of Guam, Washington State University
Primary States Expected: GU, CNMI
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56Cover Crop Utilization to Boost Anaerobic Digestion, Transform Chicken Litter, Enhance Soil Health, and Create Climate-Smart Commodity Pathways for Small Farms on the Delmarva Peninsula
The project would directly address underserved producers on the Delmarva Peninsula by promoting climate-smart cover crops as a feedstock for digestor facilities. Project partners anticipate these facilities plan to provide a per acre incentive for harvested climate-smart cover crop biomass making them more economically sustainable and allowing for several project partners to promote and distribute the climate-smart products. This project plans to focus on environmental justice especially in communities impacted by environmental hazards, social-economic stress and poor infrastructure. The renewable energy produced (biogas, including methane content) will be quantified using a mass balance approach, with the energy output based on the mass of poultry litter and cover crop inputs. All energy inputs and outputs from the digester operation to cover crops, field application, and soil sequestration will be quantified, and the COMET online management tool will be used for estimating changes in soil C sequestration, fuel, and fertilizer use resulting from changes in land management. The project has formalized several partnerships to promote and distribute the climate-smart products under the project and will disseminate information regarding the cover crops and field amendments generated by this project. One of the partners will facilitate the integration of underserved producers into the new climate-smart cover crop supply chain. This project will also focus on the environmental factors inherent to the implementation of any new agricultural practice or technology.
Lead Partner: University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Other Major Partners: Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, 2020 Farmers Cooperative, Planet Found Energy Development, University of Maryland College Park
Primary States Expected: MD, VA
Major Commodities: Corn, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing and Harnessing Climate-Smart Commodities from Hardwood Restoration for Small and Underserved Landowners in the Southern Bottomland Region
This project plans to focus on working with small scale and underserved landowners on marketing climate-smart wood products with support for bottomland hardwood afforestation and planting mixed hardwood oak plantations. Full technical and financial assistance is planned for landowners and demonstration sites. Partners plan to use a forest inventory system to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimate carbon storage and evaluate indicator wildlife populations. COMET will be one tool used to quantify carbon associated with Bottom Land Hardwood (BLH) restoration; carbon calculation results using field experiment and measurement data as well as other published data and tools will in turn be provided to supplement current COMET data. In addition, the project will quantify the net change in C stocks associated with BLH restoration compared to the existing agricultural land use. Carbon sequestration and storage resulting from BLH restoration will be tracked in several C pools: soil organic matter, live tree biomass, understory, deadwood, litter, and harvested wood products. A forest inventory system will be used to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimates of carbon storage will be quantified. Wildlife populations, which indicate ecological health in forested systems, will be evaluated using appropriate technologies. Project personnel will produce and disseminate a marketing pamphlet and social media materials that will highlight the climate-smart hardwood timber and other supplementary ecosystem services produced from the hardwood plantations. This will help reach broad audiences or potential buyers in a more cost-effective way. The participating landowners will also be provided project assistance if they choose to enroll their hardwood plantations in a forest certification program with either the American Tree Farm System, which is recognized by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or the Forest Stewardship Council. The partners will recruit small and underserved landowners and create demonstration sites. Full technical and financial assistance will be provided to the landowners. All project activities will be financially supported by the partners, allowing producers to engage in climate-smart bottomland hardwood establishment with fewer barriers. Outreach activities will provide technical assistance to landowners on project development, methods employed, new technologies, and practical management with a focus on beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, limited resource farmers, veteran farmers, and women farmers.
Lead Partner: Division of Agriculture of University of Arkansas
Other Major Partners: University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM), University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), Keep it in the Family Program, Texas A&M University
Primary States Expected: AR
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,710,171Developing Capacity to Quantify Climate-Smart Practices in Cool Season Specialty Crops
This project would provide advanced, technical assistance in English and Spanish to underserved and small grower partner operations to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use, plant cover crops and use soil amendments. Growers would receive mini-grants to monitor and report grower experience and conservation outcomes related to the implementation of proposed practices. Bilingual student Climate-Smart Ag Ambassadors plan to work directly with technical assistance staff and farmers to alleviate communication barriers and provide direct on-farm outreach to growers through field demonstration days. MMRV activities will be conducted both at producer farm locations and at a dedicated MMRV site with characteristics comparable to the producer locations. MMRV at the dedicated site will include direct GHG emission measurements and the COMET Tool, Water use efficiency using CropManage, plant-available Nitrogen, soil C/N, non-marketable residual biomass, and marketable crop biomass. MMRV at the producer locations will include the COMET Tool, CropManage, CropTrak, Nitrate quick test, and yield data. The project will identify markets for climate-smart commodities; develop climate-smart produce signage, website, and social media campaign, and develop a climate-smart produce label. Producers will be assisted with determining the best way to market their products and in developing stories about their experiences to include in marketing campaigns. The project will provide webinars, meetings, and field days, estimate economic benefits for participating producers, identify barriers, and guide growers on path to market entry to access buyers for climate-smart commodities. The project will target outreach to underserved specialty crop producers on 1-5 acres.
Lead Partner: University Corporation at Monterey Bay
Other Major Partners: Huntington Farms, RCD of Monterey County, University of California Davis, University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Western Growers
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,992Developing Climate-Smart Agriculture and Markets Amongst Socially-Disadvantaged, Limited-Resource, and Urban Farmers in Ohio and Michigan
This project would combine monitoring, outreach, and technical support to foster the adoption of climate-smart practices by minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. It also creates synergy between climate-smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Project partners plan to recruit minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers and selected Central State University students who would receive additional training on climate-smart agriculture. Small-scale and urban vegetable farmers enrolled in this project would receive funds to cover part of their operating costs. Data on soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the various technological treatments, along with other collected data, will be used to conduct life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental impacts of using Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry technologies that are suitable for small-scale and urban vegetable farms. Enteric emissions, specifically methane emissions will be measured by respiration chamber or In Vitro incubation in total feed use resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on methane emissions. Robotic, AI enhanced feeding systems and electricity usage in the feedlots and diesel use by tractors (for conventional approach) will be monitored resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on the electricity and diesel use. Feed consumption under current and proposed approach will result in total GHG emissions measurements based on a reduction in feed usage. Feedlot manure storage operations will be evaluated for methane emissions measured from the anaerobic and aerobic storage operations resulting in total GHG emissions reductions and total methane emissions reduction. Optimization in nutrient application(s) at small-scale farms will be implemented to measure use of manure and commercial fertilizer for conventional and proposed systems. Total GHG emissions reductions due to reduction in commercial synthetic fertilizer use will be assessed. Verification will include COMET-Farm and will be used for confirmation of the measured emissions and the potential reductions in GHG emissions. The project will determine the marketing and economic viability of small-scale vegetable farms that have implemented Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices through consumer focus group interviews and individual interviews, which will be used to facilitate producer marketing and branding practices of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry products, including product labeling, target marketing, and market segmentation. The consumer valuation of food grown under Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices will be determined via Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions at farmer markets to develop production cost and profit estimates. This project is comprised of outreach, and technical support objectives leading to the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices by socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. The project will also create synergy between climate smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Central State University (CSU) (1890 Land-Grant) Extension will recruit minority vegetable farmers and encourage collaboration between feedlot operations and underserved farmers who will be the end users of these climate smart manure management byproducts. This project will also provide hands-on climate-smart agriculture training to students from underserved populations.
Lead Partner: Central State University
Other Major Partners: Ohio State University, A & B Porteus
Primary States Expected: MI, OH
Major Commodities: Beef, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,992,288Establishing Climate-Smart Commodities with Reduced Greenhouse Gas Footprints to Enhance Environmental and Economic Sustainability in the Texas High Plains
The goals of this project are to quantify benefits from these climate-smart commodities on a variety of producer field sites, estimate GHG footprint across the supply chain using COMET (carbon management evaluation tool), develop a framework to demonstrate socio-economic and environmental sustainability in the Texas High Plains and support a market for sustainably produced climate-smart cotton. Multiple producers representing 10 Texas counties have been identified within the categories of Hispanic, veteran, women, beginning farmers, and early adopters. Remote sensing-based spatial mapping will be used to quantify the status of legume-based multi-species cover crops and cotton-sorghum rotation under no-till in the entire Texas High Plains. Participating producers will record water pumped and energy consumption for different farm operations, in addition to providing detailed farm records regarding varieties, seeding rates, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, tillage practices, and yields. The project will primarily use COMET-Planner complemented with COMET-Farm, as they provide the flexibility to include additional parameters and a quantitative measure of GHG emissions. In addition, the project will verify the GHG emissions and the potential benefits from GHG reductions through a sustainability index and by comparative assessment using COMET Planner/COMET-Farm, Fieldprint Platform®, and GREET. The GREET model, though limited to certain crops, allows for life cycle analysis (LCA) for grain sorghum and for comparison with COMET-Farm. The project will provide a means for participating producers to receive a data collection fee for sustainably produced “climate smart cotton”. Cotton will be considered “climate smart” when the producer meets standard guidelines set by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, providing assurance to the 40 major clothing brands (including Next, Gap, Levi Strauss and others) that are members of their program. Taking advantage of these established guidelines for producing sustainable cotton, the project will work with the sorghum industry to establish a similar set of sustainable guidelines for grain sorghum producers. A similar payment system will be established to support “climate smart sorghum” grown by the participating producers. The project expects that almost all participating producers involved in the project will be underserved producers including “beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers, limited resource farmers, women farmers, and producers growing specialty crops”. Direct assistance costs to producers include: (i) moisture sensors and data transfer, (ii) soil sample collection and analysis, (iii) weather stations on all 30-producer field-sites, remuneration for producers’ time and monetary incentive.
Lead Partner: Texas Tech University
Other Major Partners: National Cotton Council, National Sorghum Producers, Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) advisory board, No-Till Texas, Field to Market, Texas Sorghum Association, Groguru, Agri-Search
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Cotton, Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,945,553Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the Participation of Marginal Producers and Landowners to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices: Continuous Efforts of 1890 Agroforestry Consortium
The project plans to support small-scale and other underserved producers in three states with financial and technical assistance to transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system. All producers and landowners are planned to receive financial incentives to cover costs of inputs and services Partners will form a marketing network for labelling, packaging, and branding CS commodities. The project's MMRV plan will include core sampling for carbon sequestration benefits in soil, in-field measurement of GHG effluxes, and quantification of carbon sequestered in trees and shrubs based on above and below-ground biomass. To measure GHG benefits associated with climate smart animal-production systems, partners will include the use of mobile small animal GreenFeed measurement systems, forage biomass samples, and other collected data. The GHG benefits associated with the implemented climate-smart practices will be verified based on the carbon sequestration and GHG emission results and their continuity over the project period, using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET). The project will adopt a robust marketing plan to explore, create, expand, and promote climate smart commodities marketing during the project period and create an inter-state marketing consortium to educate producers and landowners on how to promote domestic markets for their climate-smart commodities. The project will also facilitate the setting of premium prices for the climate-smart commodities by introducing labels/badges and marketing materials on packaging and branding, e.g., a climate-smart logo and the price per unit of climate smart commodity on the label/badge. This project, led by a minority serving institution, is expected to enroll primarily small and underserved producers and landowners. Each participant will receive financial incentives to procure inputs and pay for services required for implementing climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Primary States Expected: AL, MD, VA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Medicinal Herbs, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25Foodshed Small Farm Distro and Resource Hub Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot
The Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot plans to would generate climate-smart economic opportunities and provide direct incentives to small and socially disadvantaged specialty crop farmers in San Diego County for improving soil health through climate-smart compost application, reduced tillage and tree/shrub establishment and quantifying GHG reductions. Project partners plan to address equity by reducing barriers caused by language, and limited access to equipment and information. Foodshed will seek to measure four carefully selected “Climate-Smart Commodity Metrics”: 1) change in soil organic matter; 2) fungal to bacterial ratio; 3) volume of compost applied; and 4) dollar value of climate-smart specialty crops produced and distributed to historically underserved end-users living in a neighborhood with a Healthy Places Index score below 50%. Foodshed will produce a Soil Health Report to analyze and share findings with project stakeholders. Foodshed will establish at least four “Climate-Smart Market Channels” that: prioritize distribution to underserved/socially disadvantaged communities as defined by California’s Healthy Places Index; have the capacity to track distribution to end-users. Not only will underserved producers receive direct financial benefits for their participation in this project, but the partners will address barriers associated with not having time and resources to introduce new cropping practices, not speaking English, not having access to the proper equipment, and not having the knowledge-base to introduce climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Foodshed, Inc.
Other Major Partners: County of San Diego Department of Health, San Diego Food System Alliance
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Grazing Regeneratively for Appalachian Sustainable Solutions
Underserved farmers would receive financial and technical assistance to support the transition from typical livestock systems management to climate-smart practices. Practices implemented include land management plans, prescribed grazing, bale grazing, native grass and silvopasture establishment, incorporation of legumes and non-leguminous forbs, and use of traditional and novel soil amendments, such as biochar. The project would provide producers with marketing assistance for grass-fed beef products as long as producers meet required criteria of certifications and product quality. MMRV will be accomplished with a variety of approaches through COMET-Planner to determining baselines, soil analysis, grazing evaluations, practice measurements, and ecological outcome verifications (EOV). GHGs and carbon sequestration metrics will be evaluated on farms across both VA and WV. The long-term verification includes a comprehensive soil health analysis and must be done at the start of the project, then every five years to remain EOV certified. The short-term monitoring utilizes the Ecological Health Index to assess improvements in ecological health and services. Marketing will utilize producer need assessments, related producer surveys, econometric estimation, and market discovery to guide the marketing of climate-smart products and market analysis for producers in Appalachian Virginia and West Virginia. A design of the economic evaluation to perform econometric analysis of the data will allow for an estimate of the potential marketability of GRASS beef. Through their market discovery work, data will be provided on demand based on trends related to climate-smart products and opportunities through additional outlets. A marketing agency will provide label development, brand identity design, event marketing, packaging design, digital media materials, and promotional content for climate-smart beef. The mission of GRASS is to support and empower 135 farmers in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia and Virginia, many of which are considered small and/or underserved. Equity through this effort is paramount. Small and underserved producers will be targeted for outreach and have the opportunity to participate through a plethora of options for climate-smart practices and systems. By embracing these practices, producers will enhance working land resiliency, support high carbon sequestration rates, foster healthier soils, and generate economic benefits for many small and underserved farmers in Appalachia. Virginia State University (1890 land-grant) Cooperative Extension Small Farm Outreach Program will provide the organization of producer-led on-farm field days in Appalachian Virginia, which will allow for peer-to-peer learning.
Lead Partner: West Virginia University Research Corporation
Other Major Partners: West Virginia University (WVU), Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, The West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA), Hickory Nut Gap (HNG), Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Agricultural Best Management Practices Match Program (VACS)
Primary States Expected: VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,795,300Greenhouse Gas Reduction Incentive Program
Using incentives and technical assistance, this project would help farmers adopt climate-smart practices to improve soil health and water quality, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and promote wildlife habitat, connecting climate-smart commodity production with climate adaptation and GHG benefits. The farmers enrolled every year in the project are eligible to receive sufficient and compelling incentive payments for their participation and for verified climate-smart practice implementation. The project plans to draw on Organic Association of Kentucky, Inc. (OAK) and partner networks to engage small farms and underserved farmers. OAK anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually would be underserved farmers, including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers, and many more would be small farms, operations with gross annual farm income under $250,000. The project plans to adapt the Global Farm Metric framework to create a farm sustainability assessment tool built for use in the US, including by embedding it with measures, benchmark scoring and practices from USDA NRCS, including alignment with COMET-Farm, Environmental Impact Quotient and NRCS Practice Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Carbon Sequestration. Modeled GHG emissions from COMET tools will be coupled with on-the-ground measurements of soil health to achieve a fuller picture of the benefits of adopting climate-smart practices on each farm. The project will work with partner local food value chain coordinators, companies, processors and aggregators who will source climate-smart commodities to meet their GHG targets and supply chain goals, sell climate-smart branded consumer products and provide a premium or additional revenue for participating producers and landowners. The project lead will work with identified project partners, contractors and supporting farmers, buyers, local food value chain coordinators and marketing experts to develop a climate-smart add-on label and branding for commodities verified through the project. The project will draw on the project lead and partner networks to engage small farms and historically underserved farmers from the eastern Kentucky Appalachian Mountains to farms of the central bluegrass region with diversified vegetables and pastured livestock to the broad acre corn and soybean farms and organic dairy operations of western Kentucky. The project anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually will be underserved farmers (including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers) and many more will be small farms.
Lead Partner: Organic Association of Kentucky Inc
Other Major Partners: Four Hills Farm, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, The Berry Center, The Food Connection at University of Kentucky, Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kentucky State University, University of Kentucky, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Sustainable Food Alliance, Bullhorn Creative
Primary States Expected: KY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Fruits, Hemp, Lamb, Small Grains, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,407,706Growing the Impossible: Climate Smart Commodities in Tribal Homelands
This project plans to provide technical assistance, training, financial incentives and business planning and marketing support for climate-smart commodities produced on tribal homelands. This project plans to support climate-smart practices, including adaptive multi-paddock higher intensity rotational grazing which lead to increased soil organic carbon storage. The work is planned to align with holistic Blackfeet-specific regenerative grazing strategies in direct partnership with Tribal land managers and individual producers. The project will employ existing tools within their team for multi-domain analysis that overlay existing monitoring tools developed by PLHI and their partners, as well as in field measurements specifically applied to GHG mitigation and overall community well-being within the Blackfeet Nation. The monitoring practices include Western Sustainability Exchange’s verified grassland carbon storage on the carbon credit market, Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program assessment protocol, sciGaia’s semantic framework for socio-environmental-economic data called TrueView™ and the MSU/PLHI protocol for in field rangeland monitoring being undertaken locally in Blackfeet Nation. PLHI will integrate multi-domain monitoring approaches through using the ‘Piikani Wellbeing Index’ (PWI) on top of the TrueView framework, requiring the ability to analyze anything that contributes to meat production to understand its GHG impacts and to look for ways that more high-quality meat can be produced for less GHG cost, all the while maintaining the integrity and wellbeing of the ecosystem and the humans who operate within it. The project's relationships over the last three years set the stage for market receptivity towards climate-smart Blackfeet produced products. The Feasibility Analysis for a Blackfeet Nation Multi-Species Processing Plant and Branded Beef and Bison Products prompted the need to research potential market connections and begin to build relationships with those market buyers at the local, institutional, corporate and international levels. This project will benefit 11 Tribal sub-communities residing within the Blackfeet Nation but will also serve all other Tribal communities along the “hi-line” of Northern Montana and Rocky Mountain Tribes, while also creating a translational model for all Tribes residing across the Great Plains region. The climate-smart funds will bolster the technical assistance and outreach team, adding a full-time dedicated Market Development Specialist located within the community who will assist existing and new business owners with establishing their climate-smart agriculture business and help to bring them to a state of market-readiness and access capital in the form of loans and grants.
Lead Partner: Piikani Lodge Health Institute
Other Major Partners: Blackfeet Community College, Blackfeet Environmental Office, Montana State University-Soils Lab, Montana State University- Buffalo Nations Food Systems Initiative, Montana State University, Native Lands Project, Animo Partnership in Natural Resources LLC, Montana Audubon, Western Sustainability Exchange, SciGaia
Primary States Expected: MT, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison, Fruits, Hogs, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: 4,914,533Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Hispanic Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative
This project plans to work with Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic pasture and forage farmers to diversify and increase production while managing climate-smart farming methods and quantifying environmental outcomes. Project partners would address cultural and language barriers to provide technical assistance for implementing practices and marketing their beef in new revenue streams. Farmers with under 100 acres under management would be offered a higher flat fee per year. Victus aims to develop an easy-to-use platform that will enable farmers to run field-level simulations from APSIM, DSSAT, and COMET-Farm (via the API, for Florida farms only) to estimate key crops (yield, crop mass, development, water, and nitrogen- use efficiency) and soil (carbon, nitrogen, water) metrics from the farming systems in the project. Besides providing valuable information for farm management and planning, the soil metrics derived from these models are increasingly used for the estimation of carbon storage and emissions of GHGs, such as N2O. The project plans to market climate-smart beef and breadfruit and develop the capacity of Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic farmers to diversify and increase production and climate-smart market access, including local and direct marketing opportunities and ecosystem markets. The project plans to design and implement a culturally appropriate procedure to certify climate-smart commodities produced by Hispanic farmers to expand markets, and develop new revenue streams or increase current ones. The project is dedicated to enhancing the climate-smart economic benefits for Hispanic farmers in Florida and Puerto Rico through incentives.
Lead Partner: Victus Puerto Rico, Inc.
Other Major Partners: mano-Y-ola LLC, Bien-Estar Agrícola LLC PR, Fundación Santa Elena de la Sabana Inc. PR, NTDS Consulting Group
Primary States Expected: FL, PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Breadfruits
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,926,250Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, TerritoriesMajor Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Increasing Farm Resource Efficiency by Utilizing On-Site Post-Production Food Byproducts into Innovative Fertilizers and Climate-Smart Commodities
Project participants would use innovative technology to convert crop residue into two high-value fertilizers for soil, foliar, or hydroponic use, and market resulting climate-smart commodities. Grower economic benefits include premium pricing for carbon-smart commodities, reduced fertilizer costs, reduced water consumption and related costs, potential reduction in environmental regulatory compliance/fees (where applicable) and expanded marketing opportunities to Re-Nuble or local markets. Re-Nuble and Helianth will develop an MMRV Plan and Online Data Portal, along with a guiding document that informs monitoring, measurement reporting, and verification procedures and expectations. An online location and interface for participants to share MMRV data and lessons learned will also be developed. The project's MMRV plan consists of a continuance of working with organizations across agricultural supply chains for design, implementation, and monitoring of improvements for sustainable agricultural programs. After a set of initial meetings with all MMRV partners and Re-Nuble staff, farm producers will receive a formal presentation on the container insect farm (CIF) system, residue processing, projected financial benefits, nutrient management planning, anticipated GHG outcomes, and marketing and distribution opportunities. A nutrient management plan will be designed, advising ideal nutrient application guidance for each climate smart commodity in order to increase nutrient use efficiency. Verification of those plans will be conducted annually. Soil samples are taken by MMRV Partner (IPM) and Re‐ Nuble to support third‐party lab analysis of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction and the COMET Farm model will be used for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration analysis. Partners will contribute with the development of both marketing and distribution plans for all farm producers. These plans including supply chain overviews, cost-benefit analysis, market landscapes, premium pricing strategies and likely market channels will be prepared for each climate-smart commodity from the participating farms. Participating farmers will also be trained to proficiently use their marketing plans and distribution plans effectively while leveraging the data related to GHG Emissions reductions and sequestered carbon to help increase marketability of all climate-smart commodities grown by each farm. Steps the farm can take to implement its marketing plan, including messaging and promotion strategies, relationship building, and data tracking will also be a focus. Outreach for enrollment will be focused on small and underserved farms and commitments have already been attained from a number of these entities. It is anticipated that small and underserved, leafy green farms located in Mississippi will be recruited from the existing networks of Re-Nuble and the MMRV Partners.
Lead Partner: Re-Nuble, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Helianth Partners, IPM Institute of North America, Chapul Farms
Primary States Expected: KY, MI, MS, NY
Major Commodities: Apples, Corn, Eggs, Fruits, Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops, Tilapia, Tomatoes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,696,929Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Launching The North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project plans to work collaboratively with regional small and historically underserved producers to launch the North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture. The Hub plans to provide farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities by consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products. The project plans to support producers in implementing a variety of climate-smart cover crops; no-till or minimum-till practices; nutrient management; enhanced efficiency fertilizers; planting for high carbon sequestration rates; and soil amendments. An incentive payment is planned to be offered for each producer implementing an advanced practice. This project will leverage existing tools including COMET-Farm and California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Program Calculator Tool, and supplement with an additional level of verification of GHG benefits for participating producers by conducting soil analysis through Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient System's (CRARS) own Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration Lab and collecting additional on-farm soil health data. The project will partner with the North Valley Food Hub, providing farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities. The Hub will provide critical services to both growers and wholesale buyers that include consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products, and serving as a centralized facilitator for creating and expanding the regional food market in the Sacramento Valley. Through appropriate, trusted, and culturally relevant outreach via partner organizations directly serving small and underserved producers, this project anticipates that at least 75 percent of the participating producers to be either small and/or underserved producers. To meet any potential needs of small and underserved producers to access incentives, producers will also be provided the opportunity to request an incentive advance payment up to 50 percent of the total incentive amount.
Lead Partner: Chico State Enterprises
Other Major Partners: Butte County Farm Bureau; North State Hulling Cooperative, Douglass Ranch; GRUB Farms; Chico State Organic Vegetable Project, Chico State Basic Needs Hungry, Wildcat Pantry, California State University, Chico
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Almonds, Peaches, Prunes, Rice, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables, Tomatoes, Walnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,796Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000Minnesota Climate-Smart Seedling Production Network
The proposed project plans to work with forest owners to grow a set of climate-adapted tree species resilient to the projected climate futures of Minnesota’s Midwest Broadleaf Forest, and monitor and market the climate-smart commodity. Producers would receive a payment for each tree seedling grown, in addition to assistance with start-up costs, provision of wild-collected tree seed, and cooperatively managed shipping and distribution of seedings. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot would bear a “Climate-Smart” label and would include native trees selected based on their projected climate capability. The project would provide free training opportunities about tree seed collection and seedling production market opportunities, paying a fair, hourly wage for participating tree seed collectors and provide start-up funds for interested producers, but for whom cost would be a barrier to enter the market. The project will quantify greenhouse gas benefits using COMET-Farm. In addition, the project will develop a mobile app that links to a statewide seed source data management system to track individual seed lots for up to 10-12 species that are selected for their climate resilience, drawing from both local and adjacent seed/hardiness zone. The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody). The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody).
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: University of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Three Rivers Parks District, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Urban Roots, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Monitoring and Evaluation, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Community Economic Development Associates (CEDA), University of Minnesota Extension, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships
Primary States Expected: MN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Tree Seedlings
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,997National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Native Food Crops for Innovative Climate-Smart Production Models and Supply Chains – The Case of Blue Elderberry in the West
The project aims to assist early-adopter Tribal, underserved and small-scale producers to successfully produce a marketable elderberry crop from perennial planting, measure carbon sequestration and develop local processing capacity. Producers would receive an incentive payment per linear foot of elderberry planting, to cover the costs of establishment, maintenance, and the implementation of the additional suite of climate-smart agriculture practices. The project would identify potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), provide processing capabilities, and develop marketing materials. In addition to COMET Planner, the project will use three certification/verification protocols matched to the specific land base and production system to monitor and verify quantitative and qualitative ecological indicators and CO2 emission reduction through soil carbon sequestration and provide participating landbases a pathway to the climate smart market. The project will also monitor crop yields to track benefits per unit of harvested elderberries, will use remotely sensed data to monitor physical parameters, and will use geolocation enabled digital surveys to create a spatial inventory of project sites. The project will develop a system to value add and market the climate-smart native western blue elderberry, including by promoting to identified potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), providing processing capabilities, and developing marketing materials such as videography, photography, and web assets. Participating producers include small producers and underserved. The project also emphasizes workforce development within the Chumash community and will include funding to train Chumash tribal members to harvest elderberries for cultural purposes. The target audience for our outreach will include other underserved and small producers.
Lead Partner: White Buffalo Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office (SYCEO)- Camp 4, Community Environmental Council, The Regents of the University of California – Agriculture and Natural Resources (e.g. UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program), University of California - Davis, Beyond the Farm, Cage Free Productions, Propagate, Design Firm, Just One Organics
Primary States Expected: CA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Western Blue Elderberries
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,633,935Northern New Mexico Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Northern NM Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower New Mexico Latino and underserved beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in New Mexico. The project is partnering with the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association, which is a regional trade association that supports ranching families across Northern NM, including Hispanic and Tribal ranching families.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, New Mexico Stockman’s Association (NNMSA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,761.64Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Piloting Agroforestry in the Adirondack North Country: Producing Climate-Smart Commodities and Promoting Carbon Sequestration
This project plans to focus primarily on women-owned businesses and farming operations and develop a regional Adirondack climate-smart brand for marketing commodities as part of these systems. The project plans to support and monitor the climate benefits of agroforestry practices. Producers would receive technical assistance including tailored agroforestry plans and practice inputs such as tree seedling and shelters. The project will perform soil carbon testing on each of the farms to establish a baseline for soil organic carbon (SOC). Trees will contribute to SOC, but they also will store carbon as woody biomass both above and below ground. In addition, the project will calculate estimates of carbon sequestered on each farm as well as total estimated sequestered carbon. The CUFR Tree Carbon Calculator (TCC) will also be used to estimate sequestration potential. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials.
Lead Partner: Adirondack North Country Association
Other Major Partners: Interlace Commons, Great Range
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forest Products, Hazelnuts, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $558,625.16Preparing Wisconsin’s Farmers for a Climate-Smart Market
This project plans to advance climate-smart commodity market development by providing direct financial and technical assistance and incentives to support for implementation of climate-smart production. Minority underserved farmers who manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market can develop a niche climate-smart milk market for selling healthier, higher quality milk at a premium. This partnership will utilize established and scientifically accepted methods for measuring, quantifying, monitoring, reporting and verifying the outcomes from climate-smart production practices. The project team will conduct an annual greenhouse gas equivalent (GHGe) inventory of all participating farmers using COMET-Planner or COMET-Farm. In some projects, for on-dairy emissions, the FARM-ES system will be used to inventory annual greenhouse gas fluxes and accounting across inventoried years will be done utilizing the DRAFT C-Sequ techniques in alignment with IPCC standards. The focus of this project is local markets, direct to consumer, providing opportunities for producers to expand into neighboring markets and allow producers to engage in conversation with their processors on the increased value of their commodity. The project has 2 goals: 1) Entry point for Micro-farms currently selling to local restaurants, at farmer’s market or direct to consumer including development of Local Climate-Friendly/Water-Friendly branding/certification. 2) Ensure local dairy farmers remain profitable in a changing market by development of niche market for Nutrient Rich Milk. This project will invest in targeted technical and financial assistance to underserved and small producers. Additionally, minority, underserved farmers that manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market will be engaged in development of a locally sourced, climate/environmentally friendly branding effort.
Lead Partner: Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Wisconsin Farmers Union, Pheasants Forever, Outagamie County Land Conservation, Utah State University
Primary States Expected: WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Grains, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,994,088Prince George’s County Climate-Smart Local Producers Pilot Program
This project plans to pilot, evaluate, and build a Climate-Smart Local Producers Program to address marketing products grown using a variety of climate-smart practices. The project will focus on reducing barriers to practice implementation on existing and new farms. A planned marketing strategy that resonates with County residents, will combine the values of eating local, utilization of on -farm climate smart practices and woman and minority owned farms. The County will work with Bowie State University (a Historically Black University) to develop monitoring methodology and perform the analysis of greenhouse gas reductions and leverage the measurement and monitoring methodologies developed by the state of Maryland for several sequestration practices and supply chain impacts. GHG reductions will be quantified utilizing the COMET model to keep data collection and verification costs low. For some practices, soil sampling may be required. The project proposes to work with students at BSU to develop the methodology and perform the analysis of GHG reductions. Develop a marketing strategy that resonates with local residents, combining the values of eating local, utilization of on-farm climate smart practices and black, woman and minority owned farms. Investigate creating a ‘climate-smart Prince George’s’ marketing claim standard for products grown utilizing these practices. Provide trained volunteers through ‘master gardener’ program to speak at farmers markets and community events about value of this standard. The marketing strategy will be focused on the specific commodities produced, their intended use and market. The marketing strategy will evolve and be developed in partnership with producers as we understand the practices producers are willing to utilize, the commodities they wish to grow, and market based on the program’s commodity list. This project anticipates it will help open doors to underserved communities by providing funding to encourage more equitable participation, marketing and mentoring to people pursuing agriculturally based occupations and serve as a cornerstone of agriculture’s role in the fight against climate change.
Lead Partner: Prince George’s County, Maryland
Other Major Partners: Prince George’s County Government Agencies and Entities, including Department of the Environment (DoE), Prince George's Soil Conservation District (PGSCD), Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Prince George’s County Food Equity Council (FEC), Bowie State University, University of Maryland Extension
Primary States Expected: MD
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,250,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524PVAMU Climate-Smart Farm Planning Program
This project plans to support historically underserved farmers in over 60 Texas counties as they adopt carbon-smart farm plans. This includes listening to the individual needs of farms to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices and provide technical assistance, financial incentives, and ongoing advising to help farmers develop regenerative agriculture practices. This project would also help producers market to down-supply chain purchasing partners that have placed value on regenerative agriculture. To quantify the GHGs emissions or sequestration from the proposed cropland or farm, the project will consider different sources of GHG benefits, including biomass and litter carbon stock changes, carbon stocks from mineral soils and organic soils, direct and indirect nitrous oxide emission from the soil, and methane uptake by soils. The project will use the COMET-Planner to quantify the participating farms' GHG and carbon sequestration benefits. PVAMU will explore and deploy new and cost-effective methods for quantifying GHG and carbon sequestration benefits, including employing in-situ measurements and developing new sensing methods to provide more accurate measurements. The project team will work with other stakeholders, such as American Carbon Registry, on protocols to define standards for the climate-smart certificates on quantifying the environmental benefits of climate-smart practices. The team will work with participating farmers in years 1 and 2 of this project to communicate with their preferred or current buyers. Communicating the certificate's value to these buyers could aid in driving demand for climate-smart commodity premiums. The project is led by a Minority Serving Institution. The project will work with small and underserved farmers providing training and certification in the first two years of the grant using a modularized, accelerated hands-on learning-based continuing-education approach. Incentives will be also provided to these farmers based on verification of climate-smart practice implementation.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas AgriForestry Small Farmers and Ranchers, the Landowners Association of Texas, Workforce Training and Development, Inc., Cargill, Inc., Monarch Academy
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Fruits, Livestock, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,000,000Recognizing the Role of Buffalo Production as a Climate-Smart Commodity
Partners plan to distribute project funding to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices related to buffalo herds. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative (TBMI) plans to assist Tribes in marketing their buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, develop sustainable programs for underserved Tribal buffalo producers and create a Tribally led national strategy for education and outreach of buffalo as a climate-smart agricultural product. The project will also leverage COMET and biological and range studies for measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This project’s MMRV approach comprises three activities: 1) Enrolling Tribal buffalo herd managers to report carbon tracking data using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) and related tools; 2) Conducting biological surveys on each enrolled site, along with recording climatic conditions, and herd management strategies; 3) Supporting a Native graduate student studying climate-smart buffalo and rangeland management. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative will provide technical assistance for the development of market opportunities, providing outreach and education materials that market buffalo as climate-smart. Outreach products developed will be distributed to Intertribal Buffalo Council Member Tribes and their 1 million+ enrolled Tribal members, including educational materials highlighting buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, with infographics showcasing the buffalo’s place in the carbon cycle, along with educational videos, pamphlets, and other materials relating to the health benefits of consuming buffalo meat. An online platform will be developed to link partners and stakeholders and foster the development of market opportunities. Funding will be distributed to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices as they relate to their buffalo herds. Travel assistance will be provided to Tribal representatives for travel to Technical Assistance trainings and to attend relevant climate-change and buffalo restoration events.
Lead Partner: InterTribal Buffalo Council
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Primary States Expected: Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Buffalo
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,950,000Regenerative Agriculture and its Potential in Climate-Smart Commodities to Enhance the Sustainability of Underserved and Limited Resources Farmers in South Carolina
The project plans to use its regional extension centers and county extension agents to provide outreach to enroll small scale, limited resource and underserved farmers in South Carolina interested in adopting and implementing best management practices to grow climate-smart commodities, such as leafy greens and cover crops. The farmers would be incentivized to adopt emission reduction, climate-smart agricultural practices to maximize soil health, and carbon sequestration. The project would establish local and regionally based small farmer cooperative to market the climate-smart cash crop commodities. GHG measurements will involve visits to farm fields and measuring data using a Gasmet greenhouse gas analyzer. The project will model greenhouse gas emissions using Cool Farm Tool and COMET-Farm to compare between the on-farm and in-situ results. The project will collaborate with Mixon Seed and the Department of Marketing in SC State College of Business and Information System to develop and implement a marketing plan for adapted climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: South Carolina State University
Other Major Partners: Mixon Seed Services, South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,542,629Reviving the Chestnut: The Climate-Smart Crop
Participants, including underserved and minority farmers, would be reimbursed for costs associated with establishing and initially maintaining carbon smart chestnut orchards. The project partners would promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the specially-branded chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate-Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. The Georgia Alabama Land Trust will verify that all practices are implemented. The measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification plan will utilize a set of integrated USDA tools, Carbon Farmer, LLC carbon estimates, and Florida A&M University monitoring protocols. The farmers who participate in this program will be provided an opportunity to enroll in a Climate-Smart Chestnut Association (CSCA), which will jointly promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. CSCA will hire marketing consultants and design professionals to develop a branding-campaign, logo, and outreach strategy for the Climate-Smart chestnut. This project will introduce chestnuts as a viable and profitable climate-smart crop, with an emphasis on enabling underserved and minority farmers to establish chestnut orchards in southwest Georgia. The University Georgia Ag Extension Service will use their extensive relationships with landowners, farmers, and agricultural organizations to identify and contact potential participants. Emphasis will be placed on connecting with small farmers as well as beginning farmers, minority and other socially disadvantaged farmers, veterans, and other underrepresented producers. Project partners will host multiple information sessions in South Georgia until enough growers have been committed.
Lead Partner: Georgia Alabama Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The University of Georgia Cooperative Agricultural Extension, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (HBCU), Southern Farmers Collaborative Group, Climate Smart Chestnut Association
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Chestnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,987,920Southwest Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Southwest Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower Southwest tribal beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. In addition, the project will expand and develop relationships with food system and purchasing partners, including Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and Tribal partners to explore the feasibility and utility of marketing through an indigenous beef label. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 50 participants which will all be based in the Southwest United States. As a major partner on the project, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance will bring their experience and existing relationships with tribal ranchers and other resource management partners across the Southwest, particularly the Navajo Nation and Navajo Agricultural Products Industry.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: Tribal, AZ, NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,912.84The Building Climate Success by Empowering Humans to Care for our Natural Resources
Through this project, tribal and other underserved producers would receive financial assistance for adopting climate-smart practices for livestock and pecan production in Oklahoma. Project partners plan to create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market climate-smart products, including the creation of a climate-smart marketing class session and other resources. Partners will measure/estimate environmental impacts of adoption of conservation practices through soil health assessments, soil carbon measurements, estimated reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from runoff, estimated changes in GHG emissions, and increases in infiltration rates at the project sites; COMET-Farm will be used where applicable. The monitoring and assistance with the verification of practices and results of those practices will be handled through the existing network of conservation districts and tribal conservation districts in Oklahoma. The project will create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market their products, including the creation of a marketing class session that focuses specifically on the messaging that encourages consumers to purchase climate-smart products, and a webpage with detailed information about labeling options and marketing 101 information.
Lead Partner: Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Inc.
Other Major Partners: The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC), The Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project (OBHRPI), The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Conservation District, The Choctaw Nation Conservation District
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Livestock, Pecans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,916,285The Coalition for Food Security
The Coalition for Food Security (CFS) plans to implement climate-smart practices related to indoor hydroponic vertical farming and optimize environmental climate control management to create a voluntary climate-smart produce marketplace. This would incentivize greenhouse gas reduction practices along the vegetable supply chain through direct partnerships between underserved producers and corporate buyers, enabling small and underserved producers to sell their produce directly to corporations. The CFS plans to design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at the pilot farm. In addition, CFS would provide internships to HBCU students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses. The project plans to establish a robust measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) system to track GHG reductions in climate-smart indoor lettuce production and also compare them against GHG emissions on a conventional lettuce farm to determine the associated GHG reduction. The project will validate climate-smart practices through COMET and demonstrate the scalability using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The project will develop a pilot marketplace that rewards the implementation of climate-smart practices and resulting greenhouse gas emission reductions. Importantly, the marketplace will allow all producers in every production sector to sell verifiable greenhouse gas reduction on a national market via the Coalition for Food Security (CFS) partners' food chain application by a reputable carbon registry. The project will design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at our pilot farm. In addition, the project will provide internships to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses.
Lead Partner: Ponix, Inc.
Other Major Partners: FoodChain Technologies, GTC 360 Advisors, Center for Global Health Innovation, Slater Infrastructure, University of the District of Columbia, Propel Center
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Hydroponic Lettuce
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,949The Michigan Climate Smart Farm Project
This project plans to provide financial assistance to small scale and underserved producers as they transition to climate-smart commodity production using practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, pasture/silvo-pasture establishment, feed management, forest stand improvement, wetland restoration and combustion system improvements. Producers are planned to receive a regenerative premium through selling climate-smart products in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets. The project will seek to balance ease of implementation with validity and longevity of grower and climate impact within its MMRV plan by modeling GHG impacts in the USDA COMET and conducting soil sampling on the research and pilot farms, alongside new research employing a comprehensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) paired technology-forward monitoring approach using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The CSF Verification program will generally seek to 1) use initial assessment as basis for data collection, including initial soil samples, and initial energy analysis 2) utilize self-reporting database and software for any Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice changes, 3) utilize satellite technology and random sampling to track changes in benefits, 4) ensure effective and consistent communication from technical staff to farmers and landowners throughout the process, 5) present information in the form of $/acre to evaluate potential actions. The project will establish a regenerative premium through marketing the climate-smart products produced and sold in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets, ensuring that producers have continued incentives and benefits from embracing climate smart practices. Consumer and pilot producer interviews will inform the creation of the Climate Smart Farm program full brand package, which will then be used in the development of a robust marketing and communications plan. All of the farmers served in the project will be small or underserved producers. The diverse farmers included in the project will help build an inclusive cost share and market that includes small, new, and urban farms, and will distribute financial assistance to support producers as they transition to climate-smart agriculture.
Lead Partner: Michigan Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Washtenaw County Conservation District; University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, Michigan Department of Agriculture- Environmental Stewardship Division; Carbon Yield, Washtenaw County; The Soil Inventory Project, Monroe Conservation District, Lenawee Conservation District; Keep Growing Detroit; Wayne County Conservation District; Taste the Local Difference (TLD)
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Fruits, Livestock, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,724,539.91Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative
The Urban Ag Climate Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers and provide financial incentives to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This five-state pilot program plans to work with small and/or underserved producers to increase the supply and demand for Climate-Smart Commodities in rural and urban markets. The project intends to assist with purchasing items producers may need to set up climate-smart retail operations. Participants would also receive an Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Marketing Toolkit and access to marketing bootcamps teaching farmers and partnering Urban Ag groups how to market climate-smart commodities to potential consumers. MCL Jasco will help to improve measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration by providing scientific lab testing of the participating farm's soil throughout the duration of this project. This will help to improve measurement through this data driven approach. They will also use the following MMRV methods to verify results: intact soil cores, soil-surface efflux measurements of CO2, CH4, and N2O taken on farms and under specific practices at weekly intervals, field-scale studies to measure and evaluate changes in soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate-smart agricultural practices and the field module COMET (farm) utilizing the use DayCent model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions. Through these strategies, MCL Jasco aims to incentivize farmers to embrace climate smart production practices, endeavor to cultivate markets and raise awareness about the immense value of climate-smart commodities. MCL Jasco which specializes in serving hard-to-reach demographics, plans to reach underserved producers throughout the project. The Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach historically underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers through different types of outreach events and provide financial incentives for a 3-tier practice implementation regime to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This will assist with improvement of their retail operations and to support communities with climate-smart commodities available for consumption many of which are located in "food deserts."
Lead Partner: MCL Jasco, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Alcorn State University, National Association of Women in Agriculture, Southern A&M University, KTM Consulting
Primary States Expected: LA, MS
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,635Validating Agrivoltaic Technology with Underserved Agricultural Producers
This project plans to pilot the climate-smart co-location of agriculture and solar power (agrivoltaics) to measure and evaluate greenhouse gas benefits and promote equitable climate-smart commodity market development for Hispanic farmers and ranchers. Partners also plan to provide direct financial and culturally relevant technical assistance to participants for implementing agrivoltaic systems on their farms and ranches.
Lead Partner: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Other Major Partners: Purdue University, AgriSolar Clearinghouse, HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, Texas/Mexico Border Coalition (TMBC), Starr County Industrial Foundation (SCIF), Hub of Prosperity, Zamora Ranch, Justice and Mercy Energy Services (JustEnergy), RGV Solar LLC
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Beef, Goat Meat, Lamb, Livestock, Orchard, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $2,229,200Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
Projects by Approximate Funding Ceilings
- 14 Projects with Approximate Funding Ceilings from $70M-$95M
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ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited.
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Building Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities in South Carolina
This project will utilize a coalition of 27 entities to execute a pilot project that provides incentives to farmers to implement climate-smart (CS) production practices. The project will examine and verify the benefits resulting from implementing CS practices and will support development of markets for the resulting CS commodities. The project plans to provide direct payments to producers to implement climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, reduced tillage, mulching, nutrient management, prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, tree stand improvement, and early successional habitat development and management. The plan to develop and expand involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. GHG benefits are planned to be estimated using COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm with direct field measurements of GHG emissions on a sample of the enrolled farms, forests, and beef cattle operations, as well as third party verification of GHG benefit estimations. The plan to develop and expand markets focuses on studying relevant aspects of consumer markets, participating and non-participating producers, the food industry, and the timber and lumber industry. The plan involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. The project plans for at least 50% of the participating farmers and landowners to be underserved and small. Additionally, there will be an annual recruitment of minority forest owners to form cluster sales.
Lead Partner: Clemson University
Other Major Partners: SC State University, American Peanut Council, CU Wood Utilization Institute, Forest Assoc. of SC, Help for Landowners, Mixon Seeds, Plametto Agribusiness Council, Petrichor Global, SC Cattleman's Assoc., SC Peanut Board, SC Southern SARE, SC Timber Producers Assoc., SC Forage and Grazing Lands Coalition, SC Farmers Markets, SC Specialty Crop Assoc., The Long Leaf Alliance, Tidewater Lumber and Moulding, US Endowment for Forests and Communities, WP Rawl, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, SC Black Farmer's Assoc, SC New & Beginning Farmers Program, Farmer Veteran Coalition of SC, Women in Agriculture, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Forest Products, Leafy Greens, Peanuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
California Dairy Research Foundation Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will build climate-smart dairy markets and provide financial incentives for dairy producers to adopt climate-smart manure management practices to reduce methane emissions, leveraging matching funding from non-federal sources. Financial incentives are planned on a per-cow basis to producers to implement vermifiltration, evaporative liquid waste processing systems, subsurface drip fertigation using liquid manure, weeping walls, aerated static compost piles, and others. On average producers will likely receive incentives that account for 30 to 50 percent of their total costs of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice adoption, while also receiving a premium for the climate-smart milk. This project plans to utilize partnerships designed to market climate-smart milk for a higher premium and conduct a consumer market messaging analysis to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of approaches to best promote climate-smart milk in multiple market channels. The project plans to have producers quantify estimated on-farm methane emissions reductions through a web-based calculator, and have universities provide in-field verification measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen excess reductions. Verification of practice implementation is planned to be through producer documentation and post-project site visit. The project plans for at least 10 percent of producer incentives to go to small and underserved producers and to provide partial advance payments to those producers. CDFA-funded technical service providers would work one-on-one with producers to help them evaluate practices and prepare an application to be considered for producer incentives, which will be particularly impactful to small and underserved producers, who may not have the resources or support to fully execute this task.
Lead Partner: California Dairy Research Foundation
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, California Milk Advisory Board, Dairy Cares, California Dairy Campaign, California Dairy Quality Assurance Program, Milk Producers Council, National Milk Producbers Federation, Sustainable Conservation, Western United Dairies, California Farm Bureau Federation, University of California, Davis, University of California, Riverside, University of California Cooperative Extension, Truterra, California Dairies, Inc., Challenge Dairy Products, Nestlé
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $85,000,000
Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000
Horizon II: A Climate-Smart Future for Corn, Soybean, Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas Production
This project will enhance climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve carbon sequestration in the production of corn, soybean, pork, and beef commodities, while creating opportunities for small and underserved producers and benefitting soil health, clean water, flood control, and habitats for native wildlife. Project plans provide financial compensation for producers to plant prairie grasses and cover crops to be harvested and converted to biogas and biofertilizer in digesters. Partners plan to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Three soil sampling areas, one area in each of the three predominant soil types, are planned to be selected in each field designated for soil organic carbon (SOC) verification using a GIS script to position soil sampling areas. The project plans to provide quantification services using two agricultural-based peer reviewed environmental models, COMET-Farm and the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). They also plan to evaluate GHG emissions during harvest, transport, and storage of cover crop and prairie biomass. The project plans to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Each partner has their own social media channels, digital marketing campaigns, and websites through which generated digital marketing assets is planned to be widely shared. This project plans to provide needed funding to fairly compensate farmers, including small and beginning farmers, to transition their operations and enter climate-smart markets, including the newly created market for climate-smart grassy biomass. The project team plans to work with farmers, livestock producers, landowners, and supply chain partners, including early adopters of practices and underserved producers, to ensure equitable access to the opportunities offered by the low-carbon agriculture of the future.
Lead Partner: Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC
Other Major Partners: Conservation Districts of Iowa, Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa State University, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Smithfield Foods, The Nature Conservancy, University of Missouri, Verdesian, Veterans in Agriculture, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: IA, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Pork, Beef, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000
Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefit
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- 8 Projects with Approximate Funding Ceilings from $50M-$65M
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Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho: A Public-Private-Tribal Partnership
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 100 farms in Idaho through the provision of financial and technical assistance to producers, with a focus on barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, and hops. Project plans to direct 75 percent of funds to participant incentives for implementing a variety of practices including cover crops, no-till, biochar, cover crops with livestock grazing, interseeding of legumes and precision fertilizer application. The measurement and monitoring system are planned to be based on field and laboratory measurements using a spatially nested design to facilitate scaling-up of project results. The Carbon Management Evaluation Tools (COMET-Farm) are planned to be utilized throughout the project to establish baselines; this project also plans to generate data from field measurements of GHG emissions that will be used to improve COMET and other models for use within the western U.S. This project plans to focus on seven key commodities in Idaho with national and international markets: barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, hops and specialty crops. At least 30% of enrolled producers are planned to be from underserved communities, including mostly veterans, women, and small producers.
Lead Partner: Regents of the University of Idaho
Other Major Partners: Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, The Wave Foundation, Desert Mountain Grassfed Beef, Salmon Safe/Kooskooskie Fish, LLC, University of Idaho, SaulGill, LLC DBA Arrowleaf Consulting
Primary States Expected: ID, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickpea, Hops, Potatoes, Specialty Crops, Sugar Beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000
Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000
Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000
Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000
Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000
NYS Connects: Climate-Smart Farms and Forests
Utilizing behavioral systems approach to break through social norms/barriers, this project will build on strong existing partnerships in the conservation and agricultural communities in NY state to expand climate-smart markets. This project will fund ag producers/forest landowners to implement multiple climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, utilize modern tools to quantify results of climate-smart agriculture, and build connections between landowners and companies with a demand for climate- smart commodities. COMET-Planner is planned to be used to assess each climate-smart practice in the project. For key practices, including the pilot practice areas in methane mitigation, enhanced weathering and agroforestry, the project plans to use International Panel on Climate Change methods, empirical data collection by Cornell University and Soil and Water Conservation District staff, and other tools. Utilizing existing data, along with new data collected from implemented climate-smart practices during the project period, a new decision support tool will be created to more accurately assess carbon sequestration for farmland and GHG mitigation as a result of implemented practices. The Ecological Platform for Assimilation of Data (EcoPAD) platform, developed and scientifically validated over the past two decades and deployed primarily for research in C cycling, will be further developed to allow New York State to use the system to determine the best incentive practices that balance economic activities with GHG emissions mitigation and C sequestration. Blockchain Technology will be part of the mechanism to track carbon through supply chain ecosystem. A pilot project will be developed for New York’s building sector to help transition to low carbon construction materials. A New York State Climate-Smart Commodities Label ecosystem will be created. The New York Climate-Smart label would track & promote climate-smart commodities through the value chain by commodity type to the final product. The project plans to engage directly with underserved and socially disadvantaged producers through an extensive network of service providers including the Cornell Small Farmers Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Specialists and Soil & Water Conservation Districts, planning to reach at least 200 small and underserved producers with financial incentives. The project plans to give participants the option to have cost-share paid directly to the contractor to help overcome financial barriers to practice implementation associated with upfront funding needs.
Lead Partner: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Other Major Partners: Dept. of Agriculture and Markets, Energy Research & Development Authority & Soil and Water Conservation Committee, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Evidn, Michigan State University, Mercy Works, Cornell Small Farms Equitable Farm Futures Initiative & Veterans FarmOps program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY urban ag team, International Refugee Committee NY, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden, Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, SCRE Design, Innsure
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Fruits, Grains, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
Texas Climate-Smart Initiative
This project, the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative (CSI), is a five-year multi-commodity pilot project to transition Texas' large agricultural sector to climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) practices and develop new markets for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to provide financial incentives for a wide array of climate-smart practices including cover crops, forestry practices, grazing and pasture management practices and nutrient management. Planned marketing efforts include brand creation and cost-benefit analysis tools for producer use. The project plans to verify practice implementation through site visits and remote-sensing methods, evaluate soil organic carbon stocks and GHG emissions using a combination of direct sampling and modeling techniques, and adapt the Texas Best Management Evaluation Tool for reporting and tracking of carbon and GHG benefits. Innovative aspects of the project would involve the evaluation of new sensor technology to assess changes to soil organic carbon to reduce MMRV costs, as well as development of a mobile application for the producer to use for verification of climate smart practice implementation. The project plans to develop decision tools for producers based on a cost-benefit analysis of CSAF practices; create and evaluate a “Climate Smart” brand for its ability to develop and expand new markets for commodities produced with CSAF practices; cultivate additional relationships with downstream entities to build marketing channels and traceability for climate-smart commodities in the supply chain; and establish a protocol for determining ownership of carbon benefits through each step in the supply chain. The project aims to ensure recruitment of small-scale and underserved producers. Recruiting materials are planned to be available in English and Spanish, and events in the South are planned to include Spanish speaking speakers. In some areas, equipment is planned to be available to accomplish project objectives and overcome adoption barriers.
Lead Partner: Texas A & M Agrilife Research
Other Major Partners: Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board, Prairie View A&M University, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, Tarleton State University, BCarbon, Nori, Plains Cotton Growers Association, Texas Wheat Producers Board, TX Corn Producers Board, TX Sorghum Producers Board, TX Rice Producers Board, U.S. Rice Producers Association, TX Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, TX International Produce Association, TX Citrus Mutual, TX Pecan Growers Association, TX Small Farmers & Ranchers Organization, 100Ranchers, TX Cattle Feeders Association, TX Association of Dairymen, TX Poultry Federation, TX Forestry Association, TX Chapter of National Women in Agriculture, Global Revive, Small Producers Initiative, American Plant Food
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Citrus, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Forest Products, Grapes, Hemp, Livestock, Olives, Pecans, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sorghum, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000
- 25 Projects with Approximate Funding Ceilings from $25M-$45M
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Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
An Integrated Approach to Scaling-Up Climate-Smart Practices for Crop, Livestock, and Agroforestry Production
This project will expand climate-smart markets and provide financial incentives for underserved and small-scale This project will focus on a training program about climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in conjunction with financial incentives for ag producers who implement the CSA practices. The goal is to expand climate-smart agriculture markets throughout Missouri and serve as a teaching model for other states. To better engage small scale producers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers incentive funds to create climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations including cover crops and regenerative grazing. The project plans for farmers that sign up for incentive payments to provide data through the signup app on relevant farm management, including tillage, cover crops, rotation, nutrient management, and other practices for COMET-Planner assessment of each site. New high-throughput Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) gas analyzer technologies and soil carbon stock measures are planned to be leveraged to prove vital for a comprehensive understanding the impact of climate-smart practices. Out of the 25 partners on this project, 9 are private companies that plan to help with marketing, as will the three commodity organizations and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Specific markets planned to be engaged include biofuels, beef, specialty crop markets, and ESMC. To better engage small farmers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers the opportunity to create a demonstration climate-smart fieldscape on their farm with a dedicated pool of incentive funds for small and underserved farmers participating in climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations and by reserving at least 30% of the remaining incentive funds for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: The Curators of the University of Missouri
Other Major Partners: Lincoln University, MO Soybeans Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Corn Growers Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Cattlemen’s Association, MO Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, EarthDance, STAR Program, ESMC, MO Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Natural Resources, MO Department of Conservation, MO Agribusiness Association, MFA Inc., MO Fertilizer Control Board, Kansas City Food Hub, FarmRaise, MARC-IV Consulting, Nestle-Purina, Show-Me Energy, Mid-America Biofuels, MO Prime Beef Packers, MO Farm Bureau, NC State University
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Livestock, Oats, Pulses, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Building a Climate-Smart Domestic Rubber Industry and a Solution for Growers to a Water Crisis
This project will expand natural rubber production in the Southwest with lowered greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs in the region and for tribal stakeholders, and building a climate-smart rubber bioeconomy based on climate-smart and sustainable practices. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive, and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone, which is providing more than $35M in cost share to the project. The strategy would incorporate an integrated, robust, and comprehensive approach to data measurement and analysis, which includes soil carbon and plant measurements, ground level GHG measurements, flux tower measurements, soil carbon modeling, and holistic life cycle and techno-economic modeling. Data from field measurements and modeling is planned to be used to recommend large-scale adoption and feed directly into COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone. Bridgestone is providing more than $35M in cost share, demonstrating its commitment to the development of the climate-smart natural rubber commodity. Bridgestone is currently pursuing numerous market areas and has already engaged prospective customers in many of those areas. Some specific market activities by co-product/product including natural rubber latex and resin. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive regardless of yield and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Bridgestone Americas, Inc., Colorado State University, OpenET, Tohono O'odham Nation, Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mohave, Chemeuvi, Hopi and Navajo peoples)
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Natural Rubber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Agriculture that is Profitable, Regenerative, Actionable, and Trustworthy (CARAT)
This project will enable partners to expand climate-smart markets and work with dairy producers in PA to implement climate-smart agriculture. An overarching goal is establishing successful and profitable partnerships between diverse producers, including underserved producers, and consumers, leading to a reduction of greenhouse gases, suppressing methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and storage of carbon. The proposal plans to market climate-smart milk by utilizing the CARAT advisory board to connect with companies interested in purchasing greenhouse gas credits or climate-smart milk. The project plans to utilize COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and CARAT-CALCULATOR. The goal is that funds devoted to small producers and underserved populations exceed 50% of funds allocated to technical assistance and incentives. It is estimated that about one third of participating farms would be small with representation proportional to the community of Plain-Sect., women owned farms and new and Beginning farmers. The project also plans to engage the large Latino workforces employed on dairy farms.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania State University
Other Major Partners: Center for Dairy Excellence, Proagrica, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, Red Barn Consulting
Primary States Expected: PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The projectb plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Portfolio of Partnerships for Hawaii Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will help overcome climate-smart implementation barriers through investment and incentives, improve technical assistance capacity through community-based organization networks, build decision support tools for modeling/verification, and generate internal momentum for a market- based climate-smart sustainable food system embedded within resilient and abundant landscapes across Hawaii. The project plans to use a statewide producer engagement team to spearhead a phased approach to producer engagement and equity. It also plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies, develop a locally grown and climate smart communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchases, tourism industry, food hubs, retailers and distributors. The project plans to establish a technical team with domain expertise for monitoring/verification activities. The project plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies in Year 1 that will draw on recent data on visitor willingness-to-pay for food produced in Hawaii. The project plans to develop a “Locally-grown and Climate Smart!” communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchasers, the Hawaii tourism industry, various food and community resilience hubs, food retailers and distributors, and existing branding initiatives. Expanded opportunities are anticipated in Phase 2 for smaller, less well-connected producers - many of whom are indigenous, immigrant, minority, and/or homestead farmers and livestock producers.
Lead Partner: Lynker Corporation
Other Major Partners: Hawai'i Producer Engagement Team, Hawai'i Cattlemen's Council, Oahu Resource Conservation and Development Council, Hawai'i Farmers Union United, The Kohala Center, Pacific Gateway Center, Forest Solutions Incorporated, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Hawai'i, University of Florida, Colorado State University, Natural Resource Data Solutions, Inc., Hawai'i Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Oahu Agriculture and Conservation Association, Hawaii Ulu Cooperative, Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council, Kane Plantation
Primary States Expected: HI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Avocado, Beef, Breadfruits, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Sugarcane, Taro, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
Supreme Rice, LLC's Climate-Smart Initiative to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Water Use Through the Adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation Practices in Rice Production
This project will expand climate-smart markets and provide financial incentives for underserved and small-scale rice producers to reduce methane emissions through alternate wetting and drying irrigation and adopt other sustainable growing practices to reduce emissions and water consumption. Project plans to offer financial incentives for changing management practices and reducing perceived risk barriers. A multi-faceted campaign is planned to educate consumers and recognized participating producers. Pre-established baselines are planned to be used to quantify methane emissions in rice by peer-reviewed research. Automated water level measuring devices, Crop Links, are planned to be deployed at a rate of 1 per every 100 acres. The project plans to design a campaign to educate consumers and bring recognition to the farmers and climate-smart commodities in the project. This campaign would be multi-faceted in nature, through the use of focused storytelling, TV Ads, Radio, YouTube Videos, Facebook Ads, Cooking shows, and Billboard Ads. Supreme plans to ensure that growers who fit the “underserved and small grower” category are informed and have every opportunity to participate in the program. The project expects to enroll 769 growers and 166,415 program acres attributed to underserved rice growers.
Lead Partner: Supreme Rice, LLC
Other Major Partners: Southern University and A&M College, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Rice Growers, Arkansas Rice Growers
Primary States Expected: AR, LA
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Unlocking the Benefits of Regenerative Almonds: Partnerships to Develop and Expand Global Climate-Smart Market Opportunities through Grower Incentives
This project will promote the adoption of climate-smart and regenerative practices on California almond farms, including those operated by underserved producers, and expand market opportunities for climate-smart almonds through development of verified claims, business-to-business reporting, and supply-chain greenhouse gas quantification. This will support the development of a market-based mechanism for almond buyers and incentivize almond growers to adopt climate-smart practices. The project plans to provide incentives for almond grower adoption of cover crops, conservation cover, hedgerows, and whole orchard recycling. The project plans to develop a third-party verification and chain of custody system to support marketing efforts. And explore how to best leverage products as propriety brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. The project plans to have all growers quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits using the COMET-Planner tool as employed in California for the CDFA Healthy Soils Program. The project also plans to develop a system of monitoring, reporting, and third-party verification of climate-smart practices. The project plans to engage third-party verification and chain of custody systems to support climate-smart claims that relate to product labeling needs and customer expectations. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. About 85% of the requested funds are planned to go to specialty crop growers of almonds to implement Climate Smart practices.
Lead Partner: Blue Diamond Growers
Other Major Partners: Cool Farm Alliance Pollinator Partnership, Project Apis, SureHarvest, Where Food Comes From, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Almonds
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
- 21 Projects with Approximate Funding Ceilings from $5M-$20M
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Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Growing the Supply and Market for Climate-Smart Grass-Fed Organic Dairy via Maple Hill Creamery
This project will expand climate-smart markets for dairy producers and enable a network of partners and producers to implement climate-smart practices by incentivizing implementation and providing training support. This will lead to greater environmental practices and enhanced viability for farms that implement them. The project plans to provide participants incentives for Avoided Conversion, Pasture Scoring, Training and Voluntary participation. Marketing plans include updated branding materials like packaging, advertising, social media and a website. The project plans to utilize a combination of core tools: COMET, a Pasture Scorecard, on-farm soil sampling, and third-party soil health measurements. The monitoring, measurement, and reporting is planned to be led by a technical expert with third-party verification and soil is planned to be sampled utilizing the soil sampling framework developed by partners. The project plans to update all branding materials, including the website, packaging, advertising, and social media to draw attention to climate-smart farming efforts and CO2 impacts to draw and expand upon consumer desire to support Climate-Smart grass-fed organic products – milk for yogurt, butter, and kefir. The project provides a number of incentives, including Avoided Conversion Incentive payments, Voluntary Incentive payments, Pasture Scoring incentives and Training incentives.
Lead Partner: Maple Hill Creamery LLC
Other Major Partners: Dharma Lea, LLC, Paul Harris Development, LLC, Stone Barns, Point Blue Conservation Science, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA), Open TEAM at Wolfe’s Neck Center, Shannon O'Sullivan, K&O Farm, James Young, Amber Waves, Spring Weather, Serenity Acres Farm, Evening Star Ranch, Reginelli and Aeschlimann, Adam Tafel, Periggo Farm, Whole Foods
Primary States Expected: NY, PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Oilseeds, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Growing Value for Producers
This project will create and pilot-test a farmer-friendly system that builds capacity with institutions interacting with a range of producers, including underserved producers, to support adoption of climate- smart practices and interact with commodity buyers in climate-smart markets. MMRV for this project involves a fully integrated, nationally scalable ACR Agriculture Registry designed, built, tested, and utilized for standardized quantification of GHG benefits using COMET Planner, automated cost-effective reporting, verification via plug and play design with data collectors, and linkage to a transparent registry system for the issuance to producers of serialized GHG Certificates for monetization to buyers. The project will spearhead a market development campaign including creation of a buyers’ club network to link producers and commodity/GHG certificate buyers. The project targets outreach to enroll at least 20 underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Winrock International Institute for Agriculture Development
Other Major Partners: Arva Intelligence, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Riceland Foods Inc.
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
National Pork Board's Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value Proposa
The goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing climate-smart agriculture practices within the feed supply, thereby maintaining market demand and price premiums in a rapidly evolving consumer world. The geography of focus – Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri – encapsulates a concentration of pork facilities supported by local grain production, representing a key region of the overall supply chain. Planned practices include cover crops, livestock integration in cover crops and manure management. The project plans to offer participants, including small-scale and underserved producers, free initial soil testing, technical assistance from partner agronomists, cost-share for practice adoption and tuition or scholarships for participating producers to attend advanced soil health training workshops through peer-to-peer networking. The proposal plans to deploy a Sustainable Environmental Consultant's Ecosystem Practices software platform which uses the COMET-Farm GHG tool and Nutrient Tracking Tool for estimating Soil Organic Carbon stock changes, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, and nutrient and sediment losses, and use soil sampling to benchmark results. The project plans to utilize a number of processes to ensure adoption of practices, including precision farm data, work orders, seed purchase receipts, tagged images, remote sensed analytics, on-farm field inspection, and GHG results are planned to be aggregated from a field basis to the required spatial domain and will be delivered through dashboards and reports. Once published the quantified GHG benefits of U.S. pork and all the continuous sustainability improvement information derived through this project may be used by many entities, organizations and companies marketing pork globally. The project plans to support farmers to market their climate-smart commodities in a manner that best suits their production system and individual operation goals, empowering and incentivizing continuous improvement over the long-term (even after the grant is complete) including if they choose maturing environmental offset markets while also providing communications capacity to engage both producers (supply) and end-of-supply chain consumers (demand) in marketing resulting commodities and potential value-added. Priority ranking is planned for small and underserved producers. Technical and financial assistance will include 1) Free initial soil test and baseline reporting 2) Free Technical Assistance (TA) from DU agronomy, SEC staff, and Millborn seed optimization specialist 3) Cost-share payments for CSA practice adoption 4) funded opportunities for participating producers to attend an advanced soil health training workshop (peer-peer networking).
Lead Partner: National Pork Board
Other Major Partners: Nestle, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, Ducks Unlimited, Trust in Food (Farm Journal), Farm Credit Council, Millborn Seed, Nastrade
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Pork, Soybeans,
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High- Carbon Soil Amendment
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large scale across This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000
The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
NCBA CLUSA USDA NRCS CSC Project – Puerto Rico
This project will lead a consortium of cooperatives, farmer organizations, and minority serving institutions in Puerto Rico that will offer financial incentives to underserved farmers to adopt climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices for product and cover crops. The project plans to implement a wide variety of on-the-ground climate-smart practices including reduced tillage, strip-tillage, forest farming, and cover crops. The project aims to increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities by increasing the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. Due to limitation of USDA’s COMET Planner in PR, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or other U.S. Territories, the project plans to use the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Carbon Calculator (http://afolucarbon.org). Developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Winrock International, the AFOLU Carbon Calculator (ACC) uses Intergovernmental Panel on Climate CO2 Change (IPCC)-based accounting methods to assess and quantify sequestration potential of a range of AFOLU practices, including agroforestry, cropland management, and grazing land management. Third-party verifier SustainCERT plans to verify the greenhouse gas benefits generated by the project and its associated processes. NCBA CLUSA plans to work with several commodity buyers to market CSCs produced through this pilot project (large market chains, National Restaurant Association, hospitality sector, and McDonalds). The PRFA has a “100% Puerto Rico” seal it uses for locally produced products and has agreed to extend the seal for 100% PR Climate-Smart Coffee for differentiation. The project also plans to engage Rainforest Alliance, a leading third-party certifier for certification of CSAF coffee for export to external markets. Beyond the quantifiable benefits to farmers’ bottom lines, the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems would increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. PROCAFÉ estimates that this project would enroll thousands of coffee farmers in PR (where the vast majority of producers are underserved).
Lead Partner: Cooperative League of the United States of America
Other Major Partners: Productores de Café de Puerto Rico, University of Puerto Rico, National Co+op Grocers, Fondo de Inversión y Desarrollo Cooperativo, La Liga de Cooperativas de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Farmers Association, SustainCERT
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Coffee, Citrus, Plantains, Bananas, Cacao, Lumber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
SmartAgGro Pilot Program Provides Technical and Builds Partnership Markets to America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers, & Forest Owners to Strengthen U.S. Rural and Agricultural Communities
This project will implement a scalable climate-smart marketing strategy to assist underserved farmers in Mississippi Congressional District 2 to adopt climate-smart practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in production of beef and other products. This project aims to apply cover crops, low till/no till, nutrient management, buffers, feed management, grazing plans and manure management. The project plans to provide marketing training to participating farmers to help them develop marketing strategies and retrain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets and effective promotion and advertising. Partners plan to work with Historical Black Colleges and Universities to reach their networks of underserved growers. This project intends to utilize an FMS probe equipped to collect farm management practice data and help reduce uncertainty in modeling greenhouse gas emissions from the field and potential carbon sequestration and streamline the verification process for premium carbon credits which may be traded on a marketplace and serve as an additional source of income for producers. The probe would be used to support the monitoring and modeling for soil organic carbon (SOC) percentage and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, opening the door to use this technology in support of carbon and ecosystem services markets. The project plans to train farmers how to recognize when strong demand exists; how to develop strategies to supply products or services to meet that demand; and how to enter the local market on a small scale and retain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets, building relationships with buyers, packaging, and labeling products properly, negotiating and delivering products to buyers in compliance with the opportunity and marketing contract, meeting market specifications, possessing logistics and transportation, securing decent prices, and effective promotion and advertising. The Smart-Way Incentive Program (SWIP) is the innovative Financial Assistance Plan for Team Vanguard. SWIP prioritizes support to small and underserved farmers by ensuring access to fair and equitable funding. Team Vanguard is partnering with Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and their networks of undeserved growers to deploy a soil analytic technology (FMS) on farms in Mississippi.
Lead Partner: Vanguard (OTE) Consortium
Other Major Partners: Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Amerimac Chemical Corp, Enviro-Remediation Educational Services, Heifer International, Monroe Street Animal Clinic and Boarding Services
Primary States Expected: MS
Major Commodities: Beef, Hay, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timbe
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000
Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef Strategy
This project aims to generate knowledge of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions for the Fischer Farms beef production system, to inform future business decisions, and to generate science- based marketing tools that will enable buyers to actively participate in climate-positive purchasing and eating decisions. The project will include livestock producers, and it will support Fischer Farms’ market expansion into other areas. The project will utilize Dual Comb Laser Technology for measuring all greenhouse gas benefits. Rigorous sampling, first-of-a-kind monitoring, and innovative analysis will lead to a new science-based understanding of the potential to deliver beef to the market that is truly a climate-smart commodity. This novel laser technology is planned to measure methane and other greenhouse gases at both the barn lots and pasture settings at Fischer Farms network farms. This approach will provide detailed measurements of beef cattle GHG emissions on pasture and allow for the quantification of the impacts of algae feed supplement on reducing methane emissions with the Ultimate Beef production system. The research plan entails 1) relevant data collection and analysis of the Ultimate Beef system, 2) implementation of USDA’s COMET-Farm and IFSM modeling tools, and 3) development of an ISO-compliant Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the GWP benefits of Ultimate Beef relative to the conventional US system. A marketing manager and sales team will develop and execute the Climate-Smart marketing campaign with a goal of educating consumers on the impact of climate-smart meet and their purchasing decisions. They will leverage on-line platforms and print advertising as well as partner with whole-sale buyers. Project activities will involve expansion of marketing in Indiana, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. With an existing network of more than 100 diversified, small, veteran, beginning, BIPOC and other underserved producers committed to the brand, Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef ensures fair pay and equitable representation for farmers and workers in the value chain. Additionally, the project will provide a critical opportunity for market access to a network of small and underserved farmers who would otherwise be challenged to verify and enter climate-smart market channels. Special emphasis will be placed on expanding the network of farmers in underserved areas.
Lead Partner: Fischer Farms Natural Foods, LLC
Other Major Partners: Indiana University, Carbon Solutions
Primary States Expected: IN, KY
Major Commodities: Beef, Pork
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scal
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the Wes
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emission
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
Sonoma Marin Ag and County Climate Coalition
This project will build on successful carbon farming and local/regional food systems partnerships across two counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The purpose is to expand climate-smart markets, including a regional supply chain and innovative marketing campaign for climate-smart agricultural products. This will create a scalable, regional carbon finance program that is sustainable and scale implementation for the long term. The project plans to provide at least 75 percent of project costs for participants, with a special round of funding for underserved and small-scale producers. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, interactive marketing campaign, climate-smart badge and educational farm tours. The potential GHG benefits of each practice, as applied at the farm scale, plan to be estimated using COMET-Planner, or local peer-reviewed research where applicable and available. The project also plans to use a Project Tracker tool that manages data for planned and implemented projects. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, an interactive marketing campaign and climate-smart badge, and educational farm tours. The project plans to host a special round of funding earmarked for underserved and small producers. Cost share may be waived or reduced for underserved producers to promote equity.
Lead Partner: County of Sonoma
Other Major Partners: Agricultural Institute of Marin, Marin Resource Conservation District, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Carbon Cycle Institute, Sonoma County Department of Agriculture, Sonoma County Regional Climate, Protection Agency, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, University of California Cooperative Extension, MarinCAN, Marin County Sustainability Team, Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Marin County Department of Agriculture, Marin County Cooperation Team, Sanzuma, LookInto
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Fiber, Grapes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
AGriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternabte wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000
Sustainable Market Approaches for Regenerating Territories with Agricultural Goods in Puerto Ric
The project will support and empower smallholder coffee farmers in Puerto Rico to transition to climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices through identification of viable practices and support for their implementation on farms. The project will also account of greenhouse gas-related benefits and co- benefits throughout the supply chain and develop of a unique Puerto Rican branded climate-smart coffee label and voluntary program. This project plans to focus on implementing agroforestry and afforestation practices on working lands, application of biochar as a soil amendment and multi-story cropping. Caribbean Regenerative Community Development (CRCD), Gnarly Tree Sustainable Institute (GTSI), and University of Wisconsin plan to co-establish the MMRV plan and local monitoring teams, coordinate baseline and follow-up data collection, build databases useful for the implementation of COMET-Planner and iTree on agricultural lands in PR, and engage with local universities to support student research opportunities and data collection; this task would encompass field monitoring, primarily through soil sampling and testing, as well as the development of lifecycle carbon accounting methodologies. The team also plans to evaluate MMRV methodologies that may support participants’ entry into carbon markets. CRCD and GTSI plan to partner to develop a climate-smart certification brand for Puerto Rican coffee and chocolate. CRCD’s marketing specialist plan to spearhead the development of the name and tagline, design a climate-smart certification that is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards, develop the brand story, provide product validation of the name, language, and design in both Spanish and English, create a brand website and social media starter kit, and launch a brand activation program to generate interest and excitement in PR’s premium quality, ethical, and sustainable coffee; GTSI and CRCD plan to ensure the climate-smart certification is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards and lead outreach and recruitment efforts with farmers. A woman-led 501(c)(3) non-profit founded and based in Puerto Rico that supports the development of sustainable agriculture and food security on the island plans to focus on small and underserved coffee producers in Puerto Rico.
Lead Partner: Caribbean Regenerative Community Development, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, University of Wisconsin, Cafiesencia (Cafi-Cultura Puertorriqueña, Inc.), University of Puerto Rico
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000
Demonstration, Expansion, and Quantification of the Benefits of a Climate-Smart Commodity: Verified Regenerative Bison Product
The project will develop a demonstration program on tribal lands, implementing and expanding multiple climate-smart markets and practices in production of American bison, and will showcase the benefits of regenerative bison production to rangeland, ranchers, and climate. It will also create a new entity to maintain standards of regenerative bison production, track climate benefits and payment for those benefits through the supply chain and establish consumer trust. This project plans to support planting riparian areas, transitioning from crop land to native grass for bison grazing and native grass inter-seeding of existing pasture. A bison markets specialist plans to focus on a full “hoof to horn” utilization to sell multiple products including specialty cuts, ground bison, hides and bone meal. A bison-specific verification program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value. The project plans to quantify GHG emission reductions associated with conversion from conventional cattle grazing to regenerative bison grazing. GHG measurement and accounting are planned to be included in the expansion of the Arapaho and Cheyenne regenerative bison production program, and the creation of the world's first regenerative climate-smart bison verification program. For this project, a bison markets specialist would focus on full ‘hoof to horn’ utilization to sell multiple products, including specialty cuts, ground bison, jerky cuts, hides, and bone meal. The bison-specific verification program created within Savory Institute’s Land to Market program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value to both producer and partners. The project lead is the Tribe, and the work is planned to be completed in tribal land to improve bison grazing in native grass acres added.
Lead Partner: Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Other Major Partners: Frasier Bison, LLC, Mad Agriculture, Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Program, Intertribal Buffalo Council, Texas A&M University, Collaborative Earth
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,000,000
Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000
- 67 Projects with Approximate Funding Ceilings of $250,000 to Under $5 Million
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A Climate-Smart Strategy for the Michigan Foodshed: Nourishing Our Land, Farmers, and Rural Communities
The project focuses on beginning and women farmers growing climate-smart wheat, dry beans, food grade soybeans and oats. Participants can receive payments for inputting and sharing data; increasing their Truterra tool score; receiving Advanced scoring in the Truterra tool; for taking unproductive land out of production and for expanding their food growing operation by piloting food grade oats. Star of the West plans to promote climate-smart commodities with its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants. MMRV will include GHG benefit quantification via the Cool Farm Analysis, COMET-Farms tool, and Truterra Sustainability tool; practice implementation monitoring via on-farm verification by the Climate Smart Agronomist and from satellite imagery system included in the AgriEdge tool; and reporting and tracking through AgriEdge and Truterra. The project will work with current food customers to establish accepted parameters around the marketing of the Climate Smart Commodities, including an anticipated five-star system, focused on one star for each of the climate-smart practice category options implemented. Star of the West will promote this new Climate Smart Commodity "CS5" to its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants and will lean on partners to explore and help create new markets in Michigan for climate-smart grains and legumes through institutional procurement. The project anticipates working with multiple beginning or women farmers each year. This grant plans to allot funds for technical and financial assistance for women and beginning farmers. The project will host strategic learning circles, field days, and climate smart leadership trainings specifically for beginning and women farmers and will further reach beginning farmers by providing summer internships and working with Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapters, college ag students, and the Michigan Farm Bureau Young Farmer program to engage beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Star of the West Milling Company
Other Major Partners: Michigan Agriculture, Artisan Grain Collaborative, Shiftology Communication
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Dry Beans, Food Grade Oats, Food Grade Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,650,700
Activating Food Hub Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Rural Revitalization
This project promotes climate-smart agriculture practices among small and underserved producers, including tribal producers, principally by equipping food hubs to finance and advise on-farm climate-smart practice implementation and marketing to wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. Participating farmers, who would receive technical assistance and training, would implement intensive rotational grazing; multispecies cover crops, crop rotation and reduced tillage/no-till; compost and biochar. The MMRV plan emphasizes soil carbon and soil health testing as a fundamental benchmark of climate-smart agriculture, while also recording analyses of water, cover crop tissue, and cash crop tissue to assess the impacts and efficiencies of climate-smart management. Working Landscapes and the food hub network, in collaboration with project partners, will market the climate-smart commodities produced. The project will focus on capturing a premium for climate smart commodities, and in some cases climate-smart attributes will be coupled with others (such as locally grown). The marketing plan includes two primary focuses that will be used to reach and inspire mission-aligned customers, including wholesale buyers, institutional buyers and individuals. The project will utilize qualitative and quantitative storytelling about climate-smart commodities (including their GHG reductions, social and economic impacts to small and underserved producers and other farmworkers, and the environmental resilience of climate-smart agriculture) in a variety of formats, including online multimedia, print materials, signage, point of sale displays, climate-smart farm tours, and more) to market the climate-smart commodities produced through this project. Over the course of the agreement the project expects to provide financial support and direct technical assistance, as well as educational opportunities to small and underserved producers. In addition to focusing on underserved farmers, the project will work with food hubs that are women-and/or people of color-led. In particular, as a Native American woman-led food hub that sources from Native American farmers and supplies a Native tribe, Working Landscapes will be able to establish entirely Native-led value chains for climate-smart products.
Lead Partner: Working Landscapes
Other Major Partners: North Carolina State University Center for Environmental Farming Systems, North Carolina A&T State University (BCU) Cooperative Extension, Resourceful Communities Partnership of the Conservation Fund, Haliwa Saponi Tribe, Weaver Street Market, Fruitful Innovation Group, Bender Farms, CEFS North Carolina 10% Campaign, Farmer Foodshare, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, Men & Women United, TRACTOR, Emory University
Primary States Expected: NC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Corn, Fruits, Pork, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,941
Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops
The project would promote climate-smart food production practices including strip cropping, multi-story cropping and others for desert adapted crops within four agrisystems. Producers would receive payments for implementing and auditing these practices and for additional practices as well as technical assistance specialized based on culture, language and experience. Through its partners, the project will create a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets. The project also plans to lease a commercial test kitchen for identifying culinary qualities of climate-smart crops, conducting consumer research, promoting a Desert Seed-to-Table program, and advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project will rigorously monitor and measure production shifts through adapting the COMET-Farm calculators and GAP tools of the USDA to six production practices and several crops that these tools do not currently cover in depth. MMRV will include portable photosynthesis systems to measure rates of CO2 uptake, and fossil fuel and water consumption monitoring. The project will also conduct an ecogeographic analysis to identify and prioritize crop varieties adapted to current or future growing conditions in Arizona that may lower GHG emissions through reduced agricultural water and energy inputs. Through its partners, the project will market and promote climate-smart food crops in a variety of ways including through the creation of a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets: advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project has targeted outreach strategies for engaging Native American/Indigenous farmers, beginning and transitioning farmers, including through engaging existing organizations, tribal communities and networks; providing specialized technical assistance; and creating an experiential learning curriculum.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Local First Arizona
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beans, Cactus, Desert-adapted Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,782,261
BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990
Biochar for Climate-Smart Farms in Missouri
This project would provide direct on-farm assistance and support to convert on-farm ag-waste into biochar, a soil amendment, for Missouri farms and measure and market the resulting climate-smart commodities. The Missouri Organic Association (MOA) plans to launch a pilot program to provide Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable climate-smart farm inputs. MOA and partners would conduct a multi-pronged program to develop and expand markets for climate-smart commodities produced by participating farmers and producers. In turn, the marketing development team would provide comprehensive and well-balanced coverage of marketing specialties. Measurement/Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification is planned throughout the project including in-field monitoring systems, soil quality assessments, GHG emissions, water quality assessment, and economic impacts. The field system will monitor and record environmental changes to the crop fields, including soil temperature, soil moisture, CO2 respiration, pH and a selection of nutrients. Models will be developed to predict plant growth and microbial activity for amended soil application rates. The GHG emissions will be quantified by the tracking of the farm types of farm residue reduction into biochar, monitoring of the soil amended field for plant growth and environmental parameters with field test data over two years and measuring scope 1 thru 3 farm emissions with detailed impact assessments. Scheduled nitrate, carbon, and COD/BOD sampling of the water nitrate concentration at the edges of the field, or streams and the applied watering of the crops will be conducted. A GHG Life Cycle Assessment based on ISO 14040 and 14044 protocols along with project technical reporting will be led by a Missouri-based energy and environmental consulting firm. The project will evaluate direct marketing, wholesale marketing, and value-added marketing of climate-smart, sustainably grown crops. Additional market development assistance including direct support to connect climate-smart commodity producers with buyers will be provided. Missouri State University and marketing consultants will develop individually focused, commodity specific marketing plans for Phase 1 farms based on their specific commodities and market opportunities. The project will lead in the development and execution of comprehensive marketing support materials including participant tool kits, which will assist the farmers in telling their "story" and differentiate their offering from others at market. The project plans target outreach to low income and minority areas of Missouri to enroll underserved participants, providing Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable Climate-Smart farm inputs in the form of biochar. The project will leverage partnerships with Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, an ag nonprofit with established relationships through the Henry Kirkland Scholarship program and Veteran Apprenticeship program, as well as Lincoln University Innovative Small Farmer Program through in person outreach efforts, direct mailing and phone calls. Specific targeting of outreach to underserved farmers and ranchers using data from the census of agriculture and the utilization of in person outreach, digital media networks in counties with higher concentrations of these populations.
Lead Partner: Missouri Organic Association
Other Major Partners: Missouri State University, Lincoln University, Five Star Family Farms, Inc., Seidel Research and Development Company, LLC, Green Tribes Consulting, LLC, Carbon Cycle
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Poultry, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,935,825
Blue Carbon, Green Fields: Mobilizing Marine Algae to Benefit Sea and Soil in the Pacific Northwest
This project plans to pilot a mutually beneficial collaboration between aquatic and terrestrial farms in the Puget Sound region, revolving around the removal and reconveyance of nuisance seaweed for application as a Carbon-sequestering soil amendment. This product would be used on small, direct-to-consumer, specialty crop and diversified farms and the crops would be marketed to pre-existing regional markets that support demand for climate-smart commodities. Shellfish farmers would benefit from new revenue streams from nuisance seaweed, the value of improved shellfish health and seawater quality and the potential for new marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with implementing a verified climate-smart practice. The project will engage in a three-tiered approach to quantification of GHG benefits, with Tier 1 involving use of the COMET Planer tool, Tier 2 based on a simple biomass and soil sampling regime, and Tier 3 involving a more complex replicated experimental design to provide a robust knowledge base for interpretation of Tier 2 results. The MMRV framework will be organized around a verification system developed and overseen by Puget Sound Restoration Fund and the Hershman Fellows during the project time period and designed to be simple enough to continue beyond the project timeframe without undue burden or costs to participants. The marketing plan for this project is centered around building strong local supply chain connections between terrestrial farms utilizing this innovative sea-to-land practice and pre-existing regional markets that already support demand for climate-smart commodities. The project will focus on the potential for new climate-smart marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with the business’ implementation of a verified climate-smart practice. Recruitment efforts and subsequent technical assistance and market development will be focused on small direct-marketing specialty crop producers. Initial recruitment will take place through one of the largest and most comprehensive farm incubator programs in the country. The farm incubator program provides access to equipment, infrastructure, land, marketing, and capital as well as bilingual training and education in sustainable and organic agriculture practices to beginning farmers with an emphasis on underserved populations.
Lead Partner: University of Washington
Other Major Partners: Washington State University, Viva Farms, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Baywater Shellfish
Primary States Expected: WA
Major Commodities: Beans, Fruits, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,865,136
Building Markets and Resiliency: Addressing Climate and Food Access with Northern NJ Livestock Farmers
This project would offer technical assistance and financial cost-share incentives to livestock producers to implement priority climate-smart practices, with higher cost-shares available to underserved producers. This project would provide increased business opportunities for underserved and small farmers to be competitive in purchasing land in a market dominated by corporate sprawl and development pressure. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the development of a climate-friendly farm certification, a consumer marketing campaign, and the expansion of equitable food access. This project’s MMRV approach involves three distinct phases: 1) expanding the use of an open-source, low-cost soil GHG reader 2) working with Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) utilizing their monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocols for environmental outcomes, and 3) utilizing NRCS COMET-Planner. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the following: 1) Development of a Climate Friendly Farm Certification,2) Consumer marketing campaign, 3) Expansion of Equitable Food Access. The Climate Friendly Farm certification will enable producers to continue to be recognized for implementation and management of climate-smart practices beyond the 5 years. All of the farmers participating in this project will be small or underserved. This effort will support making healthy proteins and other locally produced foods more accessible to NJ residents of all income levels, while also increasing economic opportunities for Northern NJ farmers. The project was developed with consideration of potential marketing opportunities for producers and affordable high-quality options for diverse consumers.
Lead Partner: North Jersey RC&D Area, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Foodshed Alliance, NJ Audubon (NJA), CLA Consultants, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), City Green, William Penn Foundation, Rutgers, Farm Credit East
Primary States Expected: NJ
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Chickens, Goats, Lamb, Livestock, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,574,207
Building Profitability for Underserved Producers with a Pipeline of Land Access, Regenerative Agriculture, and Market Development
This project aims to provide resettled refugees access to low- or no-cost land and technical assistance to create scalable and profitable agricultural small businesses through the creation of demand for commodities produced using climate-smart practices. Project plans for farmers to use climate-smart practices. These producers would also receive technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations. The project will partner with CultivateAI to manage greenhouse gas benefit quantification. Farmers will have access to a private data silo to safely store their farm records and input data. CultivateAI will use its innovative, app-based software to establish digital records of both operational activities and Climate-Smart practices at the farm or field level and uses the COMET model for quantification. CultivateAI will work with partners and farmers to build a custom application for easy documentation of farming practices using icons/symbols to minimize barriers for farmers with low literacy and/or limited English. By working collectively on behalf of participating farmers, partners will open access for small-scale producers that might otherwise be closed, including both retail and food assistance markets. Producers will be able to both sell products and educate consumers about the value of climate-smart commodities, creating a demand premium. Underserved producers targeted for outreach to enroll in this project largely consists of refugees that have been resettled in Iowa. These producers will benefit by receiving access to land, technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations.
Lead Partner: Dalla Terra Ranch Foundation (In Harmony Farm)
Other Major Partners: Lutheran Services of Iowa Global Greens, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Small Farm Land Access Program, Iowa State University Agronomy Department, Iowa International Center, CultivateAI, Fareway Food Stores, Food Bank of Iowa, Des Moines Area Religious Council
Primary States Expected: IA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $1,437,202.64
Building Whole-Farm Designs and Market Infrastructure to Provide Premiums for Climate-Smart Farming among Mid-Sized Agricultural Enterprises in the Ohio River Valley
This project plans to model and develop whole-farm carbon sequestration systems geared towards mid-sized polyculture farms that produce crops and beef. Farmers would receive a sign-up incentive, free technical assistance, and cost-share to implement climate-smart practices. Partners would include African-American food system organizers who would ensure engagement with minority, unrepresented, and socially disadvantaged growers. Partners would offer a Climate-Smart Beef product line to current retail and wholesale customers and provide avenues for grain producers to market and sell their products. This project also aims to continue the long process of adapting the complexity of “Entity Scale” quantification and improve capacity to apply emissions factors and sequestration estimates in real world situations using lessons from literature, on farm assessment of practice changes, and soil testing.
Lead Partner: Mt. Folly Enterprises, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Mt. Folly Farm, Eastern Kentucky University, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Rich Earth Grains LLC, Riverside Meats, Sourwood Forestry, Ale-8-1 Bottling Company, Gallagher Fence, Brambleberry Farms, Rural Action Silvopasture, Holistic Management, Sprouted Wellness
Primary States Expected: KY, OH, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Hemp, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,000
Climate Resiliency for the Farm and Market Development: Economically Viable Low Carbon and Climate-Smart Practices for Soybean Farming
Team Climate-Smart Soybean plan to provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. Participants would use cover crops, no-till, climate-smart soybeans, crop rotation, bio-fertilizers, and biochar. Led by a Hispanic-serving institution, project assistance would be provided in a culturally relative approach. As a Hispanic-serving institution. monitoring, reporting, and verification activities for climate-smart practices will be developed at UT-Arlington in collaboration with researchers, agricultural economists, and commodity developers at Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, University of Missouri, and Texas Valley Grain. The project will use COMET, to evaluate carbon sequestration and GHG reductions associated with specific production practices (baseline) and field-based data collection, soil gas fluxes of CO2, N2O, NO, and CH4 measured via portable Gasmet DX4000 FTIR Analyzer, plant tissue analysis and direct soil sampling. The research team, named "Team Climate-Smart Soybean", will participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. The project will provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices which result in generation of verifiable GHG reductions and carbon sequestration. At the completion of this project, multiple small/underserved soybean producers from each state enlisted will have integrated climate-smart farming practices into their land management strategies, giving them and their immediate neighbors access to information on these innovative technologies that are scientifically proven to curb GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and bolster a more regenerative approach to modem agriculture. Bringing these technologies to small/underserved farmers and seeing the production outcomes, market share for climate-smart commodities will increase due to demand by the early adopters.
Lead Partner: University of Texas at Arlington
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Missouri, Tarleton State University
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,991,439
Climate-SMART (Specific Management for Arizona Resilience and Transformation) Agriculture Best Management Practices
Participants in this Arizona-based project would be paid to apply climate-smart practices that reduce pesticide and fertilizer inputs; reduce tillage, use diverse cover crop, rest pastures and use rotational grazing. The project would emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing between Native American producers and other participants and would market climate-smart commodities through partnership networks. MMRV for the project will include the use of management evaluation, COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and soil sampling, with technical assistance staff monitoring progress with participants twice per year to assess continuation of chosen Climate Smart Farming practices. Combining the GHG quantification methodology with the producer reports on practices implemented, the project will calculate more specific estimates of GHG benefits generated per farm, and per project and will report the overall project benefits per dollar expended. The results of the project will be uploaded in COMET-Planner. The project will create markets of varying scales for enrolled producers, including a new "Climate-Smart” category on the Organic Trade Association's business directory, and local marketing of Climate-Smart goods with partners, Local First AZ and Pinnacle Prevention. The Organic Trade Association will connect buyers from across the U.S. to Organic and Climate-Smart products. Arizona State University Swette Center will guide producers who want to be certified organic through the process with training guides to sell products through the well-established organic certified market. The project seeks to focus on underserved populations and to create collaborative partnerships between indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK) and conventional producers to emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing. Those farmers and ranchers who have already adopted USDA Organic standards and regenerative practices will also be engaged as our “early adopters” and help with the transfer of knowledge to conventional producers.
Lead Partner: Arizona Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance, Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University (ASU) Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Arizona, Local First Arizona, Pinnacle Prevention, Soil Health Institute, Northern Arizona University, Organic Trade Association
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Livestock, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,902,482
Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Climate-Smart Commodities and Market Development within the Chickasaw Nation: Restoring Power to Small Farmers and Communities Through Pecan and Specialty Crop Engagement
Participating farmers would receive incentives for climate-smart practices, including reducing chemical applications on pecan trees and conversion of pastures to multiple species of native grasses. Through this project, the Chickasaw Nation plans to work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans would be sourced to sale for any industry interested in climate-smart pecans and to local consumers. The project will use an evaluation tool to record impacts of applied climate smart practices made to the land through best management improvements. These verification processes will be developed and overseen by two advisory teams. The verification process will be recorded in a digital Working on Regenerative Management Systems which is an easily accessible digital format. WORMS will capture change within fields over time including soil sample data and is an ESRI 123 Survey document to capture in field data improvements. COMET-Planner will be utilized to evaluate carbon capture improvements. The Chickasaw Nation (CN) will work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans will be sourced for sales with partners. Marketing for specialty crops will focus on restoring lost engagement between underserved farmers and consumers within CN which will establish a fundamental blueprint to be utilized throughout other tribal nations and underserved communities and focus on utilizing opportunities through established programs to provide wholesome food to citizens through farmers markets through their nutrition division. Marketing will highlight the benefits of climate-smart commodities for consumers and allow an opportunity for increased profit for verified climate-smart specialty crop farmers, providing a direct link to those producers and consumers. In addition, the Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association will provide a state and national resource to pecan organizations and those markets. Most of the communities within the Chickasaw Nation’s treaty territory falls into nationally underserved categories. The Chickasaw Nation and project partners will work in collaboration to teach integrated management systems within native pecan groves not only to improve carbon capture but also to decrease carbon emissions among current underserved and small farmers. in addition, this project will focus on expanding climate smart education to local specialty crop farmers.
Lead Partner: Chickasaw Nation
Other Major Partners: Murray State College, Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association, Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Pecans, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,977,388
Climate-Smart Fiber Hemp: A Versatile Thread Connecting the Nation’s Underserved Farmers, Climate Change Mitigation and Novel Market Opportunities
This project would be a collaborative initiative to expand the production of industrial hemp as a climate-smart commodity, evaluate its greenhouse gas benefits (GHG), and promote the value of market development to a cross-section of production agriculture, including small, medium, and underserved producers across the state of Tennessee. Special efforts are planned to identify and recruit underserved producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans), as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed. An interdisciplinary business approach to research and development with corporate partners will be implemented with the goal of defining the material specifications necessary to scale a market for particular product applications. This will include exploring the development of a climate-smart, socially responsible classification system and certification program for hemp fiber and pulp and providing the raw material outputs from the basic processing of the hemp grown under the Project to interested corporate partners in the automotive, plastics, textiles, paper/pulp, and building materials industries to identify applications within defined and prospective markets. The Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) approach will involve direct monitoring at the on-farm and on-station pilot plots. The project will implement intensive greenhouse gas (GHG) and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration monitoring in response to fertility and rotational agronomic managements at the TSU and UTK on-station trials and on-farm locations representative of key agricultural regions in the middle and west TN. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Tennessee State University, the project is focused on serving small and underserved producers both as incentivized program participants receiving direct subsidies, but also in the targeted dissemination of insights resultant from virtually all program research through technical assistance outreach. Special efforts will be made to identify and recruit underrepresented producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans) as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed, to result in an anticipated estimate of greater than 60% of producer participants from underserved groups who will receive financial assistance.
Lead Partner: Tennessee State University
Other Major Partners: Hemp Alliance of Tennessee, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Tennessee Department of Agriculture
Primary States Expected: TN
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,972,898
Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42
Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00
Climate-Smart Sustainability Certificate
The project will expand Climate-Smart markets with particular outreach to small and underserved producers and would create the Climate-Smart Sustainability (CSS) Certificate to quantify the value of existing and newly adopted climate-smart interventions. The development of the CSS Certificate would substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities and small-scale underserved and limited resources farmers. The project teams plan to connect with networks, producers, processors, and Agri-Technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The data-backed CSS Certificate would provide a solution to value and document the carbon and environmental co-benefits embedded within purchased grains and other food crops so that buyers of U.S. commodities can certify GHG reductions within their supply chain. The project will include the evaluation of new type of interventions (i) algaeslurry/granules, (ii) rock powder (RP) and Silicon (Si) along with existing crop management practices. Various high technology sensors will be used to quantify the GHG such as CO2, CH4 and N2O. The project teams will connect with networks, producers, processors, and agri-technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The development of the CSS Certificate will substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities. This Historically Black College or University (HBCU) will work together with the University of Houston, which is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander - Serving Institution (AANAPISI), to reach small-scale, underserved and limited resource farmers.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Michigan Aerospace Corporation
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Leafy Greens, Sorghum, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,381
ClimateSmartGoods.com - Set Your Table and Lower Your Footprint
The project plans to select farms in Mississippi and South Carolina to demonstrate the implementation of conservation/production plans – “Smart Crop Plans”, supporting the creation of a corresponding knowledge-based training platform. Project partners also plan to provide professional marketing consultant to advise on packaging, branding and marketing of “ClimateSmart” products and connecting the products with retail and wholesale markets. The project will utilize multiple models including COMET Farm and APSIM. High tech, real-time probes installed at each farm with data transmission and drone technology will be used to allow tracking of climate performance. The project will develop a marketing toolkit for each farm and commodity, including a Climate-Smart UPC and PLU for each product, where the commodity can be barcoded and ready to enter a distribution system which will result in transparency and ready tracking of climate-smart commodities. The project will also include robust producer training in the branding, marketing, pricing, and technology. All subawards and prime awardee are experienced with underserved and socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers. The project will include a comprehensive training program in marketing and selling that relies on peer mentoring and training with early adopters within community.
Lead Partner: Up in Farms LLC
Other Major Partners: Up in Farms, Center of Resilience Excellence South Carolina, DRA Resources, Florida A&M University, Warehouses 4 Good, Teralytic, Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities
Primary States Expected: MS, SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Fruits, Goats, Hemp, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,483
Colorado Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
Participating producers would receive financial assistance for implementing climate-smart practices in beef production and monitoring project outcomes. The project would model a successful, durable, and transferable climate-smart commodities market model to regenerate working landscapes. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in Colorado.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Multiplier Working Lands Conservation, Central Colorado Conservancy, Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: CO
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,963.37
Commodities and Practices to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Pacific Island Agriculture and Forestry Systems
This project plans to market climate-smart commodities and achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in Pacific Island agriculture and forestry systems while improving affordable food and nutrition security of disadvantaged, at-risk, island communities. Partners plan to employ an inter-disciplinary, culturally sensitive approach when working with local farmers and forestry managers. Technical workshops are planned to showcase various climate-smart practices and underserved producers and landowners are planned to receive stipends for participating in the project. Partners plan to conduct market research to better understand emerging and untapped markets and customer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for climate-smart commodities. University of Guam will be using DAYCENT. The DAYCENT process-based model will be used because it has been applied and tested for estimating GHG emissions from forested ecosystems in a wide range of climatic regions and for cropland, grazing lands, and cultivated wetlands. GHG emissions will also be estimated using the COMET farm tool, where applicable. Connecting the consumer with the climate-smart commodities will happen through a variety of ways. UOG will partner with locally owned supermarkets to facilitate the selling of these commodities using the results of the market survey to show consumer demand for the products. Commodities will also be sold at the local Farmers Cooperative market. The communications lead will assist in strategizing the best way to get information about these commodities to the demographic-user groups who expressed willingness to pay in market surveys. Climate-smart products will also be advertised on social media, news talk radio, and newspaper, ideally directly linking consumers to producers. Additionally, the Guam Green Growth Network will promote the climate-smart commodities produced in this project. Most producers participating in the project will be underserved producers, including producers of Asian and Islander ethnicities, small-scale farmers, and farmers that rent land. A place-based, culturally sensitive, outreach strategy will be developed to ensure the wide participation of the farming community in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The heart of this project rests in the Farmer Incentive Program, which will provide participating farmers and producers incentives and stipends to participate.
Lead Partner: University of Guam
Other Major Partners: Government of Guam, Washington State University
Primary States Expected: GU, CNMI
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56
Cover Crop Utilization to Boost Anaerobic Digestion, Transform Chicken Litter, Enhance Soil Health, and Create Climate-Smart Commodity Pathways for Small Farms on the Delmarva Peninsula
The project would directly address underserved producers on the Delmarva Peninsula by promoting climate-smart cover crops as a feedstock for digestor facilities. Project partners anticipate these facilities plan to provide a per acre incentive for harvested climate-smart cover crop biomass making them more economically sustainable and allowing for several project partners to promote and distribute the climate-smart products. This project plans to focus on environmental justice especially in communities impacted by environmental hazards, social-economic stress and poor infrastructure. The renewable energy produced (biogas, including methane content) will be quantified using a mass balance approach, with the energy output based on the mass of poultry litter and cover crop inputs. All energy inputs and outputs from the digester operation to cover crops, field application, and soil sequestration will be quantified, and the COMET online management tool will be used for estimating changes in soil C sequestration, fuel, and fertilizer use resulting from changes in land management. The project has formalized several partnerships to promote and distribute the climate-smart products under the project and will disseminate information regarding the cover crops and field amendments generated by this project. One of the partners will facilitate the integration of underserved producers into the new climate-smart cover crop supply chain. This project will also focus on the environmental factors inherent to the implementation of any new agricultural practice or technology.
Lead Partner: University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Other Major Partners: Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, 2020 Farmers Cooperative, Planet Found Energy Development, University of Maryland College Park
Primary States Expected: MD, VA
Major Commodities: Corn, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690
Developing and Harnessing Climate-Smart Commodities from Hardwood Restoration for Small and Underserved Landowners in the Southern Bottomland Region
This project plans to focus on working with small scale and underserved landowners on marketing climate-smart wood products with support for bottomland hardwood afforestation and planting mixed hardwood oak plantations. Full technical and financial assistance is planned for landowners and demonstration sites. Partners plan to use a forest inventory system to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimate carbon storage and evaluate indicator wildlife populations. COMET will be one tool used to quantify carbon associated with Bottom Land Hardwood (BLH) restoration; carbon calculation results using field experiment and measurement data as well as other published data and tools will in turn be provided to supplement current COMET data. In addition, the project will quantify the net change in C stocks associated with BLH restoration compared to the existing agricultural land use. Carbon sequestration and storage resulting from BLH restoration will be tracked in several C pools: soil organic matter, live tree biomass, understory, deadwood, litter, and harvested wood products. A forest inventory system will be used to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimates of carbon storage will be quantified. Wildlife populations, which indicate ecological health in forested systems, will be evaluated using appropriate technologies. Project personnel will produce and disseminate a marketing pamphlet and social media materials that will highlight the climate-smart hardwood timber and other supplementary ecosystem services produced from the hardwood plantations. This will help reach broad audiences or potential buyers in a more cost-effective way. The participating landowners will also be provided project assistance if they choose to enroll their hardwood plantations in a forest certification program with either the American Tree Farm System, which is recognized by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or the Forest Stewardship Council. The partners will recruit small and underserved landowners and create demonstration sites. Full technical and financial assistance will be provided to the landowners. All project activities will be financially supported by the partners, allowing producers to engage in climate-smart bottomland hardwood establishment with fewer barriers. Outreach activities will provide technical assistance to landowners on project development, methods employed, new technologies, and practical management with a focus on beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, limited resource farmers, veteran farmers, and women farmers.
Lead Partner: Division of Agriculture of University of Arkansas
Other Major Partners: University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM), University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), Keep it in the Family Program, Texas A&M University
Primary States Expected: AR
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,710,171
Developing Capacity to Quantify Climate-Smart Practices in Cool Season Specialty Crops
This project would provide advanced, technical assistance in English and Spanish to underserved and small grower partner operations to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use, plant cover crops and use soil amendments. Growers would receive mini-grants to monitor and report grower experience and conservation outcomes related to the implementation of proposed practices. Bilingual student Climate-Smart Ag Ambassadors plan to work directly with technical assistance staff and farmers to alleviate communication barriers and provide direct on-farm outreach to growers through field demonstration days. MMRV activities will be conducted both at producer farm locations and at a dedicated MMRV site with characteristics comparable to the producer locations. MMRV at the dedicated site will include direct GHG emission measurements and the COMET Tool, Water use efficiency using CropManage, plant-available Nitrogen, soil C/N, non-marketable residual biomass, and marketable crop biomass. MMRV at the producer locations will include the COMET Tool, CropManage, CropTrak, Nitrate quick test, and yield data. The project will identify markets for climate-smart commodities; develop climate-smart produce signage, website, and social media campaign, and develop a climate-smart produce label. Producers will be assisted with determining the best way to market their products and in developing stories about their experiences to include in marketing campaigns. The project will provide webinars, meetings, and field days, estimate economic benefits for participating producers, identify barriers, and guide growers on path to market entry to access buyers for climate-smart commodities. The project will target outreach to underserved specialty crop producers on 1-5 acres.
Lead Partner: University Corporation at Monterey Bay
Other Major Partners: Huntington Farms, RCD of Monterey County, University of California Davis, University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Western Growers
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,992
Developing Climate-Smart Agriculture and Markets Amongst Socially-Disadvantaged, Limited-Resource, and Urban Farmers in Ohio and Michigan
This project would combine monitoring, outreach, and technical support to foster the adoption of climate-smart practices by minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. It also creates synergy between climate-smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Project partners plan to recruit minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers and selected Central State University students who would receive additional training on climate-smart agriculture. Small-scale and urban vegetable farmers enrolled in this project would receive funds to cover part of their operating costs. Data on soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the various technological treatments, along with other collected data, will be used to conduct life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental impacts of using Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry technologies that are suitable for small-scale and urban vegetable farms. Enteric emissions, specifically methane emissions will be measured by respiration chamber or In Vitro incubation in total feed use resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on methane emissions. Robotic, AI enhanced feeding systems and electricity usage in the feedlots and diesel use by tractors (for conventional approach) will be monitored resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on the electricity and diesel use. Feed consumption under current and proposed approach will result in total GHG emissions measurements based on a reduction in feed usage. Feedlot manure storage operations will be evaluated for methane emissions measured from the anaerobic and aerobic storage operations resulting in total GHG emissions reductions and total methane emissions reduction. Optimization in nutrient application(s) at small-scale farms will be implemented to measure use of manure and commercial fertilizer for conventional and proposed systems. Total GHG emissions reductions due to reduction in commercial synthetic fertilizer use will be assessed. Verification will include COMET-Farm and will be used for confirmation of the measured emissions and the potential reductions in GHG emissions. The project will determine the marketing and economic viability of small-scale vegetable farms that have implemented Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices through consumer focus group interviews and individual interviews, which will be used to facilitate producer marketing and branding practices of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry products, including product labeling, target marketing, and market segmentation. The consumer valuation of food grown under Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices will be determined via Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions at farmer markets to develop production cost and profit estimates. This project is comprised of outreach, and technical support objectives leading to the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices by socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. The project will also create synergy between climate smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Central State University (CSU) (1890 Land-Grant) Extension will recruit minority vegetable farmers and encourage collaboration between feedlot operations and underserved farmers who will be the end users of these climate smart manure management byproducts. This project will also provide hands-on climate-smart agriculture training to students from underserved populations.
Lead Partner: Central State University
Other Major Partners: Ohio State University, A & B Porteus
Primary States Expected: MI, OH
Major Commodities: Beef, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,992,288
Establishing Climate-Smart Commodities with Reduced Greenhouse Gas Footprints to Enhance Environmental and Economic Sustainability in the Texas High Plains
The goals of this project are to quantify benefits from these climate-smart commodities on a variety of producer field sites, estimate GHG footprint across the supply chain using COMET (carbon management evaluation tool), develop a framework to demonstrate socio-economic and environmental sustainability in the Texas High Plains and support a market for sustainably produced climate-smart cotton. Multiple producers representing 10 Texas counties have been identified within the categories of Hispanic, veteran, women, beginning farmers, and early adopters. Remote sensing-based spatial mapping will be used to quantify the status of legume-based multi-species cover crops and cotton-sorghum rotation under no-till in the entire Texas High Plains. Participating producers will record water pumped and energy consumption for different farm operations, in addition to providing detailed farm records regarding varieties, seeding rates, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, tillage practices, and yields. The project will primarily use COMET-Planner complemented with COMET-Farm, as they provide the flexibility to include additional parameters and a quantitative measure of GHG emissions. In addition, the project will verify the GHG emissions and the potential benefits from GHG reductions through a sustainability index and by comparative assessment using COMET Planner/COMET-Farm, Fieldprint Platform®, and GREET. The GREET model, though limited to certain crops, allows for life cycle analysis (LCA) for grain sorghum and for comparison with COMET-Farm. The project will provide a means for participating producers to receive a data collection fee for sustainably produced “climate smart cotton”. Cotton will be considered “climate smart” when the producer meets standard guidelines set by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, providing assurance to the 40 major clothing brands (including Next, Gap, Levi Strauss and others) that are members of their program. Taking advantage of these established guidelines for producing sustainable cotton, the project will work with the sorghum industry to establish a similar set of sustainable guidelines for grain sorghum producers. A similar payment system will be established to support “climate smart sorghum” grown by the participating producers. The project expects that almost all participating producers involved in the project will be underserved producers including “beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers, limited resource farmers, women farmers, and producers growing specialty crops”. Direct assistance costs to producers include: (i) moisture sensors and data transfer, (ii) soil sample collection and analysis, (iii) weather stations on all 30-producer field-sites, remuneration for producers’ time and monetary incentive.
Lead Partner: Texas Tech University
Other Major Partners: National Cotton Council, National Sorghum Producers, Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) advisory board, No-Till Texas, Field to Market, Texas Sorghum Association, Groguru, Agri-Search
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Cotton, Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,945,553
Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050
Expanding the Participation of Marginal Producers and Landowners to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices: Continuous Efforts of 1890 Agroforestry Consortium
The project plans to support small-scale and other underserved producers in three states with financial and technical assistance to transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system. All producers and landowners are planned to receive financial incentives to cover costs of inputs and services Partners will form a marketing network for labelling, packaging, and branding CS commodities. The project's MMRV plan will include core sampling for carbon sequestration benefits in soil, in-field measurement of GHG effluxes, and quantification of carbon sequestered in trees and shrubs based on above and below-ground biomass. To measure GHG benefits associated with climate smart animal-production systems, partners will include the use of mobile small animal GreenFeed measurement systems, forage biomass samples, and other collected data. The GHG benefits associated with the implemented climate-smart practices will be verified based on the carbon sequestration and GHG emission results and their continuity over the project period, using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET). The project will adopt a robust marketing plan to explore, create, expand, and promote climate smart commodities marketing during the project period and create an inter-state marketing consortium to educate producers and landowners on how to promote domestic markets for their climate-smart commodities. The project will also facilitate the setting of premium prices for the climate-smart commodities by introducing labels/badges and marketing materials on packaging and branding, e.g., a climate-smart logo and the price per unit of climate smart commodity on the label/badge. This project, led by a minority serving institution, is expected to enroll primarily small and underserved producers and landowners. Each participant will receive financial incentives to procure inputs and pay for services required for implementing climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Primary States Expected: AL, MD, VA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Medicinal Herbs, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25
Foodshed Small Farm Distro and Resource Hub Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot
The Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot plans to would generate climate-smart economic opportunities and provide direct incentives to small and socially disadvantaged specialty crop farmers in San Diego County for improving soil health through climate-smart compost application, reduced tillage and tree/shrub establishment and quantifying GHG reductions. Project partners plan to address equity by reducing barriers caused by language, and limited access to equipment and information. Foodshed will seek to measure four carefully selected “Climate-Smart Commodity Metrics”: 1) change in soil organic matter; 2) fungal to bacterial ratio; 3) volume of compost applied; and 4) dollar value of climate-smart specialty crops produced and distributed to historically underserved end-users living in a neighborhood with a Healthy Places Index score below 50%. Foodshed will produce a Soil Health Report to analyze and share findings with project stakeholders. Foodshed will establish at least four “Climate-Smart Market Channels” that: prioritize distribution to underserved/socially disadvantaged communities as defined by California’s Healthy Places Index; have the capacity to track distribution to end-users. Not only will underserved producers receive direct financial benefits for their participation in this project, but the partners will address barriers associated with not having time and resources to introduce new cropping practices, not speaking English, not having access to the proper equipment, and not having the knowledge-base to introduce climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Foodshed, Inc.
Other Major Partners: County of San Diego Department of Health, San Diego Food System Alliance
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Grazing Regeneratively for Appalachian Sustainable Solutions
Underserved farmers would receive financial and technical assistance to support the transition from typical livestock systems management to climate-smart practices. Practices implemented include land management plans, prescribed grazing, bale grazing, native grass and silvopasture establishment, incorporation of legumes and non-leguminous forbs, and use of traditional and novel soil amendments, such as biochar. The project would provide producers with marketing assistance for grass-fed beef products as long as producers meet required criteria of certifications and product quality. MMRV will be accomplished with a variety of approaches through COMET-Planner to determining baselines, soil analysis, grazing evaluations, practice measurements, and ecological outcome verifications (EOV). GHGs and carbon sequestration metrics will be evaluated on farms across both VA and WV. The long-term verification includes a comprehensive soil health analysis and must be done at the start of the project, then every five years to remain EOV certified. The short-term monitoring utilizes the Ecological Health Index to assess improvements in ecological health and services. Marketing will utilize producer need assessments, related producer surveys, econometric estimation, and market discovery to guide the marketing of climate-smart products and market analysis for producers in Appalachian Virginia and West Virginia. A design of the economic evaluation to perform econometric analysis of the data will allow for an estimate of the potential marketability of GRASS beef. Through their market discovery work, data will be provided on demand based on trends related to climate-smart products and opportunities through additional outlets. A marketing agency will provide label development, brand identity design, event marketing, packaging design, digital media materials, and promotional content for climate-smart beef. The mission of GRASS is to support and empower 135 farmers in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia and Virginia, many of which are considered small and/or underserved. Equity through this effort is paramount. Small and underserved producers will be targeted for outreach and have the opportunity to participate through a plethora of options for climate-smart practices and systems. By embracing these practices, producers will enhance working land resiliency, support high carbon sequestration rates, foster healthier soils, and generate economic benefits for many small and underserved farmers in Appalachia. Virginia State University (1890 land-grant) Cooperative Extension Small Farm Outreach Program will provide the organization of producer-led on-farm field days in Appalachian Virginia, which will allow for peer-to-peer learning.
Lead Partner: West Virginia University Research Corporation
Other Major Partners: West Virginia University (WVU), Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, The West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA), Hickory Nut Gap (HNG), Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Agricultural Best Management Practices Match Program (VACS)
Primary States Expected: VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,795,300
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Incentive Program
Using incentives and technical assistance, this project would help farmers adopt climate-smart practices to improve soil health and water quality, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and promote wildlife habitat, connecting climate-smart commodity production with climate adaptation and GHG benefits. The farmers enrolled every year in the project are eligible to receive sufficient and compelling incentive payments for their participation and for verified climate-smart practice implementation. The project plans to draw on Organic Association of Kentucky, Inc. (OAK) and partner networks to engage small farms and underserved farmers. OAK anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually would be underserved farmers, including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers, and many more would be small farms, operations with gross annual farm income under $250,000. The project plans to adapt the Global Farm Metric framework to create a farm sustainability assessment tool built for use in the US, including by embedding it with measures, benchmark scoring and practices from USDA NRCS, including alignment with COMET-Farm, Environmental Impact Quotient and NRCS Practice Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Carbon Sequestration. Modeled GHG emissions from COMET tools will be coupled with on-the-ground measurements of soil health to achieve a fuller picture of the benefits of adopting climate-smart practices on each farm. The project will work with partner local food value chain coordinators, companies, processors and aggregators who will source climate-smart commodities to meet their GHG targets and supply chain goals, sell climate-smart branded consumer products and provide a premium or additional revenue for participating producers and landowners. The project lead will work with identified project partners, contractors and supporting farmers, buyers, local food value chain coordinators and marketing experts to develop a climate-smart add-on label and branding for commodities verified through the project. The project will draw on the project lead and partner networks to engage small farms and historically underserved farmers from the eastern Kentucky Appalachian Mountains to farms of the central bluegrass region with diversified vegetables and pastured livestock to the broad acre corn and soybean farms and organic dairy operations of western Kentucky. The project anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually will be underserved farmers (including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers) and many more will be small farms.
Lead Partner: Organic Association of Kentucky Inc
Other Major Partners: Four Hills Farm, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, The Berry Center, The Food Connection at University of Kentucky, Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kentucky State University, University of Kentucky, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Sustainable Food Alliance, Bullhorn Creative
Primary States Expected: KY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Fruits, Hemp, Lamb, Small Grains, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,407,706
Growing the Impossible: Climate Smart Commodities in Tribal Homelands
This project plans to provide technical assistance, training, financial incentives and business planning and marketing support for climate-smart commodities produced on tribal homelands. This project plans to support climate-smart practices, including adaptive multi-paddock higher intensity rotational grazing which lead to increased soil organic carbon storage. The work is planned to align with holistic Blackfeet-specific regenerative grazing strategies in direct partnership with Tribal land managers and individual producers. The project will employ existing tools within their team for multi-domain analysis that overlay existing monitoring tools developed by PLHI and their partners, as well as in field measurements specifically applied to GHG mitigation and overall community well-being within the Blackfeet Nation. The monitoring practices include Western Sustainability Exchange’s verified grassland carbon storage on the carbon credit market, Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program assessment protocol, sciGaia’s semantic framework for socio-environmental-economic data called TrueView™ and the MSU/PLHI protocol for in field rangeland monitoring being undertaken locally in Blackfeet Nation. PLHI will integrate multi-domain monitoring approaches through using the ‘Piikani Wellbeing Index’ (PWI) on top of the TrueView framework, requiring the ability to analyze anything that contributes to meat production to understand its GHG impacts and to look for ways that more high-quality meat can be produced for less GHG cost, all the while maintaining the integrity and wellbeing of the ecosystem and the humans who operate within it. The project's relationships over the last three years set the stage for market receptivity towards climate-smart Blackfeet produced products. The Feasibility Analysis for a Blackfeet Nation Multi-Species Processing Plant and Branded Beef and Bison Products prompted the need to research potential market connections and begin to build relationships with those market buyers at the local, institutional, corporate and international levels. This project will benefit 11 Tribal sub-communities residing within the Blackfeet Nation but will also serve all other Tribal communities along the “hi-line” of Northern Montana and Rocky Mountain Tribes, while also creating a translational model for all Tribes residing across the Great Plains region. The climate-smart funds will bolster the technical assistance and outreach team, adding a full-time dedicated Market Development Specialist located within the community who will assist existing and new business owners with establishing their climate-smart agriculture business and help to bring them to a state of market-readiness and access capital in the form of loans and grants.
Lead Partner: Piikani Lodge Health Institute
Other Major Partners: Blackfeet Community College, Blackfeet Environmental Office, Montana State University-Soils Lab, Montana State University- Buffalo Nations Food Systems Initiative, Montana State University, Native Lands Project, Animo Partnership in Natural Resources LLC, Montana Audubon, Western Sustainability Exchange, SciGaia
Primary States Expected: MT, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison, Fruits, Hogs, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: 4,914,533
Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09
Hispanic Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative
This project plans to work with Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic pasture and forage farmers to diversify and increase production while managing climate-smart farming methods and quantifying environmental outcomes. Project partners would address cultural and language barriers to provide technical assistance for implementing practices and marketing their beef in new revenue streams. Farmers with under 100 acres under management would be offered a higher flat fee per year. Victus aims to develop an easy-to-use platform that will enable farmers to run field-level simulations from APSIM, DSSAT, and COMET-Farm (via the API, for Florida farms only) to estimate key crops (yield, crop mass, development, water, and nitrogen- use efficiency) and soil (carbon, nitrogen, water) metrics from the farming systems in the project. Besides providing valuable information for farm management and planning, the soil metrics derived from these models are increasingly used for the estimation of carbon storage and emissions of GHGs, such as N2O. The project plans to market climate-smart beef and breadfruit and develop the capacity of Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic farmers to diversify and increase production and climate-smart market access, including local and direct marketing opportunities and ecosystem markets. The project plans to design and implement a culturally appropriate procedure to certify climate-smart commodities produced by Hispanic farmers to expand markets, and develop new revenue streams or increase current ones. The project is dedicated to enhancing the climate-smart economic benefits for Hispanic farmers in Florida and Puerto Rico through incentives.
Lead Partner: Victus Puerto Rico, Inc.
Other Major Partners: mano-Y-ola LLC, Bien-Estar Agrícola LLC PR, Fundación Santa Elena de la Sabana Inc. PR, NTDS Consulting Group
Primary States Expected: FL, PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Breadfruits
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,926,250
Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293
Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137
Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025
Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80
Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389
Increasing Farm Resource Efficiency by Utilizing On-Site Post-Production Food Byproducts into Innovative Fertilizers and Climate-Smart Commodities
Project participants would use innovative technology to convert crop residue into two high-value fertilizers for soil, foliar, or hydroponic use, and market resulting climate-smart commodities. Grower economic benefits include premium pricing for carbon-smart commodities, reduced fertilizer costs, reduced water consumption and related costs, potential reduction in environmental regulatory compliance/fees (where applicable) and expanded marketing opportunities to Re-Nuble or local markets. Re-Nuble and Helianth will develop an MMRV Plan and Online Data Portal, along with a guiding document that informs monitoring, measurement reporting, and verification procedures and expectations. An online location and interface for participants to share MMRV data and lessons learned will also be developed. The project's MMRV plan consists of a continuance of working with organizations across agricultural supply chains for design, implementation, and monitoring of improvements for sustainable agricultural programs. After a set of initial meetings with all MMRV partners and Re-Nuble staff, farm producers will receive a formal presentation on the container insect farm (CIF) system, residue processing, projected financial benefits, nutrient management planning, anticipated GHG outcomes, and marketing and distribution opportunities. A nutrient management plan will be designed, advising ideal nutrient application guidance for each climate smart commodity in order to increase nutrient use efficiency. Verification of those plans will be conducted annually. Soil samples are taken by MMRV Partner (IPM) and Re‐ Nuble to support third‐party lab analysis of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction and the COMET Farm model will be used for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration analysis. Partners will contribute with the development of both marketing and distribution plans for all farm producers. These plans including supply chain overviews, cost-benefit analysis, market landscapes, premium pricing strategies and likely market channels will be prepared for each climate-smart commodity from the participating farms. Participating farmers will also be trained to proficiently use their marketing plans and distribution plans effectively while leveraging the data related to GHG Emissions reductions and sequestered carbon to help increase marketability of all climate-smart commodities grown by each farm. Steps the farm can take to implement its marketing plan, including messaging and promotion strategies, relationship building, and data tracking will also be a focus. Outreach for enrollment will be focused on small and underserved farms and commitments have already been attained from a number of these entities. It is anticipated that small and underserved, leafy green farms located in Mississippi will be recruited from the existing networks of Re-Nuble and the MMRV Partners.
Lead Partner: Re-Nuble, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Helianth Partners, IPM Institute of North America, Chapul Farms
Primary States Expected: KY, MI, MS, NY
Major Commodities: Apples, Corn, Eggs, Fruits, Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops, Tilapia, Tomatoes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,696,929
Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999
Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699
Launching The North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project plans to work collaboratively with regional small and historically underserved producers to launch the North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture. The Hub plans to provide farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities by consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products. The project plans to support producers in implementing a variety of climate-smart cover crops; no-till or minimum-till practices; nutrient management; enhanced efficiency fertilizers; planting for high carbon sequestration rates; and soil amendments. An incentive payment is planned to be offered for each producer implementing an advanced practice. This project will leverage existing tools including COMET-Farm and California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Program Calculator Tool, and supplement with an additional level of verification of GHG benefits for participating producers by conducting soil analysis through Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient System's (CRARS) own Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration Lab and collecting additional on-farm soil health data. The project will partner with the North Valley Food Hub, providing farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities. The Hub will provide critical services to both growers and wholesale buyers that include consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products, and serving as a centralized facilitator for creating and expanding the regional food market in the Sacramento Valley. Through appropriate, trusted, and culturally relevant outreach via partner organizations directly serving small and underserved producers, this project anticipates that at least 75 percent of the participating producers to be either small and/or underserved producers. To meet any potential needs of small and underserved producers to access incentives, producers will also be provided the opportunity to request an incentive advance payment up to 50 percent of the total incentive amount.
Lead Partner: Chico State Enterprises
Other Major Partners: Butte County Farm Bureau; North State Hulling Cooperative, Douglass Ranch; GRUB Farms; Chico State Organic Vegetable Project, Chico State Basic Needs Hungry, Wildcat Pantry, California State University, Chico
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Almonds, Peaches, Prunes, Rice, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables, Tomatoes, Walnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,796
Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000
Minnesota Climate-Smart Seedling Production Network
The proposed project plans to work with forest owners to grow a set of climate-adapted tree species resilient to the projected climate futures of Minnesota’s Midwest Broadleaf Forest, and monitor and market the climate-smart commodity. Producers would receive a payment for each tree seedling grown, in addition to assistance with start-up costs, provision of wild-collected tree seed, and cooperatively managed shipping and distribution of seedings. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot would bear a “Climate-Smart” label and would include native trees selected based on their projected climate capability. The project would provide free training opportunities about tree seed collection and seedling production market opportunities, paying a fair, hourly wage for participating tree seed collectors and provide start-up funds for interested producers, but for whom cost would be a barrier to enter the market. The project will quantify greenhouse gas benefits using COMET-Farm. In addition, the project will develop a mobile app that links to a statewide seed source data management system to track individual seed lots for up to 10-12 species that are selected for their climate resilience, drawing from both local and adjacent seed/hardiness zone. The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody). The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody).
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: University of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Three Rivers Parks District, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Urban Roots, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Monitoring and Evaluation, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Community Economic Development Associates (CEDA), University of Minnesota Extension, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships
Primary States Expected: MN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Tree Seedlings
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,997
National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600
Native Food Crops for Innovative Climate-Smart Production Models and Supply Chains – The Case of Blue Elderberry in the West
The project aims to assist early-adopter Tribal, underserved and small-scale producers to successfully produce a marketable elderberry crop from perennial planting, measure carbon sequestration and develop local processing capacity. Producers would receive an incentive payment per linear foot of elderberry planting, to cover the costs of establishment, maintenance, and the implementation of the additional suite of climate-smart agriculture practices. The project would identify potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), provide processing capabilities, and develop marketing materials. In addition to COMET Planner, the project will use three certification/verification protocols matched to the specific land base and production system to monitor and verify quantitative and qualitative ecological indicators and CO2 emission reduction through soil carbon sequestration and provide participating landbases a pathway to the climate smart market. The project will also monitor crop yields to track benefits per unit of harvested elderberries, will use remotely sensed data to monitor physical parameters, and will use geolocation enabled digital surveys to create a spatial inventory of project sites. The project will develop a system to value add and market the climate-smart native western blue elderberry, including by promoting to identified potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), providing processing capabilities, and developing marketing materials such as videography, photography, and web assets. Participating producers include small producers and underserved. The project also emphasizes workforce development within the Chumash community and will include funding to train Chumash tribal members to harvest elderberries for cultural purposes. The target audience for our outreach will include other underserved and small producers.
Lead Partner: White Buffalo Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office (SYCEO)- Camp 4, Community Environmental Council, The Regents of the University of California – Agriculture and Natural Resources (e.g. UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program), University of California - Davis, Beyond the Farm, Cage Free Productions, Propagate, Design Firm, Just One Organics
Primary States Expected: CA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Western Blue Elderberries
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,633,935
Northern New Mexico Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Northern NM Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower New Mexico Latino and underserved beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in New Mexico. The project is partnering with the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association, which is a regional trade association that supports ranching families across Northern NM, including Hispanic and Tribal ranching families.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, New Mexico Stockman’s Association (NNMSA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,761.64
Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841
Piloting Agroforestry in the Adirondack North Country: Producing Climate-Smart Commodities and Promoting Carbon Sequestration
This project plans to focus primarily on women-owned businesses and farming operations and develop a regional Adirondack climate-smart brand for marketing commodities as part of these systems. The project plans to support and monitor the climate benefits of agroforestry practices. Producers would receive technical assistance including tailored agroforestry plans and practice inputs such as tree seedling and shelters. The project will perform soil carbon testing on each of the farms to establish a baseline for soil organic carbon (SOC). Trees will contribute to SOC, but they also will store carbon as woody biomass both above and below ground. In addition, the project will calculate estimates of carbon sequestered on each farm as well as total estimated sequestered carbon. The CUFR Tree Carbon Calculator (TCC) will also be used to estimate sequestration potential. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials.
Lead Partner: Adirondack North Country Association
Other Major Partners: Interlace Commons, Great Range
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forest Products, Hazelnuts, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $558,625.16
Preparing Wisconsin’s Farmers for a Climate-Smart Market
This project plans to advance climate-smart commodity market development by providing direct financial and technical assistance and incentives to support for implementation of climate-smart production. Minority underserved farmers who manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market can develop a niche climate-smart milk market for selling healthier, higher quality milk at a premium. This partnership will utilize established and scientifically accepted methods for measuring, quantifying, monitoring, reporting and verifying the outcomes from climate-smart production practices. The project team will conduct an annual greenhouse gas equivalent (GHGe) inventory of all participating farmers using COMET-Planner or COMET-Farm. In some projects, for on-dairy emissions, the FARM-ES system will be used to inventory annual greenhouse gas fluxes and accounting across inventoried years will be done utilizing the DRAFT C-Sequ techniques in alignment with IPCC standards. The focus of this project is local markets, direct to consumer, providing opportunities for producers to expand into neighboring markets and allow producers to engage in conversation with their processors on the increased value of their commodity. The project has 2 goals: 1) Entry point for Micro-farms currently selling to local restaurants, at farmer’s market or direct to consumer including development of Local Climate-Friendly/Water-Friendly branding/certification. 2) Ensure local dairy farmers remain profitable in a changing market by development of niche market for Nutrient Rich Milk. This project will invest in targeted technical and financial assistance to underserved and small producers. Additionally, minority, underserved farmers that manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market will be engaged in development of a locally sourced, climate/environmentally friendly branding effort.
Lead Partner: Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Wisconsin Farmers Union, Pheasants Forever, Outagamie County Land Conservation, Utah State University
Primary States Expected: WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Grains, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,994,088
Prince George’s County Climate-Smart Local Producers Pilot Program
This project plans to pilot, evaluate, and build a Climate-Smart Local Producers Program to address marketing products grown using a variety of climate-smart practices. The project will focus on reducing barriers to practice implementation on existing and new farms. A planned marketing strategy that resonates with County residents, will combine the values of eating local, utilization of on -farm climate smart practices and woman and minority owned farms. The County will work with Bowie State University (a Historically Black University) to develop monitoring methodology and perform the analysis of greenhouse gas reductions and leverage the measurement and monitoring methodologies developed by the state of Maryland for several sequestration practices and supply chain impacts. GHG reductions will be quantified utilizing the COMET model to keep data collection and verification costs low. For some practices, soil sampling may be required. The project proposes to work with students at BSU to develop the methodology and perform the analysis of GHG reductions. Develop a marketing strategy that resonates with local residents, combining the values of eating local, utilization of on-farm climate smart practices and black, woman and minority owned farms. Investigate creating a ‘climate-smart Prince George’s’ marketing claim standard for products grown utilizing these practices. Provide trained volunteers through ‘master gardener’ program to speak at farmers markets and community events about value of this standard. The marketing strategy will be focused on the specific commodities produced, their intended use and market. The marketing strategy will evolve and be developed in partnership with producers as we understand the practices producers are willing to utilize, the commodities they wish to grow, and market based on the program’s commodity list. This project anticipates it will help open doors to underserved communities by providing funding to encourage more equitable participation, marketing and mentoring to people pursuing agriculturally based occupations and serve as a cornerstone of agriculture’s role in the fight against climate change.
Lead Partner: Prince George’s County, Maryland
Other Major Partners: Prince George’s County Government Agencies and Entities, including Department of the Environment (DoE), Prince George's Soil Conservation District (PGSCD), Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Prince George’s County Food Equity Council (FEC), Bowie State University, University of Maryland Extension
Primary States Expected: MD
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,250,000
Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923
Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524
PVAMU Climate-Smart Farm Planning Program
This project plans to support historically underserved farmers in over 60 Texas counties as they adopt carbon-smart farm plans. This includes listening to the individual needs of farms to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices and provide technical assistance, financial incentives, and ongoing advising to help farmers develop regenerative agriculture practices. This project would also help producers market to down-supply chain purchasing partners that have placed value on regenerative agriculture. To quantify the GHGs emissions or sequestration from the proposed cropland or farm, the project will consider different sources of GHG benefits, including biomass and litter carbon stock changes, carbon stocks from mineral soils and organic soils, direct and indirect nitrous oxide emission from the soil, and methane uptake by soils. The project will use the COMET-Planner to quantify the participating farms' GHG and carbon sequestration benefits. PVAMU will explore and deploy new and cost-effective methods for quantifying GHG and carbon sequestration benefits, including employing in-situ measurements and developing new sensing methods to provide more accurate measurements. The project team will work with other stakeholders, such as American Carbon Registry, on protocols to define standards for the climate-smart certificates on quantifying the environmental benefits of climate-smart practices. The team will work with participating farmers in years 1 and 2 of this project to communicate with their preferred or current buyers. Communicating the certificate's value to these buyers could aid in driving demand for climate-smart commodity premiums. The project is led by a Minority Serving Institution. The project will work with small and underserved farmers providing training and certification in the first two years of the grant using a modularized, accelerated hands-on learning-based continuing-education approach. Incentives will be also provided to these farmers based on verification of climate-smart practice implementation.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas AgriForestry Small Farmers and Ranchers, the Landowners Association of Texas, Workforce Training and Development, Inc., Cargill, Inc., Monarch Academy
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Fruits, Livestock, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,000,000
Recognizing the Role of Buffalo Production as a Climate-Smart Commodity
Partners plan to distribute project funding to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices related to buffalo herds. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative (TBMI) plans to assist Tribes in marketing their buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, develop sustainable programs for underserved Tribal buffalo producers and create a Tribally led national strategy for education and outreach of buffalo as a climate-smart agricultural product. The project will also leverage COMET and biological and range studies for measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This project’s MMRV approach comprises three activities: 1) Enrolling Tribal buffalo herd managers to report carbon tracking data using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) and related tools; 2) Conducting biological surveys on each enrolled site, along with recording climatic conditions, and herd management strategies; 3) Supporting a Native graduate student studying climate-smart buffalo and rangeland management. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative will provide technical assistance for the development of market opportunities, providing outreach and education materials that market buffalo as climate-smart. Outreach products developed will be distributed to Intertribal Buffalo Council Member Tribes and their 1 million+ enrolled Tribal members, including educational materials highlighting buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, with infographics showcasing the buffalo’s place in the carbon cycle, along with educational videos, pamphlets, and other materials relating to the health benefits of consuming buffalo meat. An online platform will be developed to link partners and stakeholders and foster the development of market opportunities. Funding will be distributed to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices as they relate to their buffalo herds. Travel assistance will be provided to Tribal representatives for travel to Technical Assistance trainings and to attend relevant climate-change and buffalo restoration events.
Lead Partner: InterTribal Buffalo Council
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Primary States Expected: Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Buffalo
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,950,000
Regenerative Agriculture and its Potential in Climate-Smart Commodities to Enhance the Sustainability of Underserved and Limited Resources Farmers in South Carolina
The project plans to use its regional extension centers and county extension agents to provide outreach to enroll small scale, limited resource and underserved farmers in South Carolina interested in adopting and implementing best management practices to grow climate-smart commodities, such as leafy greens and cover crops. The farmers would be incentivized to adopt emission reduction, climate-smart agricultural practices to maximize soil health, and carbon sequestration. The project would establish local and regionally based small farmer cooperative to market the climate-smart cash crop commodities. GHG measurements will involve visits to farm fields and measuring data using a Gasmet greenhouse gas analyzer. The project will model greenhouse gas emissions using Cool Farm Tool and COMET-Farm to compare between the on-farm and in-situ results. The project will collaborate with Mixon Seed and the Department of Marketing in SC State College of Business and Information System to develop and implement a marketing plan for adapted climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: South Carolina State University
Other Major Partners: Mixon Seed Services, South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,542,629
Reviving the Chestnut: The Climate-Smart Crop
Participants, including underserved and minority farmers, would be reimbursed for costs associated with establishing and initially maintaining carbon smart chestnut orchards. The project partners would promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the specially-branded chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate-Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. The Georgia Alabama Land Trust will verify that all practices are implemented. The measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification plan will utilize a set of integrated USDA tools, Carbon Farmer, LLC carbon estimates, and Florida A&M University monitoring protocols. The farmers who participate in this program will be provided an opportunity to enroll in a Climate-Smart Chestnut Association (CSCA), which will jointly promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. CSCA will hire marketing consultants and design professionals to develop a branding-campaign, logo, and outreach strategy for the Climate-Smart chestnut. This project will introduce chestnuts as a viable and profitable climate-smart crop, with an emphasis on enabling underserved and minority farmers to establish chestnut orchards in southwest Georgia. The University Georgia Ag Extension Service will use their extensive relationships with landowners, farmers, and agricultural organizations to identify and contact potential participants. Emphasis will be placed on connecting with small farmers as well as beginning farmers, minority and other socially disadvantaged farmers, veterans, and other underrepresented producers. Project partners will host multiple information sessions in South Georgia until enough growers have been committed.
Lead Partner: Georgia Alabama Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The University of Georgia Cooperative Agricultural Extension, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (HBCU), Southern Farmers Collaborative Group, Climate Smart Chestnut Association
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Chestnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,987,920
Southwest Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Southwest Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower Southwest tribal beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. In addition, the project will expand and develop relationships with food system and purchasing partners, including Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and Tribal partners to explore the feasibility and utility of marketing through an indigenous beef label. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 50 participants which will all be based in the Southwest United States. As a major partner on the project, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance will bring their experience and existing relationships with tribal ranchers and other resource management partners across the Southwest, particularly the Navajo Nation and Navajo Agricultural Products Industry.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: Tribal, AZ, NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,912.84
The Building Climate Success by Empowering Humans to Care for our Natural Resources
Through this project, tribal and other underserved producers would receive financial assistance for adopting climate-smart practices for livestock and pecan production in Oklahoma. Project partners plan to create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market climate-smart products, including the creation of a climate-smart marketing class session and other resources. Partners will measure/estimate environmental impacts of adoption of conservation practices through soil health assessments, soil carbon measurements, estimated reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from runoff, estimated changes in GHG emissions, and increases in infiltration rates at the project sites; COMET-Farm will be used where applicable. The monitoring and assistance with the verification of practices and results of those practices will be handled through the existing network of conservation districts and tribal conservation districts in Oklahoma. The project will create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market their products, including the creation of a marketing class session that focuses specifically on the messaging that encourages consumers to purchase climate-smart products, and a webpage with detailed information about labeling options and marketing 101 information.
Lead Partner: Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Inc.
Other Major Partners: The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC), The Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project (OBHRPI), The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Conservation District, The Choctaw Nation Conservation District
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Livestock, Pecans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,916,285
The Coalition for Food Security
The Coalition for Food Security (CFS) plans to implement climate-smart practices related to indoor hydroponic vertical farming and optimize environmental climate control management to create a voluntary climate-smart produce marketplace. This would incentivize greenhouse gas reduction practices along the vegetable supply chain through direct partnerships between underserved producers and corporate buyers, enabling small and underserved producers to sell their produce directly to corporations. The CFS plans to design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at the pilot farm. In addition, CFS would provide internships to HBCU students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses. The project plans to establish a robust measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) system to track GHG reductions in climate-smart indoor lettuce production and also compare them against GHG emissions on a conventional lettuce farm to determine the associated GHG reduction. The project will validate climate-smart practices through COMET and demonstrate the scalability using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The project will develop a pilot marketplace that rewards the implementation of climate-smart practices and resulting greenhouse gas emission reductions. Importantly, the marketplace will allow all producers in every production sector to sell verifiable greenhouse gas reduction on a national market via the Coalition for Food Security (CFS) partners' food chain application by a reputable carbon registry. The project will design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at our pilot farm. In addition, the project will provide internships to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses.
Lead Partner: Ponix, Inc.
Other Major Partners: FoodChain Technologies, GTC 360 Advisors, Center for Global Health Innovation, Slater Infrastructure, University of the District of Columbia, Propel Center
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Hydroponic Lettuce
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,949
The Michigan Climate Smart Farm Project
This project plans to provide financial assistance to small scale and underserved producers as they transition to climate-smart commodity production using practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, pasture/silvo-pasture establishment, feed management, forest stand improvement, wetland restoration and combustion system improvements. Producers are planned to receive a regenerative premium through selling climate-smart products in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets. The project will seek to balance ease of implementation with validity and longevity of grower and climate impact within its MMRV plan by modeling GHG impacts in the USDA COMET and conducting soil sampling on the research and pilot farms, alongside new research employing a comprehensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) paired technology-forward monitoring approach using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The CSF Verification program will generally seek to 1) use initial assessment as basis for data collection, including initial soil samples, and initial energy analysis 2) utilize self-reporting database and software for any Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice changes, 3) utilize satellite technology and random sampling to track changes in benefits, 4) ensure effective and consistent communication from technical staff to farmers and landowners throughout the process, 5) present information in the form of $/acre to evaluate potential actions. The project will establish a regenerative premium through marketing the climate-smart products produced and sold in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets, ensuring that producers have continued incentives and benefits from embracing climate smart practices. Consumer and pilot producer interviews will inform the creation of the Climate Smart Farm program full brand package, which will then be used in the development of a robust marketing and communications plan. All of the farmers served in the project will be small or underserved producers. The diverse farmers included in the project will help build an inclusive cost share and market that includes small, new, and urban farms, and will distribute financial assistance to support producers as they transition to climate-smart agriculture.
Lead Partner: Michigan Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Washtenaw County Conservation District; University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, Michigan Department of Agriculture- Environmental Stewardship Division; Carbon Yield, Washtenaw County; The Soil Inventory Project, Monroe Conservation District, Lenawee Conservation District; Keep Growing Detroit; Wayne County Conservation District; Taste the Local Difference (TLD)
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Fruits, Livestock, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,724,539.91
Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative
The Urban Ag Climate Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers and provide financial incentives to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This five-state pilot program plans to work with small and/or underserved producers to increase the supply and demand for Climate-Smart Commodities in rural and urban markets. The project intends to assist with purchasing items producers may need to set up climate-smart retail operations. Participants would also receive an Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Marketing Toolkit and access to marketing bootcamps teaching farmers and partnering Urban Ag groups how to market climate-smart commodities to potential consumers. MCL Jasco will help to improve measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration by providing scientific lab testing of the participating farm's soil throughout the duration of this project. This will help to improve measurement through this data driven approach. They will also use the following MMRV methods to verify results: intact soil cores, soil-surface efflux measurements of CO2, CH4, and N2O taken on farms and under specific practices at weekly intervals, field-scale studies to measure and evaluate changes in soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate-smart agricultural practices and the field module COMET (farm) utilizing the use DayCent model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions. Through these strategies, MCL Jasco aims to incentivize farmers to embrace climate smart production practices, endeavor to cultivate markets and raise awareness about the immense value of climate-smart commodities. MCL Jasco which specializes in serving hard-to-reach demographics, plans to reach underserved producers throughout the project. The Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach historically underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers through different types of outreach events and provide financial incentives for a 3-tier practice implementation regime to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This will assist with improvement of their retail operations and to support communities with climate-smart commodities available for consumption many of which are located in "food deserts."
Lead Partner: MCL Jasco, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Alcorn State University, National Association of Women in Agriculture, Southern A&M University, KTM Consulting
Primary States Expected: LA, MS
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,635
Validating Agrivoltaic Technology with Underserved Agricultural Producers
This project plans to pilot the climate-smart co-location of agriculture and solar power (agrivoltaics) to measure and evaluate greenhouse gas benefits and promote equitable climate-smart commodity market development for Hispanic farmers and ranchers. Partners also plan to provide direct financial and culturally relevant technical assistance to participants for implementing agrivoltaic systems on their farms and ranches.
Lead Partner: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Other Major Partners: Purdue University, AgriSolar Clearinghouse, HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, Texas/Mexico Border Coalition (TMBC), Starr County Industrial Foundation (SCIF), Hub of Prosperity, Zamora Ranch, Justice and Mercy Energy Services (JustEnergy), RGV Solar LLC
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Beef, Goat Meat, Lamb, Livestock, Orchard, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $2,229,200
Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
Projects by State
- Alabama
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet AL (PDF, 399 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Climate-smart (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation) --This project, which will reach across 28 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC.
Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Ag, Natrl. Res. & Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State Univ., SustainCert & 50 ag retail coops.
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Cotton, Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990
Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42
Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the Participation of Marginal Producers and Landowners to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices: Continuous Efforts of 1890 Agroforestry Consortium
The project plans to support small-scale and other underserved producers in three states with financial and technical assistance to transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system. All producers and landowners are planned to receive financial incentives to cover costs of inputs and services Partners will form a marketing network for labelling, packaging, and branding CS commodities. The project's MMRV plan will include core sampling for carbon sequestration benefits in soil, in-field measurement of GHG effluxes, and quantification of carbon sequestered in trees and shrubs based on above and below-ground biomass. To measure GHG benefits associated with climate smart animal-production systems, partners will include the use of mobile small animal GreenFeed measurement systems, forage biomass samples, and other collected data. The GHG benefits associated with the implemented climate-smart practices will be verified based on the carbon sequestration and GHG emission results and their continuity over the project period, using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET). The project will adopt a robust marketing plan to explore, create, expand, and promote climate smart commodities marketing during the project period and create an inter-state marketing consortium to educate producers and landowners on how to promote domestic markets for their climate-smart commodities. The project will also facilitate the setting of premium prices for the climate-smart commodities by introducing labels/badges and marketing materials on packaging and branding, e.g., a climate-smart logo and the price per unit of climate smart commodity on the label/badge. This project, led by a minority serving institution, is expected to enroll primarily small and underserved producers and landowners. Each participant will receive financial incentives to procure inputs and pay for services required for implementing climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Primary States Expected: AL, MD, VA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Medicinal Herbs, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Alaska
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet AK (PDF, 380 KB)
Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Arizona
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet AZ (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops
The project would promote climate-smart food production practices including strip cropping, multi-story cropping and others for desert adapted crops within four agrisystems. Producers would receive payments for implementing and auditing these practices and for additional practices as well as technical assistance specialized based on culture, language and experience. Through its partners, the project will create a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets. The project also plans to lease a commercial test kitchen for identifying culinary qualities of climate-smart crops, conducting consumer research, promoting a Desert Seed-to-Table program, and advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project will rigorously monitor and measure production shifts through adapting the COMET-Farm calculators and GAP tools of the USDA to six production practices and several crops that these tools do not currently cover in depth. MMRV will include portable photosynthesis systems to measure rates of CO2 uptake, and fossil fuel and water consumption monitoring. The project will also conduct an ecogeographic analysis to identify and prioritize crop varieties adapted to current or future growing conditions in Arizona that may lower GHG emissions through reduced agricultural water and energy inputs. Through its partners, the project will market and promote climate-smart food crops in a variety of ways including through the creation of a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets: advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project has targeted outreach strategies for engaging Native American/Indigenous farmers, beginning and transitioning farmers, including through engaging existing organizations, tribal communities and networks; providing specialized technical assistance; and creating an experiential learning curriculum.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Local First Arizona
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beans, Cactus, Desert-adapted Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,782,261Building a Climate-Smart Domestic Rubber Industry and a Solution for Growers to a Water Crisis
This project will expand natural rubber production in the Southwest with lowered greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs in the region and for tribal stakeholders, and building a climate-smart rubber bioeconomy based on climate-smart and sustainable practices. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive, and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone, which is providing more than $35M in cost share to the project. The strategy would incorporate an integrated, robust, and comprehensive approach to data measurement and analysis, which includes soil carbon and plant measurements, ground level GHG measurements, flux tower measurements, soil carbon modeling, and holistic life cycle and techno-economic modeling. Data from field measurements and modeling is planned to be used to recommend large-scale adoption and feed directly into COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone. Bridgestone is providing more than $35M in cost share, demonstrating its commitment to the development of the climate-smart natural rubber commodity. Bridgestone is currently pursuing numerous market areas and has already engaged prospective customers in many of those areas. Some specific market activities by co-product/product including natural rubber latex and resin. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive regardless of yield and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Bridgestone Americas, Inc., Colorado State University, OpenET, Tohono O'odham Nation, Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mohave, Chemeuvi, Hopi and Navajo peoples)
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Natural Rubber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-SMART (Specific Management for Arizona Resilience and Transformation) Agriculture Best Management Practices
Participants in this Arizona-based project would be paid to apply climate-smart practices that reduce pesticide and fertilizer inputs; reduce tillage, use diverse cover crop, rest pastures and use rotational grazing. The project would emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing between Native American producers and other participants and would market climate-smart commodities through partnership networks. MMRV for the project will include the use of management evaluation, COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and soil sampling, with technical assistance staff monitoring progress with participants twice per year to assess continuation of chosen Climate Smart Farming practices. Combining the GHG quantification methodology with the producer reports on practices implemented, the project will calculate more specific estimates of GHG benefits generated per farm, and per project and will report the overall project benefits per dollar expended. The results of the project will be uploaded in COMET-Planner. The project will create markets of varying scales for enrolled producers, including a new "Climate-Smart” category on the Organic Trade Association's business directory, and local marketing of Climate-Smart goods with partners, Local First AZ and Pinnacle Prevention. The Organic Trade Association will connect buyers from across the U.S. to Organic and Climate-Smart products. Arizona State University Swette Center will guide producers who want to be certified organic through the process with training guides to sell products through the well-established organic certified market. The project seeks to focus on underserved populations and to create collaborative partnerships between indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK) and conventional producers to emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing. Those farmers and ranchers who have already adopted USDA Organic standards and regenerative practices will also be engaged as our “early adopters” and help with the transfer of knowledge to conventional producers.
Lead Partner: Arizona Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance, Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University (ASU) Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Arizona, Local First Arizona, Pinnacle Prevention, Soil Health Institute, Northern Arizona University, Organic Trade Association
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Livestock, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,902,482Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Southwest Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Southwest Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower Southwest tribal beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. In addition, the project will expand and develop relationships with food system and purchasing partners, including Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and Tribal partners to explore the feasibility and utility of marketing through an indigenous beef label. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 50 participants which will all be based in the Southwest United States. As a major partner on the project, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance will bring their experience and existing relationships with tribal ranchers and other resource management partners across the Southwest, particularly the Navajo Nation and Navajo Agricultural Products Industry.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: Tribal, AZ, NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,912.84Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
- Arkansas
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet AR (PDF, 303 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Climate Resiliency for the Farm and Market Development: Economically Viable Low Carbon and Climate-Smart Practices for Soybean Farming
Team Climate-Smart Soybean plan to provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. Participants would use cover crops, no-till, climate-smart soybeans, crop rotation, bio-fertilizers, and biochar. Led by a Hispanic-serving institution, project assistance would be provided in a culturally relative approach. As a Hispanic-serving institution. monitoring, reporting, and verification activities for climate-smart practices will be developed at UT-Arlington in collaboration with researchers, agricultural economists, and commodity developers at Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, University of Missouri, and Texas Valley Grain. The project will use COMET, to evaluate carbon sequestration and GHG reductions associated with specific production practices (baseline) and field-based data collection, soil gas fluxes of CO2, N2O, NO, and CH4 measured via portable Gasmet DX4000 FTIR Analyzer, plant tissue analysis and direct soil sampling. The research team, named "Team Climate-Smart Soybean", will participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. The project will provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices which result in generation of verifiable GHG reductions and carbon sequestration. At the completion of this project, multiple small/underserved soybean producers from each state enlisted will have integrated climate-smart farming practices into their land management strategies, giving them and their immediate neighbors access to information on these innovative technologies that are scientifically proven to curb GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and bolster a more regenerative approach to modem agriculture. Bringing these technologies to small/underserved farmers and seeing the production outcomes, market share for climate-smart commodities will increase due to demand by the early adopters.
Lead Partner: University of Texas at Arlington
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Missouri, Tarleton State University
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,991,439Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing and Harnessing Climate-Smart Commodities from Hardwood Restoration for Small and Underserved Landowners in the Southern Bottomland Region
This project plans to focus on working with small scale and underserved landowners on marketing climate-smart wood products with support for bottomland hardwood afforestation and planting mixed hardwood oak plantations. Full technical and financial assistance is planned for landowners and demonstration sites. Partners plan to use a forest inventory system to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimate carbon storage and evaluate indicator wildlife populations. COMET will be one tool used to quantify carbon associated with Bottom Land Hardwood (BLH) restoration; carbon calculation results using field experiment and measurement data as well as other published data and tools will in turn be provided to supplement current COMET data. In addition, the project will quantify the net change in C stocks associated with BLH restoration compared to the existing agricultural land use. Carbon sequestration and storage resulting from BLH restoration will be tracked in several C pools: soil organic matter, live tree biomass, understory, deadwood, litter, and harvested wood products. A forest inventory system will be used to monitor and assess tree stand structure, composition, and health status across the bottomland hardwood forests, and estimates of carbon storage will be quantified. Wildlife populations, which indicate ecological health in forested systems, will be evaluated using appropriate technologies. Project personnel will produce and disseminate a marketing pamphlet and social media materials that will highlight the climate-smart hardwood timber and other supplementary ecosystem services produced from the hardwood plantations. This will help reach broad audiences or potential buyers in a more cost-effective way. The participating landowners will also be provided project assistance if they choose to enroll their hardwood plantations in a forest certification program with either the American Tree Farm System, which is recognized by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or the Forest Stewardship Council. The partners will recruit small and underserved landowners and create demonstration sites. Full technical and financial assistance will be provided to the landowners. All project activities will be financially supported by the partners, allowing producers to engage in climate-smart bottomland hardwood establishment with fewer barriers. Outreach activities will provide technical assistance to landowners on project development, methods employed, new technologies, and practical management with a focus on beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, limited resource farmers, veteran farmers, and women farmers.
Lead Partner: Division of Agriculture of University of Arkansas
Other Major Partners: University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM), University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), Keep it in the Family Program, Texas A&M University
Primary States Expected: AR
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,710,171Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Growing Value for Producers
This project will create and pilot-test a farmer-friendly system that builds capacity with institutions interacting with a range of producers, including underserved producers, to support adoption of climate- smart practices and interact with commodity buyers in climate-smart markets. MMRV for this project involves a fully integrated, nationally scalable ACR Agriculture Registry designed, built, tested, and utilized for standardized quantification of GHG benefits using COMET Planner, automated cost-effective reporting, verification via plug and play design with data collectors, and linkage to a transparent registry system for the issuance to producers of serialized GHG Certificates for monetization to buyers. The project will spearhead a market development campaign including creation of a buyers’ club network to link producers and commodity/GHG certificate buyers. The project targets outreach to enroll at least 20 underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Winrock International Institute for Agriculture Development
Other Major Partners: Arva Intelligence, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Riceland Foods Inc.
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Supreme Rice, LLC's Climate-Smart Initiative to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Water Use Through the Adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation Practices in Rice Production
This project will expand climate-smart markets and provide financial incentives for underserved and small-scale rice producers to reduce methane emissions through alternate wetting and drying irrigation and adopt other sustainable growing practices to reduce emissions and water consumption. Project plans to offer financial incentives for changing management practices and reducing perceived risk barriers. A multi-faceted campaign is planned to educate consumers and recognized participating producers. Pre-established baselines are planned to be used to quantify methane emissions in rice by peer-reviewed research. Automated water level measuring devices, Crop Links, are planned to be deployed at a rate of 1 per every 100 acres. The project plans to design a campaign to educate consumers and bring recognition to the farmers and climate-smart commodities in the project. This campaign would be multi-faceted in nature, through the use of focused storytelling, TV Ads, Radio, YouTube Videos, Facebook Ads, Cooking shows, and Billboard Ads. Supreme plans to ensure that growers who fit the “underserved and small grower” category are informed and have every opportunity to participate in the program. The project expects to enroll 769 growers and 166,415 program acres attributed to underserved rice growers.
Lead Partner: Supreme Rice, LLC
Other Major Partners: Southern University and A&M College, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Rice Growers, Arkansas Rice Growers
Primary States Expected: AR, LA
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefits
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- California
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet CA (PDF, 313 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000California Dairy Research Foundation Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will build climate-smart dairy markets and provide financial incentives for dairy producers to adopt climate-smart manure management practices to reduce methane emissions, leveraging matching funding from non-federal sources. Financial incentives are planned on a per-cow basis to producers to implement vermifiltration, evaporative liquid waste processing systems, subsurface drip fertigation using liquid manure, weeping walls, aerated static compost piles, and others. On average producers will likely receive incentives that account for 30 to 50 percent of their total costs of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice adoption, while also receiving a premium for the climate-smart milk. This project plans to utilize partnerships designed to market climate-smart milk for a higher premium and conduct a consumer market messaging analysis to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of approaches to best promote climate-smart milk in multiple market channels. The project plans to have producers quantify estimated on-farm methane emissions reductions through a web-based calculator, and have universities provide in-field verification measurements of greenhouse gas (GHG) and nitrogen excess reductions. Verification of practice implementation is planned to be through producer documentation and post-project site visit. The project plans for at least 10 percent of producer incentives to go to small and underserved producers and to provide partial advance payments to those producers. CDFA-funded technical service providers would work one-on-one with producers to help them evaluate practices and prepare an application to be considered for producer incentives, which will be particularly impactful to small and underserved producers, who may not have the resources or support to fully execute this task.
Lead Partner: California Dairy Research Foundation
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food and Agriculture, California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, California Milk Advisory Board, Dairy Cares, California Dairy Campaign, California Dairy Quality Assurance Program, Milk Producers Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Sustainable Conservation, Western United Dairies, California Farm Bureau Federation, University of California, Davis, University of California, Riverside, University of California Cooperative Extension, Truterra, California Dairies, Inc., Challenge Dairy Products, Nestlé
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $85,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Capacity to Quantify Climate-Smart Practices in Cool Season Specialty Crops
This project would provide advanced, technical assistance in English and Spanish to underserved and small grower partner operations to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use, plant cover crops and use soil amendments. Growers would receive mini-grants to monitor and report grower experience and conservation outcomes related to the implementation of proposed practices. Bilingual student Climate-Smart Ag Ambassadors plan to work directly with technical assistance staff and farmers to alleviate communication barriers and provide direct on-farm outreach to growers through field demonstration days. MMRV activities will be conducted both at producer farm locations and at a dedicated MMRV site with characteristics comparable to the producer locations. MMRV at the dedicated site will include direct GHG emission measurements and the COMET Tool, Water use efficiency using CropManage, plant-available Nitrogen, soil C/N, non-marketable residual biomass, and marketable crop biomass. MMRV at the producer locations will include the COMET Tool, CropManage, CropTrak, Nitrate quick test, and yield data. The project will identify markets for climate-smart commodities; develop climate-smart produce signage, website, and social media campaign, and develop a climate-smart produce label. Producers will be assisted with determining the best way to market their products and in developing stories about their experiences to include in marketing campaigns. The project will provide webinars, meetings, and field days, estimate economic benefits for participating producers, identify barriers, and guide growers on path to market entry to access buyers for climate-smart commodities. The project will target outreach to underserved specialty crop producers on 1-5 acres.
Lead Partner: University Corporation at Monterey Bay
Other Major Partners: Huntington Farms, RCD of Monterey County, University of California Davis, University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Western Growers
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,992Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25Foodshed Small Farm Distro and Resource Hub Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot
The Climate-Smart Incentive Pilot plans to would generate climate-smart economic opportunities and provide direct incentives to small and socially disadvantaged specialty crop farmers in San Diego County for improving soil health through climate-smart compost application, reduced tillage and tree/shrub establishment and quantifying GHG reductions. Project partners plan to address equity by reducing barriers caused by language, and limited access to equipment and information. Foodshed will seek to measure four carefully selected “Climate-Smart Commodity Metrics”: 1) change in soil organic matter; 2) fungal to bacterial ratio; 3) volume of compost applied; and 4) dollar value of climate-smart specialty crops produced and distributed to historically underserved end-users living in a neighborhood with a Healthy Places Index score below 50%. Foodshed will produce a Soil Health Report to analyze and share findings with project stakeholders. Foodshed will establish at least four “Climate-Smart Market Channels” that: prioritize distribution to underserved/socially disadvantaged communities as defined by California’s Healthy Places Index; have the capacity to track distribution to end-users. Not only will underserved producers receive direct financial benefits for their participation in this project, but the partners will address barriers associated with not having time and resources to introduce new cropping practices, not speaking English, not having access to the proper equipment, and not having the knowledge-base to introduce climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Foodshed, Inc.
Other Major Partners: County of San Diego Department of Health, San Diego Food System Alliance
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Launching The North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project plans to work collaboratively with regional small and historically underserved producers to launch the North Valley Food Hub for Climate-Smart Agriculture. The Hub plans to provide farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities by consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products. The project plans to support producers in implementing a variety of climate-smart cover crops; no-till or minimum-till practices; nutrient management; enhanced efficiency fertilizers; planting for high carbon sequestration rates; and soil amendments. An incentive payment is planned to be offered for each producer implementing an advanced practice. This project will leverage existing tools including COMET-Farm and California Department of Food and Agriculture's Healthy Soils Program Calculator Tool, and supplement with an additional level of verification of GHG benefits for participating producers by conducting soil analysis through Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient System's (CRARS) own Regenerative Agriculture Demonstration Lab and collecting additional on-farm soil health data. The project will partner with the North Valley Food Hub, providing farm-to-fork integration through marketing and sales support for project climate-smart commodities. The Hub will provide critical services to both growers and wholesale buyers that include consolidating transaction costs, creating a one-stop shopping platform for buyers and a marketplace for growers to post and promote their products, and serving as a centralized facilitator for creating and expanding the regional food market in the Sacramento Valley. Through appropriate, trusted, and culturally relevant outreach via partner organizations directly serving small and underserved producers, this project anticipates that at least 75 percent of the participating producers to be either small and/or underserved producers. To meet any potential needs of small and underserved producers to access incentives, producers will also be provided the opportunity to request an incentive advance payment up to 50 percent of the total incentive amount.
Lead Partner: Chico State Enterprises
Other Major Partners: Butte County Farm Bureau; North State Hulling Cooperative, Douglass Ranch; GRUB Farms; Chico State Organic Vegetable Project, Chico State Basic Needs Hungry, Wildcat Pantry, California State University, Chico
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Almonds, Peaches, Prunes, Rice, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables, Tomatoes, Walnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,796Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000Native Food Crops for Innovative Climate-Smart Production Models and Supply Chains – The Case of Blue Elderberry in the West
The project aims to assist early-adopter Tribal, underserved and small-scale producers to successfully produce a marketable elderberry crop from perennial planting, measure carbon sequestration and develop local processing capacity. Producers would receive an incentive payment per linear foot of elderberry planting, to cover the costs of establishment, maintenance, and the implementation of the additional suite of climate-smart agriculture practices. The project would identify potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), provide processing capabilities, and develop marketing materials. In addition to COMET Planner, the project will use three certification/verification protocols matched to the specific land base and production system to monitor and verify quantitative and qualitative ecological indicators and CO2 emission reduction through soil carbon sequestration and provide participating landbases a pathway to the climate smart market. The project will also monitor crop yields to track benefits per unit of harvested elderberries, will use remotely sensed data to monitor physical parameters, and will use geolocation enabled digital surveys to create a spatial inventory of project sites. The project will develop a system to value add and market the climate-smart native western blue elderberry, including by promoting to identified potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), providing processing capabilities, and developing marketing materials such as videography, photography, and web assets. Participating producers include small producers and underserved. The project also emphasizes workforce development within the Chumash community and will include funding to train Chumash tribal members to harvest elderberries for cultural purposes. The target audience for our outreach will include other underserved and small producers.
Lead Partner: White Buffalo Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office (SYCEO)- Camp 4, Community Environmental Council, The Regents of the University of California – Agriculture and Natural Resources (e.g. UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program), University of California - Davis, Beyond the Farm, Cage Free Productions, Propagate, Design Firm, Just One Organics
Primary States Expected: CA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Western Blue Elderberries
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,633,935Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Sonoma Marin Ag and County Climate Coalition
This project will build on successful carbon farming and local/regional food systems partnerships across two counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. The purpose is to expand climate-smart markets, including a regional supply chain and innovative marketing campaign for climate-smart agricultural products. This will create a scalable, regional carbon finance program that is sustainable and scale implementation for the long term. The project plans to provide at least 75 percent of project costs for participants, with a special round of funding for underserved and small-scale producers. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, interactive marketing campaign, climate-smart badge and educational farm tours. The potential GHG benefits of each practice, as applied at the farm scale, plan to be estimated using COMET-Planner, or local peer-reviewed research where applicable and available. The project also plans to use a Project Tracker tool that manages data for planned and implemented projects. The planned marketing strategy includes producer stories, an interactive marketing campaign and climate-smart badge, and educational farm tours. The project plans to host a special round of funding earmarked for underserved and small producers. Cost share may be waived or reduced for underserved producers to promote equity.
Lead Partner: County of Sonoma
Other Major Partners: Agricultural Institute of Marin, Marin Resource Conservation District, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Carbon Cycle Institute, Sonoma County Department of Agriculture, Sonoma County Regional Climate, Protection Agency, Marin Agricultural Land Trust, University of California Cooperative Extension, MarinCAN, Marin County Sustainability Team, Sonoma County Farm Bureau, Marin County Department of Agriculture, Marin County Cooperation Team, Sanzuma, LookInto
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Fiber, Grapes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Unlocking the Benefits of Regenerative Almonds: Partnerships to Develop and Expand Global Climate-Smart Market Opportunities through Grower Incentives
This project will promote the adoption of climate-smart and regenerative practices on California almond farms, including those operated by underserved producers, and expand market opportunities for climate-smart almonds through development of verified claims, business-to-business reporting, and supply-chain greenhouse gas quantification. This will support the development of a market-based mechanism for almond buyers and incentivize almond growers to adopt climate-smart practices. The project plans to provide incentives for almond grower adoption of cover crops, conservation cover, hedgerows, and whole orchard recycling. The project plans to develop a third-party verification and chain of custody system to support marketing efforts. And explore how to best leverage products as propriety brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. The project plans to have all growers quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits using the COMET-Planner tool as employed in California for the CDFA Healthy Soils Program. The project also plans to develop a system of monitoring, reporting, and third-party verification of climate-smart practices. The project plans to engage third-party verification and chain of custody systems to support climate-smart claims that relate to product labeling needs and customer expectations. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. Upon establishment of these systems, Blue Diamond Growers will convene meetings with key internal leaders, consumer insights analysts, and financial analysts to explore how to best leverage product claims resulting from this program with either proprietary brands or ingredient products sold to other food companies, or both. About 85% of the requested funds are planned to go to specialty crop growers of almonds to implement Climate Smart practices.
Lead Partner: Blue Diamond Growers
Other Major Partners: Cool Farm Alliance Pollinator Partnership, Project Apis, SureHarvest, Where Food Comes From, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
Primary States Expected: CA
Major Commodities: Almonds
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
- Colorado
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet CO (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Colorado Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
Participating producers would receive financial assistance for implementing climate-smart practices in beef production and monitoring project outcomes. The project would model a successful, durable, and transferable climate-smart commodities market model to regenerate working landscapes. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in Colorado.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Multiplier Working Lands Conservation, Central Colorado Conservancy, Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: CO
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,963.37Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High-Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
- Connecticut
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet CT (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- District of Columbia
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet DC (PDF, 298 KB)
Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000
- Delaware
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet DE (PDF, 302 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
- Florida
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet FL (PDF, 311 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Hispanic Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative
This project plans to work with Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic pasture and forage farmers to diversify and increase production while managing climate-smart farming methods and quantifying environmental outcomes. Project partners would address cultural and language barriers to provide technical assistance for implementing practices and marketing their beef in new revenue streams. Farmers with under 100 acres under management would be offered a higher flat fee per year. Victus aims to develop an easy-to-use platform that will enable farmers to run field-level simulations from APSIM, DSSAT, and COMET-Farm (via the API, for Florida farms only) to estimate key crops (yield, crop mass, development, water, and nitrogen- use efficiency) and soil (carbon, nitrogen, water) metrics from the farming systems in the project. Besides providing valuable information for farm management and planning, the soil metrics derived from these models are increasingly used for the estimation of carbon storage and emissions of GHGs, such as N2O. The project plans to market climate-smart beef and breadfruit and develop the capacity of Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic farmers to diversify and increase production and climate-smart market access, including local and direct marketing opportunities and ecosystem markets. The project plans to design and implement a culturally appropriate procedure to certify climate-smart commodities produced by Hispanic farmers to expand markets, and develop new revenue streams or increase current ones. The project is dedicated to enhancing the climate-smart economic benefits for Hispanic farmers in Florida and Puerto Rico through incentives.
Lead Partner: Victus Puerto Rico, Inc.
Other Major Partners: mano-Y-ola LLC, Bien-Estar Agrícola LLC PR, Fundación Santa Elena de la Sabana Inc. PR, NTDS Consulting Group
Primary States Expected: FL, PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Breadfruits
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,926,250Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Georgia
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet GA (PDF, 304 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Reviving the Chestnut: The Climate-Smart Crop
Participants, including underserved and minority farmers, would be reimbursed for costs associated with establishing and initially maintaining carbon smart chestnut orchards. The project partners would promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the specially-branded chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate-Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. The Georgia Alabama Land Trust will verify that all practices are implemented. The measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification plan will utilize a set of integrated USDA tools, Carbon Farmer, LLC carbon estimates, and Florida A&M University monitoring protocols. The farmers who participate in this program will be provided an opportunity to enroll in a Climate-Smart Chestnut Association (CSCA), which will jointly promote the carbon reduction practices implemented through this project and market the chestnuts produced by members as a premium “Climate Smart” food that can reduce consumers’ impact on climate change. CSCA will hire marketing consultants and design professionals to develop a branding-campaign, logo, and outreach strategy for the Climate-Smart chestnut. This project will introduce chestnuts as a viable and profitable climate-smart crop, with an emphasis on enabling underserved and minority farmers to establish chestnut orchards in southwest Georgia. The University Georgia Ag Extension Service will use their extensive relationships with landowners, farmers, and agricultural organizations to identify and contact potential participants. Emphasis will be placed on connecting with small farmers as well as beginning farmers, minority and other socially disadvantaged farmers, veterans, and other underrepresented producers. Project partners will host multiple information sessions in South Georgia until enough growers have been committed.
Lead Partner: Georgia Alabama Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The University of Georgia Cooperative Agricultural Extension, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (HBCU), Southern Farmers Collaborative Group, Climate Smart Chestnut Association
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Chestnuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,987,920Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Coalition for Food Security
The Coalition for Food Security (CFS) plans to implement climate-smart practices related to indoor hydroponic vertical farming and optimize environmental climate control management to create a voluntary climate-smart produce marketplace. This would incentivize greenhouse gas reduction practices along the vegetable supply chain through direct partnerships between underserved producers and corporate buyers, enabling small and underserved producers to sell their produce directly to corporations. The CFS plans to design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at the pilot farm. In addition, CFS would provide internships to HBCU students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses. The project plans to establish a robust measurement/quantification, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) system to track GHG reductions in climate-smart indoor lettuce production and also compare them against GHG emissions on a conventional lettuce farm to determine the associated GHG reduction. The project will validate climate-smart practices through COMET and demonstrate the scalability using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The project will develop a pilot marketplace that rewards the implementation of climate-smart practices and resulting greenhouse gas emission reductions. Importantly, the marketplace will allow all producers in every production sector to sell verifiable greenhouse gas reduction on a national market via the Coalition for Food Security (CFS) partners' food chain application by a reputable carbon registry. The project will design and market a franchise program to incentivize minority landowners and underserved producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture practices demonstrated at our pilot farm. In addition, the project will provide internships to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) students to participate in our project and other franchise programs for graduating students to start agricultural businesses.
Lead Partner: Ponix, Inc.
Other Major Partners: FoodChain Technologies, GTC 360 Advisors, Center for Global Health Innovation, Slater Infrastructure, University of the District of Columbia, Propel Center
Primary States Expected: GA
Major Commodities: Hydroponic Lettuce
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,949The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Hawaii
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet HI (PDF, 300 KB)
Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Portfolio of Partnerships for Hawaii Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will help overcome climate-smart implementation barriers through investment and incentives, improve technical assistance capacity through community-based organization networks, build decision support tools for modeling/verification, and generate internal momentum for a market- based climate-smart sustainable food system embedded within resilient and abundant landscapes across Hawaii. The project plans to use a statewide producer engagement team to spearhead a phased approach to producer engagement and equity. It also plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies, develop a locally grown and climate smart communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchases, tourism industry, food hubs, retailers and distributors. The project plans to establish a technical team with domain expertise for monitoring/verification activities. The project plans to conduct comprehensive consumer and institutional buyer studies in Year 1 that will draw on recent data on visitor willingness-to-pay for food produced in Hawaii. The project plans to develop a “Locally-grown and Climate Smart!” communications and branding strategy in partnership with major institutional purchasers, the Hawaii tourism industry, various food and community resilience hubs, food retailers and distributors, and existing branding initiatives. Expanded opportunities are anticipated in Phase 2 for smaller, less well-connected producers - many of whom are indigenous, immigrant, minority, and/or homestead farmers and livestock producers.
Lead Partner: Lynker Corporation
Other Major Partners: Hawai'i Producer Engagement Team, Hawai'i Cattlemen's Council, Oahu Resource Conservation and Development Council, Hawai'i Farmers Union United, The Kohala Center, Pacific Gateway Center, Forest Solutions Incorporated, Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, University of Hawai'i, University of Florida, Colorado State University, Natural Resource Data Solutions, Inc., Hawai'i Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Oahu Agriculture and Conservation Association, Hawaii Ulu Cooperative, Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council, Kane Plantation
Primary States Expected: HI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Avocado, Beef, Breadfruits, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Sugarcane, Taro, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- Idaho
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet ID (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho: A Public-Private-Tribal Partnership
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 100 farms in Idaho through the provision of financial and technical assistance to producers, with a focus on barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, and hops. Project plans to direct 75 percent of funds to participant incentives for implementing a variety of practices including cover crops, no-till, biochar, cover crops with livestock grazing, interseeding of legumes and precision fertilizer application. The measurement and monitoring system are planned to be based on field and laboratory measurements using a spatially nested design to facilitate scaling-up of project results. The Carbon Management Evaluation Tools (COMET-Farm) are planned to be utilized throughout the project to establish baselines; this project also plans to generate data from field measurements of GHG emissions that will be used to improve COMET and other models for use within the western U.S. This project plans to focus on seven key commodities in Idaho with national and international markets: barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, hops and specialty crops. At least 30% of enrolled producers are planned to be from underserved communities, including mostly veterans, women, and small producers.
Lead Partner: Regents of the University of Idaho
Other Major Partners: Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, The Wave Foundation, Desert Mountain Grassfed Beef, Salmon Safe/Kooskooskie Fish, LLC, University of Idaho, SaulGill, LLC DBA Arrowleaf Consulting
Primary States Expected: ID, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickpea, Hops, Potatoes, Specialty Crops, Sugar Beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Illinois
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet IL (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Indiana
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet IN (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef Strategy
This project aims to generate knowledge of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions for the Fischer Farms beef production system, to inform future business decisions, and to generate science- based marketing tools that will enable buyers to actively participate in climate-positive purchasing and eating decisions. The project will include livestock producers, and it will support Fischer Farms’ market expansion into other areas. The project will utilize Dual Comb Laser Technology for measuring all greenhouse gas benefits. Rigorous sampling, first-of-a-kind monitoring, and innovative analysis will lead to a new science-based understanding of the potential to deliver beef to the market that is truly a climate-smart commodity. This novel laser technology is planned to measure methane and other greenhouse gases at both the barn lots and pasture settings at Fischer Farms network farms. This approach will provide detailed measurements of beef cattle GHG emissions on pasture and allow for the quantification of the impacts of algae feed supplement on reducing methane emissions with the Ultimate Beef production system. The research plan entails 1) relevant data collection and analysis of the Ultimate Beef system, 2) implementation of USDA’s COMET-Farm and IFSM modeling tools, and 3) development of an ISO-compliant Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the GWP benefits of Ultimate Beef relative to the conventional US system. A marketing manager and sales team will develop and execute the Climate-Smart marketing campaign with a goal of educating consumers on the impact of climate-smart meet and their purchasing decisions. They will leverage on-line platforms and print advertising as well as partner with whole-sale buyers. Project activities will involve expansion of marketing in Indiana, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. With an existing network of more than 100 diversified, small, veteran, beginning, BIPOC and other underserved producers committed to the brand, Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef ensures fair pay and equitable representation for farmers and workers in the value chain. Additionally, the project will provide a critical opportunity for market access to a network of small and underserved farmers who would otherwise be challenged to verify and enter climate-smart market channels. Special emphasis will be placed on expanding the network of farmers in underserved areas.
Lead Partner: Fischer Farms Natural Foods, LLC
Other Major Partners: Indiana University, Carbon Solutions
Primary States Expected: IN, KY
Major Commodities: Beef, Pork
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Iowa
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet IA (PDF, 307 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Building Profitability for Underserved Producers with a Pipeline of Land Access, Regenerative Agriculture, and Market Development
This project aims to provide resettled refugees access to low- or no-cost land and technical assistance to create scalable and profitable agricultural small businesses through the creation of demand for commodities produced using climate-smart practices. Project plans for farmers to use climate-smart practices. These producers would also receive technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations. The project will partner with CultivateAI to manage greenhouse gas benefit quantification. Farmers will have access to a private data silo to safely store their farm records and input data. CultivateAI will use its innovative, app-based software to establish digital records of both operational activities and Climate-Smart practices at the farm or field level and uses the COMET model for quantification. CultivateAI will work with partners and farmers to build a custom application for easy documentation of farming practices using icons/symbols to minimize barriers for farmers with low literacy and/or limited English. By working collectively on behalf of participating farmers, partners will open access for small-scale producers that might otherwise be closed, including both retail and food assistance markets. Producers will be able to both sell products and educate consumers about the value of climate-smart commodities, creating a demand premium. Underserved producers targeted for outreach to enroll in this project largely consists of refugees that have been resettled in Iowa. These producers will benefit by receiving access to land, technical assistance and engagement, translation assistance for non-English speakers, modeling of climate-smart practices, financial resources, and market access through partner organizations.
Lead Partner: Dalla Terra Ranch Foundation (In Harmony Farm)
Other Major Partners: Lutheran Services of Iowa Global Greens, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Small Farm Land Access Program, Iowa State University Agronomy Department, Iowa International Center, CultivateAI, Fareway Food Stores, Food Bank of Iowa, Des Moines Area Religious Council
Primary States Expected: IA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $1,437,202.64Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Horizon II: A Climate-Smart Future for Corn, Soybean, Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas Production
This project will enhance climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve carbon sequestration in the production of corn, soybean, pork, and beef commodities, while creating opportunities for small and underserved producers and benefitting soil health, clean water, flood control, and habitats for native wildlife. Project plans provide financial compensation for producers to plant prairie grasses and cover crops to be harvested and converted to biogas and biofertilizer in digesters. Partners plan to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Three soil sampling areas, one area in each of the three predominant soil types, are planned to be selected in each field designated for soil organic carbon (SOC) verification using a GIS script to position soil sampling areas. The project plans to provide quantification services using two agricultural-based peer reviewed environmental models, COMET-Farm and the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). They also plan to evaluate GHG emissions during harvest, transport, and storage of cover crop and prairie biomass. The project plans to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Each partner has their own social media channels, digital marketing campaigns, and websites through which generated digital marketing assets is planned to be widely shared. This project plans to provide needed funding to fairly compensate farmers, including small and beginning farmers, to transition their operations and enter climate-smart markets, including the newly created market for climate-smart grassy biomass. The project team plans to work with farmers, livestock producers, landowners, and supply chain partners, including early adopters of practices and underserved producers, to ensure equitable access to the opportunities offered by the low-carbon agriculture of the future.
Lead Partner: Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC
Other Major Partners: Conservation Districts of Iowa, Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa State University, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Smithfield Foods, The Nature Conservancy, University of Missouri, Verdesian, Veterans in Agriculture, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: IA, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Pork, Beef, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000National Pork Board's Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value Proposal
The goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing climate-smart agriculture practices within the feed supply, thereby maintaining market demand and price premiums in a rapidly evolving consumer world. The geography of focus – Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri – encapsulates a concentration of pork facilities supported by local grain production, representing a key region of the overall supply chain. Planned practices include cover crops, livestock integration in cover crops and manure management. The project plans to offer participants, including small-scale and underserved producers, free initial soil testing, technical assistance from partner agronomists, cost-share for practice adoption and tuition or scholarships for participating producers to attend advanced soil health training workshops through peer-to-peer networking. The proposal plans to deploy a Sustainable Environmental Consultant's Ecosystem Practices software platform which uses the COMET-Farm GHG tool and Nutrient Tracking Tool for estimating Soil Organic Carbon stock changes, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, and nutrient and sediment losses, and use soil sampling to benchmark results. The project plans to utilize a number of processes to ensure adoption of practices, including precision farm data, work orders, seed purchase receipts, tagged images, remote sensed analytics, on-farm field inspection, and GHG results are planned to be aggregated from a field basis to the required spatial domain and will be delivered through dashboards and reports. Once published the quantified GHG benefits of U.S. pork and all the continuous sustainability improvement information derived through this project may be used by many entities, organizations and companies marketing pork globally. The project plans to support farmers to market their climate-smart commodities in a manner that best suits their production system and individual operation goals, empowering and incentivizing continuous improvement over the long-term (even after the grant is complete) including if they choose maturing environmental offset markets while also providing communications capacity to engage both producers (supply) and end-of-supply chain consumers (demand) in marketing resulting commodities and potential value-added. Priority ranking is planned for small and underserved producers. Technical and financial assistance will include 1) Free initial soil test and baseline reporting 2) Free Technical Assistance (TA) from DU agronomy, SEC staff, and Millborn seed optimization specialist 3) Cost-share payments for CSA practice adoption 4) funded opportunities for participating producers to attend an advanced soil health training workshop (peer-peer networking).
Lead Partner: National Pork Board
Other Major Partners: Nestle, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, Ducks Unlimited, Trust in Food (Farm Journal), Farm Credit Council, Millborn Seed, Nastrade
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Pork, Soybeans,
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
- Kansas
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet KS (PDF, 303 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690
Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000
Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050
Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000
Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09
Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389
Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699
Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000
National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000
Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841
Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524
Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000
Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000
The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Kentucky
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet KY (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Building Whole-Farm Designs and Market Infrastructure to Provide Premiums for Climate-Smart Farming among Mid-Sized Agricultural Enterprises in the Ohio River Valley
This project plans to model and develop whole-farm carbon sequestration systems geared towards mid-sized polyculture farms that produce crops and beef. Farmers would receive a sign-up incentive, free technical assistance, and cost-share to implement climate-smart practices. Partners would include African-American food system organizers who would ensure engagement with minority, unrepresented, and socially disadvantaged growers. Partners would offer a Climate-Smart Beef product line to current retail and wholesale customers and provide avenues for grain producers to market and sell their products. This project also aims to continue the long process of adapting the complexity of “Entity Scale” quantification and improve capacity to apply emissions factors and sequestration estimates in real world situations using lessons from literature, on farm assessment of practice changes, and soil testing.
Lead Partner: Mt. Folly Enterprises, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Mt. Folly Farm, Eastern Kentucky University, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Rich Earth Grains LLC, Riverside Meats, Sourwood Forestry, Ale-8-1 Bottling Company, Gallagher Fence, Brambleberry Farms, Rural Action Silvopasture, Holistic Management, Sprouted Wellness
Primary States Expected: KY, OH, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Hemp, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,000
Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000
Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00
Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000
Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690
Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000
Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050
Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000
Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef Strategy
This project aims to generate knowledge of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions for the Fischer Farms beef production system, to inform future business decisions, and to generate science- based marketing tools that will enable buyers to actively participate in climate-positive purchasing and eating decisions. The project will include livestock producers, and it will support Fischer Farms’ market expansion into other areas. The project will utilize Dual Comb Laser Technology for measuring all greenhouse gas benefits. Rigorous sampling, first-of-a-kind monitoring, and innovative analysis will lead to a new science-based understanding of the potential to deliver beef to the market that is truly a climate-smart commodity. This novel laser technology is planned to measure methane and other greenhouse gases at both the barn lots and pasture settings at Fischer Farms network farms. This approach will provide detailed measurements of beef cattle GHG emissions on pasture and allow for the quantification of the impacts of algae feed supplement on reducing methane emissions with the Ultimate Beef production system. The research plan entails 1) relevant data collection and analysis of the Ultimate Beef system, 2) implementation of USDA’s COMET-Farm and IFSM modeling tools, and 3) development of an ISO-compliant Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the GWP benefits of Ultimate Beef relative to the conventional US system. A marketing manager and sales team will develop and execute the Climate-Smart marketing campaign with a goal of educating consumers on the impact of climate-smart meet and their purchasing decisions. They will leverage on-line platforms and print advertising as well as partner with whole-sale buyers. Project activities will involve expansion of marketing in Indiana, Cincinnati, OH, and Louisville, KY. With an existing network of more than 100 diversified, small, veteran, beginning, BIPOC and other underserved producers committed to the brand, Fischer Farms Ultimate Beef ensures fair pay and equitable representation for farmers and workers in the value chain. Additionally, the project will provide a critical opportunity for market access to a network of small and underserved farmers who would otherwise be challenged to verify and enter climate-smart market channels. Special emphasis will be placed on expanding the network of farmers in underserved areas.
Lead Partner: Fischer Farms Natural Foods, LLC
Other Major Partners: Indiana University, Carbon Solutions
Primary States Expected: IN, KY
Major Commodities: Beef, Pork
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Incentive Program
Using incentives and technical assistance, this project would help farmers adopt climate-smart practices to improve soil health and water quality, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and promote wildlife habitat, connecting climate-smart commodity production with climate adaptation and GHG benefits. The farmers enrolled every year in the project are eligible to receive sufficient and compelling incentive payments for their participation and for verified climate-smart practice implementation. The project plans to draw on Organic Association of Kentucky, Inc. (OAK) and partner networks to engage small farms and underserved farmers. OAK anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually would be underserved farmers, including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers, and many more would be small farms, operations with gross annual farm income under $250,000. The project plans to adapt the Global Farm Metric framework to create a farm sustainability assessment tool built for use in the US, including by embedding it with measures, benchmark scoring and practices from USDA NRCS, including alignment with COMET-Farm, Environmental Impact Quotient and NRCS Practice Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction and Carbon Sequestration. Modeled GHG emissions from COMET tools will be coupled with on-the-ground measurements of soil health to achieve a fuller picture of the benefits of adopting climate-smart practices on each farm. The project will work with partner local food value chain coordinators, companies, processors and aggregators who will source climate-smart commodities to meet their GHG targets and supply chain goals, sell climate-smart branded consumer products and provide a premium or additional revenue for participating producers and landowners. The project lead will work with identified project partners, contractors and supporting farmers, buyers, local food value chain coordinators and marketing experts to develop a climate-smart add-on label and branding for commodities verified through the project. The project will draw on the project lead and partner networks to engage small farms and historically underserved farmers from the eastern Kentucky Appalachian Mountains to farms of the central bluegrass region with diversified vegetables and pastured livestock to the broad acre corn and soybean farms and organic dairy operations of western Kentucky. The project anticipates half of the farms enrolled annually will be underserved farmers (including limited resource, beginning, socially disadvantaged and veteran farmers) and many more will be small farms.
Lead Partner: Organic Association of Kentucky Inc
Other Major Partners: Four Hills Farm, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, The Berry Center, The Food Connection at University of Kentucky, Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Kentucky State University, University of Kentucky, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Sustainable Food Alliance, Bullhorn Creative
Primary States Expected: KY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Fruits, Hemp, Lamb, Small Grains, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,407,706
Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09
Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389
Increasing Farm Resource Efficiency by Utilizing On-Site Post-Production Food Byproducts into Innovative Fertilizers and Climate-Smart Commodities
Project participants would use innovative technology to convert crop residue into two high-value fertilizers for soil, foliar, or hydroponic use, and market resulting climate-smart commodities. Grower economic benefits include premium pricing for carbon-smart commodities, reduced fertilizer costs, reduced water consumption and related costs, potential reduction in environmental regulatory compliance/fees (where applicable) and expanded marketing opportunities to Re-Nuble or local markets. Re-Nuble and Helianth will develop an MMRV Plan and Online Data Portal, along with a guiding document that informs monitoring, measurement reporting, and verification procedures and expectations. An online location and interface for participants to share MMRV data and lessons learned will also be developed. The project's MMRV plan consists of a continuance of working with organizations across agricultural supply chains for design, implementation, and monitoring of improvements for sustainable agricultural programs. After a set of initial meetings with all MMRV partners and Re-Nuble staff, farm producers will receive a formal presentation on the container insect farm (CIF) system, residue processing, projected financial benefits, nutrient management planning, anticipated GHG outcomes, and marketing and distribution opportunities. A nutrient management plan will be designed, advising ideal nutrient application guidance for each climate smart commodity in order to increase nutrient use efficiency. Verification of those plans will be conducted annually. Soil samples are taken by MMRV Partner (IPM) and Re‐ Nuble to support third‐party lab analysis of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction and the COMET Farm model will be used for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration analysis. Partners will contribute with the development of both marketing and distribution plans for all farm producers. These plans including supply chain overviews, cost-benefit analysis, market landscapes, premium pricing strategies and likely market channels will be prepared for each climate-smart commodity from the participating farms. Participating farmers will also be trained to proficiently use their marketing plans and distribution plans effectively while leveraging the data related to GHG Emissions reductions and sequestered carbon to help increase marketability of all climate-smart commodities grown by each farm. Steps the farm can take to implement its marketing plan, including messaging and promotion strategies, relationship building, and data tracking will also be a focus. Outreach for enrollment will be focused on small and underserved farms and commitments have already been attained from a number of these entities. It is anticipated that small and underserved, leafy green farms located in Mississippi will be recruited from the existing networks of Re-Nuble and the MMRV Partners.
Lead Partner: Re-Nuble, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Helianth Partners, IPM Institute of North America, Chapul Farms
Primary States Expected: KY, MI, MS, NY
Major Commodities: Apples, Corn, Eggs, Fruits, Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops, Tilapia, Tomatoes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,696,929
Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841
Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- Louisiana
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet LA (PDF, 302 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Industrial Hemp Markets
Industrial hemp for fiber would be cultivated and marketed in the southeastern United States as a high efficiency carbon sequestration and a climate-smart commodity crop. The project plans to provide financial assistance to small and/or underserved farmers to implement Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. Three different measurement methods will be used to determine carbon pools in the soil and above ground biomass: USDA COMET, extensive soil and plan sampling; and the proprietary method of Carbon Farmer, a carbon credit trading platform. A protocol (tool) for measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon sequestration (above and below ground) will be developed for industrial hemp agroecosystems. The National Hemp Growers Cooperative, LLC (NHGC) would engage industry partners to create markets for processing industrial hemp into several climate-smart commodities. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC will buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. While developing markets for farmers, the NHGC plan to buy all industrial hemp from all farmers during the duration the grant. A network of three 1890 Land-grant minority serving institutions (Florida A&M University, Alabama A&M University, and Southern University) will collaborate with one 1862 land-grant institution (University of Florida) to create a unique synergy for engaging small and/or underserved farmers in production agriculture. Forty limited resource and/or underserved farmers (all participants) will be selected from three states (Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana) in southeastern United States, and will benefit from 90% cost-share of supported practices.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Southern University, University of Florida (UF-IFAS), National Hemp Grower's Cooperative
Primary States Expected: AL, FL, LA
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,998,565.42Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, TerritoriesMajor Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Supreme Rice, LLC's Climate-Smart Initiative to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Water Use Through the Adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation Practices in Rice Production
This project will expand climate-smart markets and provide financial incentives for underserved and small-scale rice producers to reduce methane emissions through alternate wetting and drying irrigation and adopt other sustainable growing practices to reduce emissions and water consumption. Project plans to offer financial incentives for changing management practices and reducing perceived risk barriers. A multi-faceted campaign is planned to educate consumers and recognized participating producers. Pre-established baselines are planned to be used to quantify methane emissions in rice by peer-reviewed research. Automated water level measuring devices, Crop Links, are planned to be deployed at a rate of 1 per every 100 acres. The project plans to design a campaign to educate consumers and bring recognition to the farmers and climate-smart commodities in the project. This campaign would be multi-faceted in nature, through the use of focused storytelling, TV Ads, Radio, YouTube Videos, Facebook Ads, Cooking shows, and Billboard Ads. Supreme plans to ensure that growers who fit the “underserved and small grower” category are informed and have every opportunity to participate in the program. The project expects to enroll 769 growers and 166,415 program acres attributed to underserved rice growers.
Lead Partner: Supreme Rice, LLC
Other Major Partners: Southern University and A&M College, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Rice Growers, Arkansas Rice Growers
Primary States Expected: AR, LA
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative
The Urban Ag Climate Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers and provide financial incentives to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This five-state pilot program plans to work with small and/or underserved producers to increase the supply and demand for Climate-Smart Commodities in rural and urban markets. The project intends to assist with purchasing items producers may need to set up climate-smart retail operations. Participants would also receive an Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Marketing Toolkit and access to marketing bootcamps teaching farmers and partnering Urban Ag groups how to market climate-smart commodities to potential consumers. MCL Jasco will help to improve measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration by providing scientific lab testing of the participating farm's soil throughout the duration of this project. This will help to improve measurement through this data driven approach. They will also use the following MMRV methods to verify results: intact soil cores, soil-surface efflux measurements of CO2, CH4, and N2O taken on farms and under specific practices at weekly intervals, field-scale studies to measure and evaluate changes in soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate-smart agricultural practices and the field module COMET (farm) utilizing the use DayCent model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions. Through these strategies, MCL Jasco aims to incentivize farmers to embrace climate smart production practices, endeavor to cultivate markets and raise awareness about the immense value of climate-smart commodities. MCL Jasco which specializes in serving hard-to-reach demographics, plans to reach underserved producers throughout the project. The Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach historically underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers through different types of outreach events and provide financial incentives for a 3-tier practice implementation regime to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This will assist with improvement of their retail operations and to support communities with climate-smart commodities available for consumption many of which are located in "food deserts."
Lead Partner: MCL Jasco, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Alcorn State University, National Association of Women in Agriculture, Southern A&M University, KTM Consulting
Primary States Expected: LA, MS
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,635
- Maine
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet ME (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset WampanoagPrimary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MD (PDF, 304 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Cover Crop Utilization to Boost Anaerobic Digestion, Transform Chicken Litter, Enhance Soil Health, and Create Climate-Smart Commodity Pathways for Small Farms on the Delmarva Peninsula
The project would directly address underserved producers on the Delmarva Peninsula by promoting climate-smart cover crops as a feedstock for digestor facilities. Project partners anticipate these facilities plan to provide a per acre incentive for harvested climate-smart cover crop biomass making them more economically sustainable and allowing for several project partners to promote and distribute the climate-smart products. This project plans to focus on environmental justice especially in communities impacted by environmental hazards, social-economic stress and poor infrastructure. The renewable energy produced (biogas, including methane content) will be quantified using a mass balance approach, with the energy output based on the mass of poultry litter and cover crop inputs. All energy inputs and outputs from the digester operation to cover crops, field application, and soil sequestration will be quantified, and the COMET online management tool will be used for estimating changes in soil C sequestration, fuel, and fertilizer use resulting from changes in land management. The project has formalized several partnerships to promote and distribute the climate-smart products under the project and will disseminate information regarding the cover crops and field amendments generated by this project. One of the partners will facilitate the integration of underserved producers into the new climate-smart cover crop supply chain. This project will also focus on the environmental factors inherent to the implementation of any new agricultural practice or technology.
Lead Partner: University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Other Major Partners: Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, 2020 Farmers Cooperative, Planet Found Energy Development, University of Maryland College Park
Primary States Expected: MD, VA
Major Commodities: Corn, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the Participation of Marginal Producers and Landowners to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices: Continuous Efforts of 1890 Agroforestry Consortium
The project plans to support small-scale and other underserved producers in three states with financial and technical assistance to transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system. All producers and landowners are planned to receive financial incentives to cover costs of inputs and services Partners will form a marketing network for labelling, packaging, and branding CS commodities. The project's MMRV plan will include core sampling for carbon sequestration benefits in soil, in-field measurement of GHG effluxes, and quantification of carbon sequestered in trees and shrubs based on above and below-ground biomass. To measure GHG benefits associated with climate smart animal-production systems, partners will include the use of mobile small animal GreenFeed measurement systems, forage biomass samples, and other collected data. The GHG benefits associated with the implemented climate-smart practices will be verified based on the carbon sequestration and GHG emission results and their continuity over the project period, using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET). The project will adopt a robust marketing plan to explore, create, expand, and promote climate smart commodities marketing during the project period and create an inter-state marketing consortium to educate producers and landowners on how to promote domestic markets for their climate-smart commodities. The project will also facilitate the setting of premium prices for the climate-smart commodities by introducing labels/badges and marketing materials on packaging and branding, e.g., a climate-smart logo and the price per unit of climate smart commodity on the label/badge. This project, led by a minority serving institution, is expected to enroll primarily small and underserved producers and landowners. Each participant will receive financial incentives to procure inputs and pay for services required for implementing climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Primary States Expected: AL, MD, VA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Medicinal Herbs, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Prince George’s County Climate-Smart Local Producers Pilot Program
This project plans to pilot, evaluate, and build a Climate-Smart Local Producers Program to address marketing products grown using a variety of climate-smart practices. The project will focus on reducing barriers to practice implementation on existing and new farms. A planned marketing strategy that resonates with County residents, will combine the values of eating local, utilization of on -farm climate smart practices and woman and minority owned farms. The County will work with Bowie State University (a Historically Black University) to develop monitoring methodology and perform the analysis of greenhouse gas reductions and leverage the measurement and monitoring methodologies developed by the state of Maryland for several sequestration practices and supply chain impacts. GHG reductions will be quantified utilizing the COMET model to keep data collection and verification costs low. For some practices, soil sampling may be required. The project proposes to work with students at BSU to develop the methodology and perform the analysis of GHG reductions. Develop a marketing strategy that resonates with local residents, combining the values of eating local, utilization of on-farm climate smart practices and black, woman and minority owned farms. Investigate creating a ‘climate-smart Prince George’s’ marketing claim standard for products grown utilizing these practices. Provide trained volunteers through ‘master gardener’ program to speak at farmers markets and community events about value of this standard. The marketing strategy will be focused on the specific commodities produced, their intended use and market. The marketing strategy will evolve and be developed in partnership with producers as we understand the practices producers are willing to utilize, the commodities they wish to grow, and market based on the program’s commodity list. This project anticipates it will help open doors to underserved communities by providing funding to encourage more equitable participation, marketing and mentoring to people pursuing agriculturally based occupations and serve as a cornerstone of agriculture’s role in the fight against climate change.
Lead Partner: Prince George’s County, Maryland
Other Major Partners: Prince George’s County Government Agencies and Entities, including Department of the Environment (DoE), Prince George's Soil Conservation District (PGSCD), Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Prince George’s County Food Equity Council (FEC), Bowie State University, University of Maryland Extension
Primary States Expected: MD
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,250,000Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MA (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841
Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset WampanoagPrimary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- Michigan
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MI (PDF, 313 KB)
A Climate-Smart Strategy for the Michigan Foodshed: Nourishing Our Land, Farmers, and Rural Communities
The project focuses on beginning and women farmers growing climate-smart wheat, dry beans, food grade soybeans and oats. Participants can receive payments for inputting and sharing data; increasing their Truterra tool score; receiving Advanced scoring in the Truterra tool; for taking unproductive land out of production and for expanding their food growing operation by piloting food grade oats. Star of the West plans to promote climate-smart commodities with its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants. MMRV will include GHG benefit quantification via the Cool Farm Analysis, COMET-Farms tool, and Truterra Sustainability tool; practice implementation monitoring via on-farm verification by the Climate Smart Agronomist and from satellite imagery system included in the AgriEdge tool; and reporting and tracking through AgriEdge and Truterra. The project will work with current food customers to establish accepted parameters around the marketing of the Climate Smart Commodities, including an anticipated five-star system, focused on one star for each of the climate-smart practice category options implemented. Star of the West will promote this new Climate Smart Commodity "CS5" to its existing network of wheat, flour, dry bean, food grade soy and oat customers, including processors, customers and restaurants and will lean on partners to explore and help create new markets in Michigan for climate-smart grains and legumes through institutional procurement. The project anticipates working with multiple beginning or women farmers each year. This grant plans to allot funds for technical and financial assistance for women and beginning farmers. The project will host strategic learning circles, field days, and climate smart leadership trainings specifically for beginning and women farmers and will further reach beginning farmers by providing summer internships and working with Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapters, college ag students, and the Michigan Farm Bureau Young Farmer program to engage beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Star of the West Milling Company
Other Major Partners: Michigan Agriculture, Artisan Grain Collaborative, Shiftology Communication
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Dry Beans, Food Grade Oats, Food Grade Soybeans, Wheat Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,650ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Agriculture and Markets Amongst Socially-Disadvantaged, Limited-Resource, and Urban Farmers in Ohio and Michigan
This project would combine monitoring, outreach, and technical support to foster the adoption of climate-smart practices by minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. It also creates synergy between climate-smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Project partners plan to recruit minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers and selected Central State University students who would receive additional training on climate-smart agriculture. Small-scale and urban vegetable farmers enrolled in this project would receive funds to cover part of their operating costs. Data on soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the various technological treatments, along with other collected data, will be used to conduct life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental impacts of using Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry technologies that are suitable for small-scale and urban vegetable farms. Enteric emissions, specifically methane emissions will be measured by respiration chamber or In Vitro incubation in total feed use resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on methane emissions. Robotic, AI enhanced feeding systems and electricity usage in the feedlots and diesel use by tractors (for conventional approach) will be monitored resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on the electricity and diesel use. Feed consumption under current and proposed approach will result in total GHG emissions measurements based on a reduction in feed usage. Feedlot manure storage operations will be evaluated for methane emissions measured from the anaerobic and aerobic storage operations resulting in total GHG emissions reductions and total methane emissions reduction. Optimization in nutrient application(s) at small-scale farms will be implemented to measure use of manure and commercial fertilizer for conventional and proposed systems. Total GHG emissions reductions due to reduction in commercial synthetic fertilizer use will be assessed. Verification will include COMET-Farm and will be used for confirmation of the measured emissions and the potential reductions in GHG emissions. The project will determine the marketing and economic viability of small-scale vegetable farms that have implemented Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices through consumer focus group interviews and individual interviews, which will be used to facilitate producer marketing and branding practices of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry products, including product labeling, target marketing, and market segmentation. The consumer valuation of food grown under Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices will be determined via Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions at farmer markets to develop production cost and profit estimates. This project is comprised of outreach, and technical support objectives leading to the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices by socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. The project will also create synergy between climate smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Central State University (CSU) (1890 Land-Grant) Extension will recruit minority vegetable farmers and encourage collaboration between feedlot operations and underserved farmers who will be the end users of these climate smart manure management byproducts. This project will also provide hands-on climate-smart agriculture training to students from underserved populations.
Lead Partner: Central State University
Other Major Partners: Ohio State University, A & B Porteus
Primary States Expected: MI, OH
Major Commodities: Beef, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,992,288Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Increasing Farm Resource Efficiency by Utilizing On-Site Post-Production Food Byproducts into Innovative Fertilizers and Climate-Smart Commodities
Project participants would use innovative technology to convert crop residue into two high-value fertilizers for soil, foliar, or hydroponic use, and market resulting climate-smart commodities. Grower economic benefits include premium pricing for carbon-smart commodities, reduced fertilizer costs, reduced water consumption and related costs, potential reduction in environmental regulatory compliance/fees (where applicable) and expanded marketing opportunities to Re-Nuble or local markets. Re-Nuble and Helianth will develop an MMRV Plan and Online Data Portal, along with a guiding document that informs monitoring, measurement reporting, and verification procedures and expectations. An online location and interface for participants to share MMRV data and lessons learned will also be developed. The project's MMRV plan consists of a continuance of working with organizations across agricultural supply chains for design, implementation, and monitoring of improvements for sustainable agricultural programs. After a set of initial meetings with all MMRV partners and Re-Nuble staff, farm producers will receive a formal presentation on the container insect farm (CIF) system, residue processing, projected financial benefits, nutrient management planning, anticipated GHG outcomes, and marketing and distribution opportunities. A nutrient management plan will be designed, advising ideal nutrient application guidance for each climate smart commodity in order to increase nutrient use efficiency. Verification of those plans will be conducted annually. Soil samples are taken by MMRV Partner (IPM) and Re‐ Nuble to support third‐party lab analysis of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction and the COMET Farm model will be used for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration analysis. Partners will contribute with the development of both marketing and distribution plans for all farm producers. These plans including supply chain overviews, cost-benefit analysis, market landscapes, premium pricing strategies and likely market channels will be prepared for each climate-smart commodity from the participating farms. Participating farmers will also be trained to proficiently use their marketing plans and distribution plans effectively while leveraging the data related to GHG Emissions reductions and sequestered carbon to help increase marketability of all climate-smart commodities grown by each farm. Steps the farm can take to implement its marketing plan, including messaging and promotion strategies, relationship building, and data tracking will also be a focus. Outreach for enrollment will be focused on small and underserved farms and commitments have already been attained from a number of these entities. It is anticipated that small and underserved, leafy green farms located in Mississippi will be recruited from the existing networks of Re-Nuble and the MMRV Partners.
Lead Partner: Re-Nuble, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Helianth Partners, IPM Institute of North America, Chapul Farms
Primary States Expected: KY, MI, MS, NY
Major Commodities: Apples, Corn, Eggs, Fruits, Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops, Tilapia, Tomatoes, Vegetables Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,696,929Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Michigan Climate Smart Farm Project
This project plans to provide financial assistance to small scale and underserved producers as they transition to climate-smart commodity production using practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, pasture/silvo-pasture establishment, feed management, forest stand improvement, wetland restoration and combustion system improvements. Producers are planned to receive a regenerative premium through selling climate-smart products in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets. The project will seek to balance ease of implementation with validity and longevity of grower and climate impact within its MMRV plan by modeling GHG impacts in the USDA COMET and conducting soil sampling on the research and pilot farms, alongside new research employing a comprehensive Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) paired technology-forward monitoring approach using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. The CSF Verification program will generally seek to 1) use initial assessment as basis for data collection, including initial soil samples, and initial energy analysis 2) utilize self-reporting database and software for any Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice changes, 3) utilize satellite technology and random sampling to track changes in benefits, 4) ensure effective and consistent communication from technical staff to farmers and landowners throughout the process, 5) present information in the form of $/acre to evaluate potential actions. The project will establish a regenerative premium through marketing the climate-smart products produced and sold in direct-to-market opportunities like farmers markets, ensuring that producers have continued incentives and benefits from embracing climate smart practices. Consumer and pilot producer interviews will inform the creation of the Climate Smart Farm program full brand package, which will then be used in the development of a robust marketing and communications plan. All of the farmers served in the project will be small or underserved producers. The diverse farmers included in the project will help build an inclusive cost share and market that includes small, new, and urban farms, and will distribute financial assistance to support producers as they transition to climate-smart agriculture.
Lead Partner: Michigan Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Washtenaw County Conservation District; University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, Michigan Department of Agriculture- Environmental Stewardship Division; Carbon Yield, Washtenaw County; The Soil Inventory Project, Monroe Conservation District, Lenawee Conservation District; Keep Growing Detroit; Wayne County Conservation District; Taste the Local Difference (TLD)
Primary States Expected: MI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Fruits, Livestock, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,724,539.91The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Minnesota
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MN (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Minnesota Climate-Smart Seedling Production Network
The proposed project plans to work with forest owners to grow a set of climate-adapted tree species resilient to the projected climate futures of Minnesota’s Midwest Broadleaf Forest, and monitor and market the climate-smart commodity. Producers would receive a payment for each tree seedling grown, in addition to assistance with start-up costs, provision of wild-collected tree seed, and cooperatively managed shipping and distribution of seedings. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot would bear a “Climate-Smart” label and would include native trees selected based on their projected climate capability. The project would provide free training opportunities about tree seed collection and seedling production market opportunities, paying a fair, hourly wage for participating tree seed collectors and provide start-up funds for interested producers, but for whom cost would be a barrier to enter the market. The project will quantify greenhouse gas benefits using COMET-Farm. In addition, the project will develop a mobile app that links to a statewide seed source data management system to track individual seed lots for up to 10-12 species that are selected for their climate resilience, drawing from both local and adjacent seed/hardiness zone. The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody). The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody).
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: University of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Three Rivers Parks District, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Urban Roots, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Monitoring and Evaluation, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Community Economic Development Associates (CEDA), University of Minnesota Extension, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships
Primary States Expected: MN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Tree Seedlings
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,997National Pork Board's Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value Proposal
The goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing climate-smart agriculture practices within the feed supply, thereby maintaining market demand and price premiums in a rapidly evolving consumer world. The geography of focus – Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri – encapsulates a concentration of pork facilities supported by local grain production, representing a key region of the overall supply chain. Planned practices include cover crops, livestock integration in cover crops and manure management. The project plans to offer participants, including small-scale and underserved producers, free initial soil testing, technical assistance from partner agronomists, cost-share for practice adoption and tuition or scholarships for participating producers to attend advanced soil health training workshops through peer-to-peer networking. The proposal plans to deploy a Sustainable Environmental Consultant's Ecosystem Practices software platform which uses the COMET-Farm GHG tool and Nutrient Tracking Tool for estimating Soil Organic Carbon stock changes, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, and nutrient and sediment losses, and use soil sampling to benchmark results. The project plans to utilize a number of processes to ensure adoption of practices, including precision farm data, work orders, seed purchase receipts, tagged images, remote sensed analytics, on-farm field inspection, and GHG results are planned to be aggregated from a field basis to the required spatial domain and will be delivered through dashboards and reports. Once published the quantified GHG benefits of U.S. pork and all the continuous sustainability improvement information derived through this project may be used by many entities, organizations and companies marketing pork globally. The project plans to support farmers to market their climate-smart commodities in a manner that best suits their production system and individual operation goals, empowering and incentivizing continuous improvement over the long-term (even after the grant is complete) including if they choose maturing environmental offset markets while also providing communications capacity to engage both producers (supply) and end-of-supply chain consumers (demand) in marketing resulting commodities and potential value-added. Priority ranking is planned for small and underserved producers. Technical and financial assistance will include 1) Free initial soil test and baseline reporting 2) Free Technical Assistance (TA) from DU agronomy, SEC staff, and Millborn seed optimization specialist 3) Cost-share payments for CSA practice adoption 4) funded opportunities for participating producers to attend an advanced soil health training workshop (peer-peer networking).
Lead Partner: National Pork Board
Other Major Partners: Nestle, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, Ducks Unlimited, Trust in Food (Farm Journal), Farm Credit Council, Millborn Seed, Nastrade
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Pork, Soybeans,
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefits
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Mississippi
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MS (PDF, 303 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000ClimateSmartGoods.com - Set Your Table and Lower Your Footprint
The project plans to select farms in Mississippi and South Carolina to demonstrate the implementation of conservation/production plans – “Smart Crop Plans”, supporting the creation of a corresponding knowledge-based training platform. Project partners also plan to provide professional marketing consultant to advise on packaging, branding and marketing of “ClimateSmart” products and connecting the products with retail and wholesale markets. The project will utilize multiple models including COMET Farm and APSIM. High tech, real-time probes installed at each farm with data transmission and drone technology will be used to allow tracking of climate performance. The project will develop a marketing toolkit for each farm and commodity, including a Climate-Smart UPC and PLU for each product, where the commodity can be barcoded and ready to enter a distribution system which will result in transparency and ready tracking of climate-smart commodities. The project will also include robust producer training in the branding, marketing, pricing, and technology. All subawards and prime awardee are experienced with underserved and socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers. The project will include a comprehensive training program in marketing and selling that relies on peer mentoring and training with early adopters within community.
Lead Partner: Up in Farms LLC
Other Major Partners: Up in Farms, Center of Resilience Excellence South Carolina, DRA Resources, Florida A&M University, Warehouses 4 Good, Teralytic, Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities
Primary States Expected: MS, SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Fruits, Goats, Hemp, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,483Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Increasing Farm Resource Efficiency by Utilizing On-Site Post-Production Food Byproducts into Innovative Fertilizers and Climate-Smart Commodities
Project participants would use innovative technology to convert crop residue into two high-value fertilizers for soil, foliar, or hydroponic use, and market resulting climate-smart commodities. Grower economic benefits include premium pricing for carbon-smart commodities, reduced fertilizer costs, reduced water consumption and related costs, potential reduction in environmental regulatory compliance/fees (where applicable) and expanded marketing opportunities to Re-Nuble or local markets. Re-Nuble and Helianth will develop an MMRV Plan and Online Data Portal, along with a guiding document that informs monitoring, measurement reporting, and verification procedures and expectations. An online location and interface for participants to share MMRV data and lessons learned will also be developed. The project's MMRV plan consists of a continuance of working with organizations across agricultural supply chains for design, implementation, and monitoring of improvements for sustainable agricultural programs. After a set of initial meetings with all MMRV partners and Re-Nuble staff, farm producers will receive a formal presentation on the container insect farm (CIF) system, residue processing, projected financial benefits, nutrient management planning, anticipated GHG outcomes, and marketing and distribution opportunities. A nutrient management plan will be designed, advising ideal nutrient application guidance for each climate smart commodity in order to increase nutrient use efficiency. Verification of those plans will be conducted annually. Soil samples are taken by MMRV Partner (IPM) and Re‐ Nuble to support third‐party lab analysis of carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction and the COMET Farm model will be used for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration analysis. Partners will contribute with the development of both marketing and distribution plans for all farm producers. These plans including supply chain overviews, cost-benefit analysis, market landscapes, premium pricing strategies and likely market channels will be prepared for each climate-smart commodity from the participating farms. Participating farmers will also be trained to proficiently use their marketing plans and distribution plans effectively while leveraging the data related to GHG Emissions reductions and sequestered carbon to help increase marketability of all climate-smart commodities grown by each farm. Steps the farm can take to implement its marketing plan, including messaging and promotion strategies, relationship building, and data tracking will also be a focus. Outreach for enrollment will be focused on small and underserved farms and commitments have already been attained from a number of these entities. It is anticipated that small and underserved, leafy green farms located in Mississippi will be recruited from the existing networks of Re-Nuble and the MMRV Partners.
Lead Partner: Re-Nuble, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Helianth Partners, IPM Institute of North America, Chapul Farms
Primary States Expected: KY, MI, MS, NY
Major Commodities: Apples, Corn, Eggs, Fruits, Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops, Tilapia, Tomatoes, Vegetables Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,696,929Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000SmartAgGro Pilot Program Provides Technical and Builds Partnership Markets to America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers, & Forest Owners to Strengthen U.S. Rural and Agricultural Communities
This project will implement a scalable climate-smart marketing strategy to assist underserved farmers in Mississippi Congressional District 2 to adopt climate-smart practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in production of beef and other products. This project aims to apply cover crops, low till/no till, nutrient management, buffers, feed management, grazing plans and manure management. The project plans to provide marketing training to participating farmers to help them develop marketing strategies and retrain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets and effective promotion and advertising. Partners plan to work with Historical Black Colleges and Universities to reach their networks of underserved growers. This project intends to utilize an FMS probe equipped to collect farm management practice data and help reduce uncertainty in modeling greenhouse gas emissions from the field and potential carbon sequestration and streamline the verification process for premium carbon credits which may be traded on a marketplace and serve as an additional source of income for producers. The probe would be used to support the monitoring and modeling for soil organic carbon (SOC) percentage and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, opening the door to use this technology in support of carbon and ecosystem services markets. The project plans to train farmers how to recognize when strong demand exists; how to develop strategies to supply products or services to meet that demand; and how to enter the local market on a small scale and retain higher farm-to-consumer margins by identifying both wholesale and retail markets, building relationships with buyers, packaging, and labeling products properly, negotiating and delivering products to buyers in compliance with the opportunity and marketing contract, meeting market specifications, possessing logistics and transportation, securing decent prices, and effective promotion and advertising. The Smart-Way Incentive Program (SWIP) is the innovative Financial Assistance Plan for Team Vanguard. SWIP prioritizes support to small and underserved farmers by ensuring access to fair and equitable funding. Team Vanguard is partnering with Historical Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and their networks of undeserved growers to deploy a soil analytic technology (FMS) on farms in Mississippi.
Lead Partner: Vanguard (OTE) Consortium
Other Major Partners: Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Amerimac Chemical Corp, Enviro-Remediation Educational Services, Heifer International, Monroe Street Animal Clinic and Boarding Services
Primary States Expected: MS
Major Commodities: Beef, Hay, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative
The Urban Ag Climate Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers and provide financial incentives to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This five-state pilot program plans to work with small and/or underserved producers to increase the supply and demand for Climate-Smart Commodities in rural and urban markets. The project intends to assist with purchasing items producers may need to set up climate-smart retail operations. Participants would also receive an Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Marketing Toolkit and access to marketing bootcamps teaching farmers and partnering Urban Ag groups how to market climate-smart commodities to potential consumers. MCL Jasco will help to improve measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration by providing scientific lab testing of the participating farm's soil throughout the duration of this project. This will help to improve measurement through this data driven approach. They will also use the following MMRV methods to verify results: intact soil cores, soil-surface efflux measurements of CO2, CH4, and N2O taken on farms and under specific practices at weekly intervals, field-scale studies to measure and evaluate changes in soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with climate-smart agricultural practices and the field module COMET (farm) utilizing the use DayCent model to estimate greenhouse gas emissions. Through these strategies, MCL Jasco aims to incentivize farmers to embrace climate smart production practices, endeavor to cultivate markets and raise awareness about the immense value of climate-smart commodities. MCL Jasco which specializes in serving hard-to-reach demographics, plans to reach underserved producers throughout the project. The Urban Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Farm Initiative intends to reach historically underserved, socially disadvantaged, primarily African American producers through different types of outreach events and provide financial incentives for a 3-tier practice implementation regime to Urban Ag Groups and Farmers to encourage participation in the program. This will assist with improvement of their retail operations and to support communities with climate-smart commodities available for consumption many of which are located in "food deserts."
Lead Partner: MCL Jasco, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Alcorn State University, National Association of Women in Agriculture, Southern A&M University, KTM Consulting
Primary States Expected: LA, MS
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,635
- Missouri
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MO (PDF, 307 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000An Integrated Approach to Scaling-Up Climate-Smart Practices for Crop, Livestock, and Agroforestry Production
This project will focus on a training program about climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices in conjunction with financial incentives for ag producers who implement the CSA practices. The goal is to expand climate-smart agriculture markets throughout Missouri and serve as a teaching model for other states. To better engage small scale producers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers incentive funds to create climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations including cover crops and regenerative grazing. The project plans for farmers that sign up for incentive payments to provide data through the signup app on relevant farm management, including tillage, cover crops, rotation, nutrient management, and other practices for COMET-Planner assessment of each site. New high-throughput Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) gas analyzer technologies and soil carbon stock measures are planned to be leveraged to prove vital for a comprehensive understanding the impact of climate-smart practices. Out of the 25 partners on this project, 9 are private companies that plan to help with marketing, as will the three commodity organizations and the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Specific markets planned to be engaged include biofuels, beef, specialty crop markets, and ESMC. To better engage small farmers, including underserved farmers, the project plans to offer 100 farmers the opportunity to create a demonstration climate-smart fieldscape on their farm with a dedicated pool of incentive funds for small and underserved farmers participating in climate-smart fieldscape demonstrations and by reserving at least 30% of the remaining incentive funds for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: The Curators of the University of Missouri
Other Major Partners: Lincoln University, MO Soybeans Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Corn Growers Assoc./Merchandising Council, MO Cattlemen’s Association, MO Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, EarthDance, STAR Program, ESMC, MO Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Natural Resources, MO Department of Conservation, MO Agribusiness Association, MFA Inc., MO Fertilizer Control Board, Kansas City Food Hub, FarmRaise, MARC-IV Consulting, Nestle-Purina, Show-Me Energy, Mid-America Biofuels, MO Prime Beef Packers, MO Farm Bureau, NC State University
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Livestock, Oats, Pulses, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Biochar for Climate-Smart Farms in Missouri
This project would provide direct on-farm assistance and support to convert on-farm ag-waste into biochar, a soil amendment, for Missouri farms and measure and market the resulting climate-smart commodities. The Missouri Organic Association (MOA) plans to launch a pilot program to provide Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable climate-smart farm inputs. MOA and partners would conduct a multi-pronged program to develop and expand markets for climate-smart commodities produced by participating farmers and producers. In turn, the marketing development team would provide comprehensive and well-balanced coverage of marketing specialties. Measurement/Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification is planned throughout the project including in-field monitoring systems, soil quality assessments, GHG emissions, water quality assessment, and economic impacts. The field system will monitor and record environmental changes to the crop fields, including soil temperature, soil moisture, CO2 respiration, pH and a selection of nutrients. Models will be developed to predict plant growth and microbial activity for amended soil application rates. The GHG emissions will be quantified by the tracking of the farm types of farm residue reduction into biochar, monitoring of the soil amended field for plant growth and environmental parameters with field test data over two years and measuring scope 1 thru 3 farm emissions with detailed impact assessments. Scheduled nitrate, carbon, and COD/BOD sampling of the water nitrate concentration at the edges of the field, or streams and the applied watering of the crops will be conducted. A GHG Life Cycle Assessment based on ISO 14040 and 14044 protocols along with project technical reporting will be led by a Missouri-based energy and environmental consulting firm. The project will evaluate direct marketing, wholesale marketing, and value-added marketing of climate-smart, sustainably grown crops. Additional market development assistance including direct support to connect climate-smart commodity producers with buyers will be provided. Missouri State University and marketing consultants will develop individually focused, commodity specific marketing plans for Phase 1 farms based on their specific commodities and market opportunities. The project will lead in the development and execution of comprehensive marketing support materials including participant tool kits, which will assist the farmers in telling their "story" and differentiate their offering from others at market. The project plans target outreach to low income and minority areas of Missouri to enroll underserved participants, providing Missouri’s underserved farming community with access to the knowledge, machinery, and support needed to turn their on-farm waste into usable Climate-Smart farm inputs in the form of biochar. The project will leverage partnerships with Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, an ag nonprofit with established relationships through the Henry Kirkland Scholarship program and Veteran Apprenticeship program, as well as Lincoln University Innovative Small Farmer Program through in person outreach efforts, direct mailing and phone calls. Specific targeting of outreach to underserved farmers and ranchers using data from the census of agriculture and the utilization of in person outreach, digital media networks in counties with higher concentrations of these populations.
Lead Partner: Missouri Organic Association
Other Major Partners: Missouri State University, Lincoln University, Five Star Family Farms, Inc., Seidel Research and Development Company, LLC, Green Tribes Consulting, LLC, Carbon Cycle
Primary States Expected: MO
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Poultry, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,935,825Climate Resiliency for the Farm and Market Development: Economically Viable Low Carbon and Climate-Smart Practices for Soybean Farming
Team Climate-Smart Soybean plan to provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. Participants would use cover crops, no-till, climate-smart soybeans, crop rotation, bio-fertilizers, and biochar. Led by a Hispanic-serving institution, project assistance would be provided in a culturally relative approach. As a Hispanic-serving institution. monitoring, reporting, and verification activities for climate-smart practices will be developed at UT-Arlington in collaboration with researchers, agricultural economists, and commodity developers at Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, University of Missouri, and Texas Valley Grain. The project will use COMET, to evaluate carbon sequestration and GHG reductions associated with specific production practices (baseline) and field-based data collection, soil gas fluxes of CO2, N2O, NO, and CH4 measured via portable Gasmet DX4000 FTIR Analyzer, plant tissue analysis and direct soil sampling. The research team, named "Team Climate-Smart Soybean", will participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. The project will provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices which result in generation of verifiable GHG reductions and carbon sequestration. At the completion of this project, multiple small/underserved soybean producers from each state enlisted will have integrated climate-smart farming practices into their land management strategies, giving them and their immediate neighbors access to information on these innovative technologies that are scientifically proven to curb GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and bolster a more regenerative approach to modem agriculture. Bringing these technologies to small/underserved farmers and seeing the production outcomes, market share for climate-smart commodities will increase due to demand by the early adopters.
Lead Partner: University of Texas at Arlington
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Missouri, Tarleton State University
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,991,439Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Grain Markets in the Mid-South through Diverse Partnerships and a Farming-Systems Approach to Practice Integration to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This project seeks to demonstrate the viability of growing climate-smart (CS) grains that are sold to poultry feed operations. This project will develop a pilot program for grain producers to utilize multiple climate-smart practices to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The pilot program includes a monitoring /verification system, local climate-smart market opportunity for direct sale, and tracking CS grain to broiler operations. Soil sampling and GHG emissions monitoring is planned to be conducted on a subset of the incentivized acres and the data will be utilized to refine a generalized regional scale model of estimated suitability for climate smart systems and prediction of benefits. Verified GHG emissions reports and ownership of verified emission reductions is planned to be directly provided to producers as the owners. The project plans to establish a direct market for sale of climate-smart grains through partnerships with local poultry industries who source grain as a key feed ingredient. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive a 15% higher payment to incentivize climate smart practice implementation. The project plans for 50% of annual producer enrollment and incentive payments to be directed to minority or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Mississippi State University
Other Major Partners: Southern Ag Services, Inc., University of Arkansas, Conservation Solutions LLC, Alcorn State University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, LA, MO, MS
Major Commodities: Corn, Poultry, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing Value for Producers
This project will create and pilot-test a farmer-friendly system that builds capacity with institutions interacting with a range of producers, including underserved producers, to support adoption of climate- smart practices and interact with commodity buyers in climate-smart markets. MMRV for this project involves a fully integrated, nationally scalable ACR Agriculture Registry designed, built, tested, and utilized for standardized quantification of GHG benefits using COMET Planner, automated cost-effective reporting, verification via plug and play design with data collectors, and linkage to a transparent registry system for the issuance to producers of serialized GHG Certificates for monetization to buyers. The project will spearhead a market development campaign including creation of a buyers’ club network to link producers and commodity/GHG certificate buyers. The project targets outreach to enroll at least 20 underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Winrock International Institute for Agriculture Development
Other Major Partners: Arva Intelligence, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Riceland Foods Inc.
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Horizon II: A Climate-Smart Future for Corn, Soybean, Livestock, and Renewable Natural Gas Production
This project will enhance climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve carbon sequestration in the production of corn, soybean, pork, and beef commodities, while creating opportunities for small and underserved producers and benefitting soil health, clean water, flood control, and habitats for native wildlife. Project plans provide financial compensation for producers to plant prairie grasses and cover crops to be harvested and converted to biogas and biofertilizer in digesters. Partners plan to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Three soil sampling areas, one area in each of the three predominant soil types, are planned to be selected in each field designated for soil organic carbon (SOC) verification using a GIS script to position soil sampling areas. The project plans to provide quantification services using two agricultural-based peer reviewed environmental models, COMET-Farm and the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). They also plan to evaluate GHG emissions during harvest, transport, and storage of cover crop and prairie biomass. The project plans to establish markets for cover crops and grassland restoration on low profit corn and soybean croplands. Each partner has their own social media channels, digital marketing campaigns, and websites through which generated digital marketing assets is planned to be widely shared. This project plans to provide needed funding to fairly compensate farmers, including small and beginning farmers, to transition their operations and enter climate-smart markets, including the newly created market for climate-smart grassy biomass. The project team plans to work with farmers, livestock producers, landowners, and supply chain partners, including early adopters of practices and underserved producers, to ensure equitable access to the opportunities offered by the low-carbon agriculture of the future.
Lead Partner: Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC
Other Major Partners: Conservation Districts of Iowa, Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa State University, Missouri Prairie Foundation, Smithfield Foods, The Nature Conservancy, University of Missouri, Verdesian, Veterans in Agriculture, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: IA, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Pork, Beef, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Innovative Cover-crop Opportunity, Verification and Economy stimulating technology for underserved farmers using Robotics (iCOVER)
The iCOVER project plans to scale up robotic cover crop planting and verification of soil carbon through innovative radiological robotic sensing technologies, creating markets for climate-smart products for minority underserved farmers growing specialty crops and animal products. The project plans to use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration, and then develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput using a contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated soil organic carbon quantification. The project is planned to also focus on market building for underserved producers through an existing resource and partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants. Initially, the project will use standard and well-established soil sampling and remote sensing methods to measure and quantify the effect of cover crops on carbon sequestration in farmland. Data from these methods will be used in the final year to develop and scale up an innovative in-situ robotic system capable of soil carbon measurements at high-throughput by employing contact-free radiological method for fast, accurate and automated Soil Organic Carbon quantification. Through partnerships with Indigo and Nori, the project will help farmers realize the added value of the climate-smart attribute of their grains by providing the options to work through the ‘Carbon by Indigo’ program or Nori’s carbon removal program, sell their CS grains to ‘Market+ by Indigo’ which matches farmers with grain buyers interested in buying Climate-Smart grains at a premium. Through Tuskegee University and network partners, the project will support recruitment and assistance to small and minority producers, including through field visits, one on one conversations, and digital communications. The project will also focus on market building for underserved producers through the existing Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center and newly established partnerships with grocery chains and restaurants.
Lead Partner: University of Illinois
Other Major Partners: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tuskegee University; Earth-Sense, Inc., Corteva, Indigo Ag, Nori, Black Belt Marketing
Primary States Expected: AL, IA, IL, IN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000National Pork Board's Advancing U.S. Pork Sustainability and Market Value Proposal
The goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of U.S. pork products by advancing climate-smart agriculture practices within the feed supply, thereby maintaining market demand and price premiums in a rapidly evolving consumer world. The geography of focus – Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri – encapsulates a concentration of pork facilities supported by local grain production, representing a key region of the overall supply chain. Planned practices include cover crops, livestock integration in cover crops and manure management. The project plans to offer participants, including small-scale and underserved producers, free initial soil testing, technical assistance from partner agronomists, cost-share for practice adoption and tuition or scholarships for participating producers to attend advanced soil health training workshops through peer-to-peer networking. The proposal plans to deploy a Sustainable Environmental Consultant's Ecosystem Practices software platform which uses the COMET-Farm GHG tool and Nutrient Tracking Tool for estimating Soil Organic Carbon stock changes, Nitrogen Oxide emissions, and nutrient and sediment losses, and use soil sampling to benchmark results. The project plans to utilize a number of processes to ensure adoption of practices, including precision farm data, work orders, seed purchase receipts, tagged images, remote sensed analytics, on-farm field inspection, and GHG results are planned to be aggregated from a field basis to the required spatial domain and will be delivered through dashboards and reports. Once published the quantified GHG benefits of U.S. pork and all the continuous sustainability improvement information derived through this project may be used by many entities, organizations and companies marketing pork globally. The project plans to support farmers to market their climate-smart commodities in a manner that best suits their production system and individual operation goals, empowering and incentivizing continuous improvement over the long-term (even after the grant is complete) including if they choose maturing environmental offset markets while also providing communications capacity to engage both producers (supply) and end-of-supply chain consumers (demand) in marketing resulting commodities and potential value-added. Priority ranking is planned for small and underserved producers. Technical and financial assistance will include 1) Free initial soil test and baseline reporting 2) Free Technical Assistance (TA) from DU agronomy, SEC staff, and Millborn seed optimization specialist 3) Cost-share payments for CSA practice adoption 4) funded opportunities for participating producers to attend an advanced soil health training workshop (peer-peer networking).
Lead Partner: National Pork Board
Other Major Partners: Nestle, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, Ducks Unlimited, Trust in Food (Farm Journal), Farm Credit Council, Millborn Seed, Nastrade
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MO
Major Commodities: Corn, Pork, Soybeans,
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Montana
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet MT (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Growing the Impossible: Climate Smart Commodities in Tribal Homelands
This project plans to provide technical assistance, training, financial incentives and business planning and marketing support for climate-smart commodities produced on tribal homelands. This project plans to support climate-smart practices, including adaptive multi-paddock higher intensity rotational grazing which lead to increased soil organic carbon storage. The work is planned to align with holistic Blackfeet-specific regenerative grazing strategies in direct partnership with Tribal land managers and individual producers. The project will employ existing tools within their team for multi-domain analysis that overlay existing monitoring tools developed by PLHI and their partners, as well as in field measurements specifically applied to GHG mitigation and overall community well-being within the Blackfeet Nation. The monitoring practices include Western Sustainability Exchange’s verified grassland carbon storage on the carbon credit market, Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program assessment protocol, sciGaia’s semantic framework for socio-environmental-economic data called TrueView™ and the MSU/PLHI protocol for in field rangeland monitoring being undertaken locally in Blackfeet Nation. PLHI will integrate multi-domain monitoring approaches through using the ‘Piikani Wellbeing Index’ (PWI) on top of the TrueView framework, requiring the ability to analyze anything that contributes to meat production to understand its GHG impacts and to look for ways that more high-quality meat can be produced for less GHG cost, all the while maintaining the integrity and wellbeing of the ecosystem and the humans who operate within it. The project's relationships over the last three years set the stage for market receptivity towards climate-smart Blackfeet produced products. The Feasibility Analysis for a Blackfeet Nation Multi-Species Processing Plant and Branded Beef and Bison Products prompted the need to research potential market connections and begin to build relationships with those market buyers at the local, institutional, corporate and international levels. This project will benefit 11 Tribal sub-communities residing within the Blackfeet Nation but will also serve all other Tribal communities along the “hi-line” of Northern Montana and Rocky Mountain Tribes, while also creating a translational model for all Tribes residing across the Great Plains region. The climate-smart funds will bolster the technical assistance and outreach team, adding a full-time dedicated Market Development Specialist located within the community who will assist existing and new business owners with establishing their climate-smart agriculture business and help to bring them to a state of market-readiness and access capital in the form of loans and grants.
Lead Partner : Piikani Lodge Health Institute
Other Major Partners: Blackfeet Community College, Blackfeet Environmental Office, Montana State University-Soils Lab, Montana State University- Buffalo Nations Food Systems Initiative, Montana State University, Native Lands Project, Animo Partnership in Natural Resources LLC, Montana Audubon, Western Sustainability Exchange, SciGaia
Primary States Expected: MT, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison, Fruits, Hogs, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: 4,914,533Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High- Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
- Nebraska
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NE (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MDA, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High-Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Nevada
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NV (PDF, 301 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- New Hampshire
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NH (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- New Jersey
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NJ (PDF, 304 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building Markets and Resiliency: Addressing Climate and Food Access with Northern NJ Livestock Farmers
This project would offer technical assistance and financial cost-share incentives to livestock producers to implement priority climate-smart practices, with higher cost-shares available to underserved producers. This project would provide increased business opportunities for underserved and small farmers to be competitive in purchasing land in a market dominated by corporate sprawl and development pressure. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the development of a climate-friendly farm certification, a consumer marketing campaign, and the expansion of equitable food access. This project’s MMRV approach involves three distinct phases: 1) expanding the use of an open-source, low-cost soil GHG reader 2) working with Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) utilizing their monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocols for environmental outcomes, and 3) utilizing NRCS COMET-Planner. The plan for developing and expanding markets for climate-smart commodities through this project involves the following: 1) Development of a Climate Friendly Farm Certification,2) Consumer marketing campaign, 3) Expansion of Equitable Food Access. The Climate Friendly Farm certification will enable producers to continue to be recognized for implementation and management of climate-smart practices beyond the 5 years. All of the farmers participating in this project will be small or underserved. This effort will support making healthy proteins and other locally produced foods more accessible to NJ residents of all income levels, while also increasing economic opportunities for Northern NJ farmers. The project was developed with consideration of potential marketing opportunities for producers and affordable high-quality options for diverse consumers.
Lead Partner: North Jersey RC&D Area, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Foodshed Alliance, NJ Audubon (NJA), CLA Consultants, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), City Green, William Penn Foundation, Rutgers, Farm Credit East
Primary States Expected: NJ
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Chickens, Goats, Lamb, Livestock, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,574,207Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80
Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- New Mexico
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NM (PDF, 303 KB)
Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, , NV, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000
National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Northern New Mexico Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Northern NM Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower New Mexico Latino and underserved beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 30 participants which will all be based in New Mexico. The project is partnering with the Northern New Mexico Stockman's Association, which is a regional trade association that supports ranching families across Northern NM, including Hispanic and Tribal ranching families.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, New Mexico Stockman’s Association (NNMSA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,761.64Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MDA, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Southwest Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Southwest Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower Southwest tribal beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. In addition, the project will expand and develop relationships with food system and purchasing partners, including Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and Tribal partners to explore the feasibility and utility of marketing through an indigenous beef label. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 50 participants which will all be based in the Southwest United States. As a major partner on the project, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance will bring their experience and existing relationships with tribal ranchers and other resource management partners across the Southwest, particularly the Navajo Nation and Navajo Agricultural Products Industry.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: Tribal, AZ, NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,912.84Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
- New York
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NY (PDF, 306 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing the Supply and Market for Climate-Smart Grass-Fed Organic Dairy via Maple Hill Creamery
This project will expand climate-smart markets for dairy producers and enable a network of partners and producers to implement climate-smart practices by incentivizing implementation and providing training support. This will lead to greater environmental practices and enhanced viability for farms that implement them. The project plans to provide participants incentives for Avoided Conversion, Pasture Scoring, Training and Voluntary participation. Marketing plans include updated branding materials like packaging, advertising, social media and a website. The project plans to utilize a combination of core tools: COMET, a Pasture Scorecard, on-farm soil sampling, and third-party soil health measurements. The monitoring, measurement, and reporting is planned to be led by a technical expert with third-party verification and soil is planned to be sampled utilizing the soil sampling framework developed by partners. The project plans to update all branding materials, including the website, packaging, advertising, and social media to draw attention to climate-smart farming efforts and CO2 impacts to draw and expand upon consumer desire to support Climate-Smart grass-fed organic products – milk for yogurt, butter, and kefir. The project provides a number of incentives, including Avoided Conversion Incentive payments, Voluntary Incentive payments, Pasture Scoring incentives and Training incentives.
Lead Partner: Maple Hill Creamery LLC
Other Major Partners: Dharma Lea, LLC, Paul Harris Development, LLC, Stone Barns, Point Blue Conservation Science, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA), Open TEAM at Wolfe’s Neck Center, Shannon O'Sullivan, K&O Farm, James Young, Amber Waves, Spring Weather, Serenity Acres Farm, Evening Star Ranch, Reginelli and Aeschlimann, Adam Tafel, Periggo Farm, Whole Foods
Primary States Expected: NY, PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Oilseeds, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80
Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000NYS Connects: Climate-Smart Farms and Forests
Utilizing behavioral systems approach to break through social norms/barriers, this project will build on strong existing partnerships in the conservation and agricultural communities in NY state to expand climate-smart markets. This project will fund ag producers/forest landowners to implement multiple climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, utilize modern tools to quantify results of climate-smart agriculture, and build connections between landowners and companies with a demand for climate- smart commodities. COMET-Planner is planned to be used to assess each climate-smart practice in the project. For key practices, including the pilot practice areas in methane mitigation, enhanced weathering and agroforestry, the project plans to use International Panel on Climate Change methods, empirical data collection by Cornell University and Soil and Water Conservation District staff, and other tools. Utilizing existing data, along with new data collected from implemented climate-smart practices during the project period, a new decision support tool will be created to more accurately assess carbon sequestration for farmland and GHG mitigation as a result of implemented practices. The Ecological Platform for Assimilation of Data (EcoPAD) platform, developed and scientifically validated over the past two decades and deployed primarily for research in C cycling, will be further developed to allow New York State to use the system to determine the best incentive practices that balance economic activities with GHG emissions mitigation and C sequestration. Blockchain Technology will be part of the mechanism to track carbon through supply chain ecosystem. A pilot project will be developed for New York’s building sector to help transition to low carbon construction materials. A New York State Climate-Smart Commodities Label ecosystem will be created. The New York Climate-Smart label would track & promote climate-smart commodities through the value chain by commodity type to the final product. The project plans to engage directly with underserved and socially disadvantaged producers through an extensive network of service providers including the Cornell Small Farmers Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Specialists and Soil & Water Conservation Districts, planning to reach at least 200 small and underserved producers with financial incentives. The project plans to give participants the option to have cost-share paid directly to the contractor to help overcome financial barriers to practice implementation associated with upfront funding needs.
Lead Partner: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
Other Major Partners: Dept. of Agriculture and Markets, Energy Research & Development Authority & Soil and Water Conservation Committee, Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Evidn, Michigan State University, Mercy Works, Cornell Small Farms Equitable Farm Futures Initiative & Veterans FarmOps program, Cornell Cooperative Extension Harvest NY urban ag team, International Refugee Committee NY, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanic Garden, Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University, SCRE Design, Innsure
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Fruits, Grains, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Piloting Agroforestry in the Adirondack North Country: Producing Climate-Smart Commodities and Promoting Carbon Sequestration
This project plans to focus primarily on women-owned businesses and farming operations and develop a regional Adirondack climate-smart brand for marketing commodities as part of these systems. The project plans to support and monitor the climate benefits of agroforestry practices. Producers would receive technical assistance including tailored agroforestry plans and practice inputs such as tree seedling and shelters. The project will perform soil carbon testing on each of the farms to establish a baseline for soil organic carbon (SOC). Trees will contribute to SOC, but they also will store carbon as woody biomass both above and below ground. In addition, the project will calculate estimates of carbon sequestered on each farm as well as total estimated sequestered carbon. The CUFR Tree Carbon Calculator (TCC) will also be used to estimate sequestration potential. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials. The project will help recruited producers develop the regional “ADK Climate Smart” branding and marketing strategy, including a badge/label that producers can use in their marketing and product labeling provided they meet certain criteria, along with a suite of marketing materials.
Lead Partner: Adirondack North Country Association
Other Major Partners: Interlace Commons, Great Range
Primary States Expected: NY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forest Products, Hazelnuts, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $558,625.16Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet NC (PDF, 305 KB)
Activating Food Hub Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture and Rural Revitalization
This project promotes climate-smart agriculture practices among small and underserved producers, including tribal producers, principally by equipping food hubs to finance and advise on-farm climate-smart practice implementation and marketing to wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. Participating farmers, who would receive technical assistance and training, would implement intensive rotational grazing; multispecies cover crops, crop rotation and reduced tillage/no-till; compost and biochar. The MMRV plan emphasizes soil carbon and soil health testing as a fundamental benchmark of climate-smart agriculture, while also recording analyses of water, cover crop tissue, and cash crop tissue to assess the impacts and efficiencies of climate-smart management. Working Landscapes and the food hub network, in collaboration with project partners, will market the climate-smart commodities produced. The project will focus on capturing a premium for climate smart commodities, and in some cases climate-smart attributes will be coupled with others (such as locally grown). The marketing plan includes two primary focuses that will be used to reach and inspire mission-aligned customers, including wholesale buyers, institutional buyers and individuals. The project will utilize qualitative and quantitative storytelling about climate-smart commodities (including their GHG reductions, social and economic impacts to small and underserved producers and other farmworkers, and the environmental resilience of climate-smart agriculture) in a variety of formats, including online multimedia, print materials, signage, point of sale displays, climate-smart farm tours, and more) to market the climate-smart commodities produced through this project. Over the course of the agreement the project expects to provide financial support and direct technical assistance, as well as educational opportunities to small and underserved producers. In addition to focusing on underserved farmers, the project will work with food hubs that are women-and/or people of color-led. In particular, as a Native American woman-led food hub that sources from Native American farmers and supplies a Native tribe, Working Landscapes will be able to establish entirely Native-led value chains for climate-smart products.
Lead Partner: Working Landscapes
Other Major Partners: North Carolina State University Center for Environmental Farming Systems, North Carolina A&T State University (BCU) Cooperative Extension, Resourceful Communities Partnership of the Conservation Fund, Haliwa Saponi Tribe, Weaver Street Market, Fruitful Innovation Group, Bender Farms, CEFS North Carolina 10% Campaign, Farmer Foodshare, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, Men & Women United, TRACTOR, Emory University
Primary States Expected: NC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Corn, Fruits, Pork, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,941Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MDA, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- North Dakota
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet ND (PDF, 303 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefits
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Ohio
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet OH (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent AcceleratorPrimary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Building Whole-Farm Designs and Market Infrastructure to Provide Premiums for Climate-Smart Farming among Mid-Sized Agricultural Enterprises in the Ohio River Valley
This project plans to model and develop whole-farm carbon sequestration systems geared towards mid-sized polyculture farms that produce crops and beef. Farmers would receive a sign-up incentive, free technical assistance, and cost-share to implement climate-smart practices. Partners would include African-American food system organizers who would ensure engagement with minority, unrepresented, and socially disadvantaged growers. Partners would offer a Climate-Smart Beef product line to current retail and wholesale customers and provide avenues for grain producers to market and sell their products. This project also aims to continue the long process of adapting the complexity of “Entity Scale” quantification and improve capacity to apply emissions factors and sequestration estimates in real world situations using lessons from literature, on farm assessment of practice changes, and soil testing.
Lead Partner: Mt. Folly Enterprises, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Mt. Folly Farm, Eastern Kentucky University, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Rich Earth Grains LLC, Riverside Meats, Sourwood Forestry, Ale-8-1 Bottling Company, Gallagher Fence, Brambleberry Farms, Rural Action Silvopasture, Holistic Management, Sprouted Wellness
Primary States Expected: KY, OH, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Hemp, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Developing Climate-Smart Agriculture and Markets Amongst Socially-Disadvantaged, Limited-Resource, and Urban Farmers in Ohio and Michigan
This project would combine monitoring, outreach, and technical support to foster the adoption of climate-smart practices by minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. It also creates synergy between climate-smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Project partners plan to recruit minority vegetable and beef cattle farmers and selected Central State University students who would receive additional training on climate-smart agriculture. Small-scale and urban vegetable farmers enrolled in this project would receive funds to cover part of their operating costs. Data on soil carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the various technological treatments, along with other collected data, will be used to conduct life cycle assessments to evaluate the environmental impacts of using Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry technologies that are suitable for small-scale and urban vegetable farms. Enteric emissions, specifically methane emissions will be measured by respiration chamber or In Vitro incubation in total feed use resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on methane emissions. Robotic, AI enhanced feeding systems and electricity usage in the feedlots and diesel use by tractors (for conventional approach) will be monitored resulting in total GHG emissions reductions based on the electricity and diesel use. Feed consumption under current and proposed approach will result in total GHG emissions measurements based on a reduction in feed usage. Feedlot manure storage operations will be evaluated for methane emissions measured from the anaerobic and aerobic storage operations resulting in total GHG emissions reductions and total methane emissions reduction. Optimization in nutrient application(s) at small-scale farms will be implemented to measure use of manure and commercial fertilizer for conventional and proposed systems. Total GHG emissions reductions due to reduction in commercial synthetic fertilizer use will be assessed. Verification will include COMET-Farm and will be used for confirmation of the measured emissions and the potential reductions in GHG emissions. The project will determine the marketing and economic viability of small-scale vegetable farms that have implemented Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices through consumer focus group interviews and individual interviews, which will be used to facilitate producer marketing and branding practices of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry products, including product labeling, target marketing, and market segmentation. The consumer valuation of food grown under Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices will be determined via Becker-DeGroot-Marschak (BDM) experimental auctions at farmer markets to develop production cost and profit estimates. This project is comprised of outreach, and technical support objectives leading to the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices by socially disadvantaged and limited resource farmers of Ohio and southern Michigan. The project will also create synergy between climate smart feedlot operations and socially disadvantaged farmers. Central State University (CSU) (1890 Land-Grant) Extension will recruit minority vegetable farmers and encourage collaboration between feedlot operations and underserved farmers who will be the end users of these climate smart manure management byproducts. This project will also provide hands-on climate-smart agriculture training to students from underserved populations.
Lead Partner: Central State University
Other Major Partners: Ohio State University, A & B Porteus
Primary States Expected: MI, OH
Major Commodities: Beef, Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,992,288Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050
Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, WheatApproximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09
Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Oklahoma
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet OK (PDF, 303 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990
Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Commodities and Market Development within the Chickasaw Nation: Restoring Power to Small Farmers and Communities Through Pecan and Specialty Crop Engagement
Participating farmers would receive incentives for climate-smart practices, including reducing chemical applications on pecan trees and conversion of pastures to multiple species of native grasses. Through this project, the Chickasaw Nation plans to work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans would be sourced to sale for any industry interested in climate-smart pecans and to local consumers. The project will use an evaluation tool to record impacts of applied climate smart practices made to the land through best management improvements. These verification processes will be developed and overseen by two advisory teams. The verification process will be recorded in a digital Working on Regenerative Management Systems which is an easily accessible digital format. WORMS will capture change within fields over time including soil sample data and is an ESRI 123 Survey document to capture in field data improvements. COMET-Planner will be utilized to evaluate carbon capture improvements. The Chickasaw Nation (CN) will work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans will be sourced for sales with partners. Marketing for specialty crops will focus on restoring lost engagement between underserved farmers and consumers within CN which will establish a fundamental blueprint to be utilized throughout other tribal nations and underserved communities and focus on utilizing opportunities through established programs to provide wholesome food to citizens through farmers markets through their nutrition division. Marketing will highlight the benefits of climate-smart commodities for consumers and allow an opportunity for increased profit for verified climate-smart specialty crop farmers, providing a direct link to those producers and consumers. In addition, the Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association will provide a state and national resource to pecan organizations and those markets. Most of the communities within the Chickasaw Nation’s treaty territory falls into nationally underserved categories. The Chickasaw Nation and project partners will work in collaboration to teach integrated management systems within native pecan groves not only to improve carbon capture but also to decrease carbon emissions among current underserved and small farmers. in addition, this project will focus on expanding climate smart education to local specialty crop farmers.
Lead Partner: Chickasaw Nation
Other Major Partners: Murray State College, Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association, Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Pecans, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,977,388Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Demonstration, Expansion, and Quantification of the Benefits of a Climate-Smart Commodity: Verified Regenerative Bison Products
The project will develop a demonstration program on tribal lands, implementing and expanding multiple climate-smart markets and practices in production of American bison, and will showcase the benefits of regenerative bison production to rangeland, ranchers, and climate. It will also create a new entity to maintain standards of regenerative bison production, track climate benefits and payment for those benefits through the supply chain and establish consumer trust. This project plans to support planting riparian areas, transitioning from crop land to native grass for bison grazing and native grass inter-seeding of existing pasture. A bison markets specialist plans to focus on a full “hoof to horn” utilization to sell multiple products including specialty cuts, ground bison, hides and bone meal. A bison-specific verification program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value. The project plans to quantify GHG emission reductions associated with conversion from conventional cattle grazing to regenerative bison grazing. GHG measurement and accounting are planned to be included in the expansion of the Arapaho and Cheyenne regenerative bison production program, and the creation of the world's first regenerative climate-smart bison verification program. For this project, a bison markets specialist would focus on full ‘hoof to horn’ utilization to sell multiple products, including specialty cuts, ground bison, jerky cuts, hides, and bone meal. The bison-specific verification program created within Savory Institute’s Land to Market program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value to both producer and partners. The project lead is the Tribe, and the work is planned to be completed in tribal land to improve bison grazing in native grass acres added.
Lead Partner: Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Other Major Partners: Frasier Bison, LLC, Mad Agriculture, Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Program, Intertribal Buffalo Council, Texas A&M University, Collaborative Earth
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: BisonApproximate Funding Ceiling: $7,000,000
Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, TerritoriesMajor Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Building Climate Success by Empowering Humans to Care for our Natural Resources
Through this project, tribal and other underserved producers would receive financial assistance for adopting climate-smart practices for livestock and pecan production in Oklahoma. Project partners plan to create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market climate-smart products, including the creation of a climate-smart marketing class session and other resources. Partners will measure/estimate environmental impacts of adoption of conservation practices through soil health assessments, soil carbon measurements, estimated reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from runoff, estimated changes in GHG emissions, and increases in infiltration rates at the project sites; COMET-Farm will be used where applicable. The monitoring and assistance with the verification of practices and results of those practices will be handled through the existing network of conservation districts and tribal conservation districts in Oklahoma. The project will create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market their products, including the creation of a marketing class session that focuses specifically on the messaging that encourages consumers to purchase climate-smart products, and a webpage with detailed information about labeling options and marketing 101 information.
Lead Partner: Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Inc.
Other Major Partners: The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC), The Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project (OBHRPI), The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Conservation District, The Choctaw Nation Conservation District
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Livestock, Pecans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,916,285The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Oregon
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet OR (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, WheatApproximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000
TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
- Pennsylvania
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet PA (PDF, 306 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Agriculture that is Profitable, Regenerative, Actionable, and Trustworthy (CARAT)
This project will enable partners to expand climate-smart markets and work with dairy producers in PA to implement climate-smart agriculture. An overarching goal is establishing successful and profitable partnerships between diverse producers, including underserved producers, and consumers, leading to a reduction of greenhouse gases, suppressing methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and storage of carbon. The proposal plans to market climate-smart milk by utilizing the CARAT advisory board to connect with companies interested in purchasing greenhouse gas credits or climate-smart milk. The project plans to utilize COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and CARAT-CALCULATOR. The goal is that funds devoted to small producers and underserved populations exceed 50% of funds allocated to technical assistance and incentives. It is estimated that about one third of participating farms would be small with representation proportional to the community of Plain-Sect., women owned farms and new and Beginning farmers. The project also plans to engage the large Latino workforces employed on dairy farms.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania State University
Other Major Partners: Center for Dairy Excellence, Proagrica, Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, Red Barn Consulting
Primary States Expected: PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing the Supply and Market for Climate-Smart Grass-Fed Organic Dairy via Maple Hill Creamery
This project will expand climate-smart markets for dairy producers and enable a network of partners and producers to implement climate-smart practices by incentivizing implementation and providing training support. This will lead to greater environmental practices and enhanced viability for farms that implement them. The project plans to provide participants incentives for Avoided Conversion, Pasture Scoring, Training and Voluntary participation. Marketing plans include updated branding materials like packaging, advertising, social media and a website. The project plans to utilize a combination of core tools: COMET, a Pasture Scorecard, on-farm soil sampling, and third-party soil health measurements. The monitoring, measurement, and reporting is planned to be led by a technical expert with third-party verification and soil is planned to be sampled utilizing the soil sampling framework developed by partners. The project plans to update all branding materials, including the website, packaging, advertising, and social media to draw attention to climate-smart farming efforts and CO2 impacts to draw and expand upon consumer desire to support Climate-Smart grass-fed organic products – milk for yogurt, butter, and kefir. The project provides a number of incentives, including Avoided Conversion Incentive payments, Voluntary Incentive payments, Pasture Scoring incentives and Training incentives.
Lead Partner: Maple Hill Creamery LLC
Other Major Partners: Dharma Lea, LLC, Paul Harris Development, LLC, Stone Barns, Point Blue Conservation Science, Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA), Open TEAM at Wolfe’s Neck Center, Shannon O'Sullivan, K&O Farm, James Young, Amber Waves, Spring Weather, Serenity Acres Farm, Evening Star Ranch, Reginelli and Aeschlimann, Adam Tafel, Periggo Farm, Whole Foods
Primary States Expected: NY, PA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Oilseeds, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MDA, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Rhode Island
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet RI (PDF, 302 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- South Carolina
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet SC (PDF, 304 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000BEACON Pilot: Farmers Guiding Farmers Towards Climate Smart Agriculture
This project plans to advance equity by minimizing transaction costs and addressing cultural dynamics for Black and indigenous producers by using a farmer-to-farmer collaborative training approach. Farmers would define culturally appropriate product labels, and partners would work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices like cover crops, no-till, tree planting and prescribed grazing. The project has worked to develop sustainable long-term alternative markets opportunities for climate-smart commodities generated because of the project activities. An increase in revenue due to participation in the project marketplace partnership is anticipated. Farmers will work to define a culturally appropriate climate-smart label for their products and partners will work to increase market access, specifically through marketing the value-add of using climate-smart practices and these products being Black and Indigenous grown. This project will measure/quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with the climate smart commodity practices and specialty crops assessed through the COMET Tool. Lighthouse producers will use COMET-Farm to demonstrate to their peers how to enter information about their contributed pilot acreage land and management—including location, soil characteristics, land uses, tillage practices and nutrient use. The cohorts of farmers will learn how the tool can estimate the environmental benefits, i.e., carbon sequestration, etc., associated with adoption of climate-smart practices on their pilot acreage. The project will also engage measurement and monitoring consultants, like Cloud Agronomics, that use advanced technology such as hyperspectral imaging to measure and monitor climate smart outcomes. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Florida A&M University, the project plans to target outreach to underserved producers. Lighthouse farmers will be provided with a stipend for their participation and leadership. The project will also provide the necessary tools and supplies for the demonstration sites, including the use of specialized equipment that will be made available for shared usage. It is the goal of the project that participation, hands-on training, technical assistance, and learning, in the program is at no cost to the farmers. Active participants will be provided with transportation and other support for participation in the workshop. Those who participate in the entire series will also receive a small stipend, and those who adopt the practices within one year of completing the series will receive additional incentives, depending on the level of adoption.
Lead Partner: Florida A&M University
Other Major Partners: National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network, Black Sustainability Inc., Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc., American Indian Mothers, Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmer Organizations
Primary States Expected: AL, FL,GA, MS, NC, OK, SC
Major Commodities: Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,990Building Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities in South Carolina
This project will utilize a coalition of 27 entities to execute a pilot project that provides incentives to farmers to implement climate-smart (CS) production practices. The project will examine and verify the benefits resulting from implementing CS practices and will support development of markets for the resulting CS commodities. The project plans to provide direct payments to producers to implement climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and tillage management, reduced tillage, mulching, nutrient management, prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, tree stand improvement, and early successional habitat development and management. The plan to develop and expand involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. GHG benefits are planned to be estimated using COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm with direct field measurements of GHG emissions on a sample of the enrolled farms, forests, and beef cattle operations, as well as third party verification of GHG benefit estimations. The plan to develop and expand markets focuses on studying relevant aspects of consumer markets, participating and non-participating producers, the food industry, and the timber and lumber industry. The plan involves advanced economic analysis techniques to estimate economic and environmental benefits and to assess potential long-term viability, as well as creation of a labeling and certification process for climate-smart commodities. The project plans for at least 50% of the participating farmers and landowners to be underserved and small. Additionally, there will be an annual recruitment of minority forest owners to form cluster sales.
Lead Partner: Clemson University
Other Major Partners: SC State University, American Peanut Council, CU Wood Utilization Institute, Forest Assoc. of SC, Help for Landowners, Mixon Seeds, Plametto Agribusiness Council, Petrichor Global, SC Cattleman's Assoc., SC Peanut Board, SC Southern SARE, SC Timber Producers Assoc., SC Forage and Grazing Lands Coalition, SC Farmers Markets, SC Specialty Crop Assoc., The Long Leaf Alliance, Tidewater Lumber and Moulding, US Endowment for Forests and Communities, WP Rawl, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, SC Black Farmer's Assoc, SC New & Beginning Farmers Program, Farmer Veteran Coalition of SC, Women in Agriculture, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Forest Products, Leafy Greens, Peanuts
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000ClimateSmartGoods.com - Set Your Table and Lower Your Footprint
The project plans to select farms in Mississippi and South Carolina to demonstrate the implementation of conservation/production plans – “Smart Crop Plans”, supporting the creation of a corresponding knowledge-based training platform. Project partners also plan to provide professional marketing consultant to advise on packaging, branding and marketing of “ClimateSmart” products and connecting the products with retail and wholesale markets. The project will utilize multiple models including COMET Farm and APSIM. High tech, real-time probes installed at each farm with data transmission and drone technology will be used to allow tracking of climate performance. The project will develop a marketing toolkit for each farm and commodity, including a Climate-Smart UPC and PLU for each product, where the commodity can be barcoded and ready to enter a distribution system which will result in transparency and ready tracking of climate-smart commodities. The project will also include robust producer training in the branding, marketing, pricing, and technology. All subawards and prime awardee are experienced with underserved and socially disadvantaged and limited resource producers. The project will include a comprehensive training program in marketing and selling that relies on peer mentoring and training with early adopters within community.
Lead Partner: Up in Farms LLC
Other Major Partners: Up in Farms, Center of Resilience Excellence South Carolina, DRA Resources, Florida A&M University, Warehouses 4 Good, Teralytic, Mississippi Delta Council for Farm Workers Opportunities
Primary States Expected: MS, SC
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickens, Fruits, Goats, Hemp, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,483Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,0000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Regenerative Agriculture and its Potential in Climate-Smart Commodities to Enhance the Sustainability of Underserved and Limited Resources Farmers in South Carolina
The project plans to use its regional extension centers and county extension agents to provide outreach to enroll small scale, limited resource and underserved farmers in South Carolina interested in adopting and implementing best management practices to grow climate-smart commodities, such as leafy greens and cover crops. The farmers would be incentivized to adopt emission reduction, climate-smart agricultural practices to maximize soil health, and carbon sequestration. The project would establish local and regionally based small farmer cooperative to market the climate-smart cash crop commodities. GHG measurements will involve visits to farm fields and measuring data using a Gasmet greenhouse gas analyzer. The project will model greenhouse gas emissions using Cool Farm Tool and COMET-Farm to compare between the on-farm and in-situ results. The project will collaborate with Mixon Seed and the Department of Marketing in SC State College of Business and Information System to develop and implement a marketing plan for adapted climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: South Carolina State University
Other Major Partners: Mixon Seed Services, South Carolina Black Farmers Coalition
Primary States Expected: SC
Major Commodities: Leafy Greens, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,542,629Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- South Dakota
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet SD (PDF, 303 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Tennessee
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet TN (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Building Whole-Farm Designs and Market Infrastructure to Provide Premiums for Climate-Smart Farming among Mid-Sized Agricultural Enterprises in the Ohio River Valley
This project plans to model and develop whole-farm carbon sequestration systems geared towards mid-sized polyculture farms that produce crops and beef. Farmers would receive a sign-up incentive, free technical assistance, and cost-share to implement climate-smart practices. Partners would include African-American food system organizers who would ensure engagement with minority, unrepresented, and socially disadvantaged growers. Partners would offer a Climate-Smart Beef product line to current retail and wholesale customers and provide avenues for grain producers to market and sell their products. This project also aims to continue the long process of adapting the complexity of “Entity Scale” quantification and improve capacity to apply emissions factors and sequestration estimates in real world situations using lessons from literature, on farm assessment of practice changes, and soil testing.
Lead Partner: Mt. Folly Enterprises, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Mt. Folly Farm, Eastern Kentucky University, Hickory Nut Gap Farm, Rich Earth Grains LLC, Riverside Meats, Sourwood Forestry, Ale-8-1 Bottling Company, Gallagher Fence, Brambleberry Farms, Rural Action Silvopasture, Holistic Management, Sprouted Wellness
Primary States Expected: KY, OH, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Hemp, Sorghum, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Fiber Hemp: A Versatile Thread Connecting the Nation’s Underserved Farmers, Climate Change Mitigation and Novel Market Opportunities
This project would be a collaborative initiative to expand the production of industrial hemp as a climate-smart commodity, evaluate its greenhouse gas benefits (GHG), and promote the value of market development to a cross-section of production agriculture, including small, medium, and underserved producers across the state of Tennessee. Special efforts are planned to identify and recruit underserved producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans), as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed. An interdisciplinary business approach to research and development with corporate partners will be implemented with the goal of defining the material specifications necessary to scale a market for particular product applications. This will include exploring the development of a climate-smart, socially responsible classification system and certification program for hemp fiber and pulp and providing the raw material outputs from the basic processing of the hemp grown under the Project to interested corporate partners in the automotive, plastics, textiles, paper/pulp, and building materials industries to identify applications within defined and prospective markets. The Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) approach will involve direct monitoring at the on-farm and on-station pilot plots. The project will implement intensive greenhouse gas (GHG) and soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration monitoring in response to fertility and rotational agronomic managements at the TSU and UTK on-station trials and on-farm locations representative of key agricultural regions in the middle and west TN. With leadership from the Historically Black College or University (HBCU), Tennessee State University, the project is focused on serving small and underserved producers both as incentivized program participants receiving direct subsidies, but also in the targeted dissemination of insights resultant from virtually all program research through technical assistance outreach. Special efforts will be made to identify and recruit underrepresented producers (e.g. minority producers, women, veterans) as well as farmers from the nine most economically distressed counties in Tennessee and the 30 counties at risk for becoming economically distressed, to result in an anticipated estimate of greater than 60% of producer participants from underserved groups who will receive financial assistance.
Lead Partner: Tennessee State University
Other Major Partners: Hemp Alliance of Tennessee, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Tennessee Department of Agriculture
Primary States Expected: TN
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,972,898Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Organic Egg Project
This project would work with underserved, Amish and Mennonite producers to expand organic pasture-raised egg farming, inspire and educate consumers, and grow the demand for and expand the market for climate-smart egg products. Regenerative practices include manure and nutrient management, pasture enhancements, tree and shrub establishment and cover crops. Handsome Brook Farms plans to work with partners and retailers to develop labeling and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs, a new climate-smart U.S. niche market. Baseline and project emissions data collected through eLCA, COMET-Farm and COMET-Energy will be quantified and placed into EPA Portfolio Manager for baseline and post-intervention impacts. A data collection portal and dashboard will be created to verify and display sustainability performance in conjunction with datasets. The project’s climate-smart marketing system balances farm and supply chain efficiency with climate change mitigation goals to develop value addition within the current domestic market system to complement lucrative market opportunities for small farmers as well as our domestic retailers. In addition to working with enrolled farmers, Handsome Brook Farms will liaise with Organic Voices marketing team for the development of a climate-smart and regenerative certification program, Costco and retailers for labeling needs and sales opportunities to promote climate-smart organic pasture-raised eggs which is a niche marketing arena that has not been created or promoted in domestic markets in the US. The project partner, Handsome Brook Farms, currently contracts with over 140 producers across ten states, many of which are classified as small or traditionally underserved farmers and/or are Amish or Mennonite. Almost 100% of the project will work with producers who are currently outside the direct reach of many of the resources offered by the USDA and other programs.
Lead Partner: Handsome Brook Farms, LLC
Other Major Partners: Costco Inc, Organic Voices, Grow Well Consulting, Curva and Associates LLC, University of Kentucky, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, NY Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Love Just Works LLC, Soil Carbon Initiative, Soil Regen and Regen Ag Lab
Primary States Expected: AR, IN, KY, MO, NY, OH, PA, TN
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,642,296.00Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI
Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Texas
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet TX (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000AgriCapture Climate-Friendly Rice
This project will benefit climate-smart farmers in Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and California while expanding climate-smart rice markets and guaranteeing a supply of climate-smart rice to customers. All farms will be certified under the ACFRS. This project plans direct incentive payment to producers for climate-smart practice implementation and identity preserved storage and potential crop premiums for producers who develop their own processing capabilities and markets. Planned practices include alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigated rice, reduced burning of rice stubble, early incorporation of rice stubble into the soil, and various techniques for improving nitrogen fertilizer efficiency. The project plans to follow AgriCapture's Climate-Friendly ™ Rice Standard, which uses IPCC equations and DNDC modeling for GHG benefits; representative soil sampling; in-field data collection activities including drone footage, ground level photos and videos, etc.; and use of remote sensing technologies to monitor changes in practices. The project plans to leverage existing marketing and sales employees to develop the buyer market for climate smart rice. The project plans to assist 30 percent underserved or small producers.
Lead Partner: AgriCapture, Inc.
Other Major Partners: University of Missouri, Cedar Woods Consulting, Dainty Foods, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Blue Apron, McKaskle Family Farm, Arkansas River Rice Mill, Anheuser-Busch
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate Resiliency for the Farm and Market Development: Economically Viable Low Carbon and Climate-Smart Practices for Soybean Farming
Team Climate-Smart Soybean plan to provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices and participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. Participants would use cover crops, no-till, climate-smart soybeans, crop rotation, bio-fertilizers, and biochar. Led by a Hispanic-serving institution, project assistance would be provided in a culturally relative approach. As a Hispanic-serving institution. monitoring, reporting, and verification activities for climate-smart practices will be developed at UT-Arlington in collaboration with researchers, agricultural economists, and commodity developers at Texas A&M AgriLife, Tarleton State University, University of Missouri, and Texas Valley Grain. The project will use COMET, to evaluate carbon sequestration and GHG reductions associated with specific production practices (baseline) and field-based data collection, soil gas fluxes of CO2, N2O, NO, and CH4 measured via portable Gasmet DX4000 FTIR Analyzer, plant tissue analysis and direct soil sampling. The research team, named "Team Climate-Smart Soybean", will participate in the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart soybeans. The project will provide small/underserved soybean producers with sufficient incentives to encourage the use of climate-smart practices which result in generation of verifiable GHG reductions and carbon sequestration. At the completion of this project, multiple small/underserved soybean producers from each state enlisted will have integrated climate-smart farming practices into their land management strategies, giving them and their immediate neighbors access to information on these innovative technologies that are scientifically proven to curb GHG emissions, sequester carbon, and bolster a more regenerative approach to modem agriculture. Bringing these technologies to small/underserved farmers and seeing the production outcomes, market share for climate-smart commodities will increase due to demand by the early adopters.
Lead Partner: University of Texas at Arlington
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M AgriLife, University of Missouri, Tarleton State University
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,991,439Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable and Innovative Supply Chain Approach
This project will expand climate-smart cotton markets and implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs. The project plans to create tools focused on small and underserved producers for communications, climate smart educational materials, outreach/educational activities, and engagement on farm for data collection and practice implementation. The project plans to target outreach for enrollment to women and minority farmers. The project plans to work with partners, farmers, and brands to further intensify and target cooperation with clients around the purchase and sale of climate-smart cotton, as well as the development of long-term strategies and agreements progressing the market for climate-smart cotton in a way which is economically sustainable for all value chain players – from farmer to consumer. The project plans to use a measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification (MMRV) platform that utilizes remote sensing, high resolution geographic image processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which will be compared to COMET estimates and results from the Cool Farm Tool. Additionally, partners plan to conduct real time greenhouse gas emission measurements at demonstration sites to validate estimates from an MMRV platform, Cool Farm Tool and COMET.
Lead Partner: Ecom USA, LLC
Other Major Partners: Earthworm, Quarterway Cotton Growers, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of Arkansas Coop Extension, Control Union, 5 LOCCotton
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, GA, LA, MS, TN, TX
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Sustainability Certificate
The project will expand Climate-Smart markets with particular outreach to small and underserved producers and would create the Climate-Smart Sustainability (CSS) Certificate to quantify the value of existing and newly adopted climate-smart interventions. The development of the CSS Certificate would substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities and small-scale underserved and limited resources farmers. The project teams plan to connect with networks, producers, processors, and Agri-Technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The data-backed CSS Certificate would provide a solution to value and document the carbon and environmental co-benefits embedded within purchased grains and other food crops so that buyers of U.S. commodities can certify GHG reductions within their supply chain. The project will include the evaluation of new type of interventions (i) algaeslurry/granules, (ii) rock powder (RP) and Silicon (Si) along with existing crop management practices. Various high technology sensors will be used to quantify the GHG such as CO2, CH4 and N2O. The project teams will connect with networks, producers, processors, and agri-technology companies to help build out the market for climate-smart commodities. The development of the CSS Certificate will substantially expand opportunities for climate-smart commodities. This Historically Black College or University (HBCU) will work together with the University of Houston, which is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander - Serving Institution (AANAPISI), to reach small-scale, underserved and limited resource farmers.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas A&M University, University of Houston, Michigan Aerospace Corporation
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Leafy Greens, Sorghum, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,381Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Establishing Climate-Smart Commodities with Reduced Greenhouse Gas Footprints to Enhance Environmental and Economic Sustainability in the Texas High Plains
The goals of this project are to quantify benefits from these climate-smart commodities on a variety of producer field sites, estimate GHG footprint across the supply chain using COMET (carbon management evaluation tool), develop a framework to demonstrate socio-economic and environmental sustainability in the Texas High Plains and support a market for sustainably produced climate-smart cotton. Multiple producers representing 10 Texas counties have been identified within the categories of Hispanic, veteran, women, beginning farmers, and early adopters. Remote sensing-based spatial mapping will be used to quantify the status of legume-based multi-species cover crops and cotton-sorghum rotation under no-till in the entire Texas High Plains. Participating producers will record water pumped and energy consumption for different farm operations, in addition to providing detailed farm records regarding varieties, seeding rates, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, tillage practices, and yields. The project will primarily use COMET-Planner complemented with COMET-Farm, as they provide the flexibility to include additional parameters and a quantitative measure of GHG emissions. In addition, the project will verify the GHG emissions and the potential benefits from GHG reductions through a sustainability index and by comparative assessment using COMET Planner/COMET-Farm, Fieldprint Platform®, and GREET. The GREET model, though limited to certain crops, allows for life cycle analysis (LCA) for grain sorghum and for comparison with COMET-Farm. The project will provide a means for participating producers to receive a data collection fee for sustainably produced “climate smart cotton”. Cotton will be considered “climate smart” when the producer meets standard guidelines set by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, providing assurance to the 40 major clothing brands (including Next, Gap, Levi Strauss and others) that are members of their program. Taking advantage of these established guidelines for producing sustainable cotton, the project will work with the sorghum industry to establish a similar set of sustainable guidelines for grain sorghum producers. A similar payment system will be established to support “climate smart sorghum” grown by the participating producers. The project expects that almost all participating producers involved in the project will be underserved producers including “beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers, limited resource farmers, women farmers, and producers growing specialty crops”. Direct assistance costs to producers include: (i) moisture sensors and data transfer, (ii) soil sample collection and analysis, (iii) weather stations on all 30-producer field-sites, remuneration for producers’ time and monetary incentive.
Lead Partner: Texas Tech University
Other Major Partners: National Cotton Council, National Sorghum Producers, Texas Alliance for Water Conservation (TAWC) advisory board, No-Till Texas, Field to Market, Texas Sorghum Association, Groguru, Agri-Search
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Cotton, Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,945,553Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Improved Practices of Climate-Smart Livestock Production Systems and Agricultural Commodities while Enhancing Carbon Sequestration in the Southern USA: Innovating toward a new climate-smart commodity by investing in minority producers
The project would work with minority small producers to implement silvopasture systems and climate-resilient forage systems. Producers would receive incentives that enable their participation in climate-smart pilots and continued implementation, including reduced feed costs, carbon credit profits, and value-added products. Partners would create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner. The marketing pipeline combine farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. In addition to using the COMET-Planner model, the project will test existing methane measurement technologies for sheep and goat production systems against the industry standard systems to identify a technology that is accurate, affordable, and time-efficient enough for use by small producers including minority producers. The project will create a mobile processing and marketing system to support the local, farm-direct meat production pipeline in a climate-conscious manner, including through designing and building the mobile processing unit and implementing an efficient processing and marketing pipeline that uses a combination of venues, farmers’ markets, local restaurants, craft butcher shops, and direct to-consumer approaches. The project will work with partners to develop high-value climate-smart markets for the pilot's products, including for instance the first climate-smart Halal meat supply chain connecting small minority producers of low methane sheep and goat meats to local customers. With leadership from a minority service institution, over 85% of the producers are anticipated to be underserved minority producers.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Mississippi State University, Alabama A&M University, Langston University, Widget Development & Trading Company
Primary States Expected: AL, MS, OK, TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Goats, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,081,137Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Measuring the Climate Benefits and Emissions of Prescribed Sheep Grazing, and Promoting the Consumption of Climate-Smart Lamb
The American Lamb Board’s (ALB) project plans to measure and report carbon sequestration, soil health and other greenhouse gas benefits, and associated ecosystem services provided by prescribed sheep grazing on four different pilot demonstration sites throughout the United States and market the resulting climate-smart lamb products. Historically underserved producers are planned to receive funding for implementing climate-smart practices and technical assistance with farm plan development, LCA estimates, and reporting and verification. By partnering with multiple research universities and private sector specialists and employing a Research Advisory Committee that includes other experts in the livestock and climate sector, the project will include robust measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This will include developing a data-driven partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four pilot demonstration sites using Michigan State University's emissions calculator, measuring soil carbon flux and other soil health indicators associated with prescribed grazing practices, and documenting other qualitative variables and observations. The American Lamb Board (ALB) will utilize the study results to develop consumer marketing materials and an outreach plan that will promote the consumption of climate-smart lamb products through new and expanded climate-smart markets. Capra Foods, a network of regenerative sheep ranches in Texas, will develop and pilot marketing strategies for climate-smart lamb to their regional potential consumer base, which will be used to inform development of future ALB climate-smart lamb marketing strategies. American Lamb Board will coordinate with underserved farmer organizations to provide outreach to enroll underserved and small producers, for a target of half of all producers funded by this project being small and/or underserved. Funding will go to small and/or underserved producers for implementation of climate-smart practices and to technical assistance providers assisting these producers with farm plan development, Lifecycle Analysis estimates, and reporting and verification.
Lead Partner: American Lamb Board
Other Major Partners: Capra Foods, American Sheep Industry Association, Bureau of Land Management, National Grazing Lands Coalition, American Solar Grazing Association, California Lamb Board, Michigan State University, UC Berkeley, Montana State University, Texas A&M, Noble Common Ground Solutions, North Carolina State University, University of California - Davis
Primary States Expected: CA, MT, NC, TX
Major Commodities: Lamb
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,995,000National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000PVAMU Climate-Smart Farm Planning Program
This project plans to support historically underserved farmers in over 60 Texas counties as they adopt carbon-smart farm plans. This includes listening to the individual needs of farms to incorporate regenerative agriculture practices and provide technical assistance, financial incentives, and ongoing advising to help farmers develop regenerative agriculture practices. This project would also help producers market to down-supply chain purchasing partners that have placed value on regenerative agriculture. To quantify the GHGs emissions or sequestration from the proposed cropland or farm, the project will consider different sources of GHG benefits, including biomass and litter carbon stock changes, carbon stocks from mineral soils and organic soils, direct and indirect nitrous oxide emission from the soil, and methane uptake by soils. The project will use the COMET-Planner to quantify the participating farms' GHG and carbon sequestration benefits. PVAMU will explore and deploy new and cost-effective methods for quantifying GHG and carbon sequestration benefits, including employing in-situ measurements and developing new sensing methods to provide more accurate measurements. The project team will work with other stakeholders, such as American Carbon Registry, on protocols to define standards for the climate-smart certificates on quantifying the environmental benefits of climate-smart practices. The team will work with participating farmers in years 1 and 2 of this project to communicate with their preferred or current buyers. Communicating the certificate's value to these buyers could aid in driving demand for climate-smart commodity premiums. The project is led by a Minority Serving Institution. The project will work with small and underserved farmers providing training and certification in the first two years of the grant using a modularized, accelerated hands-on learning-based continuing-education approach. Incentives will be also provided to these farmers based on verification of climate-smart practice implementation.
Lead Partner: Prairie View A&M University
Other Major Partners: Texas AgriForestry Small Farmers and Ranchers, the Landowners Association of Texas, Workforce Training and Development, Inc., Cargill, Inc., Monarch Academy
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Corn, Fruits, Livestock, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,000,000Rice Stewardship Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities
This project will build climate-smart rice markets and work to reduce methane emissions in rice production through the adoption of alternate wetting and drying, furrow irrigation, and other climate- smart practices and support underserved producers by improving critical infrastructure necessary to implement climate-smart practices in the future. This project plans to work with Black and underserved producers to leverage over 60 Climate-Smart practices and scenarios. USA rice plans to work with monitoring partners to certify quantified emission reductions for grain produced through this pilot and promote marketing assistance. The proposed pilot project plans to utilize a combination of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Level 2 (state/regional sequestration/emissions factors combined with practice data) and IPCC Level 3 (models that include ancillary data alongside emission factors and practice data or process-based models) emissions reductions estimates for MMRV. The Field to Market FieldPrint Platform is planned to be used for IPCC Level 2 emission reductions that can be compared against Entity-Scale Methods developed using IPCC Level 3 GHG reduction estimates from both DayCent modeling by Arva Intelligence and Denitrification Decomposition modeling by Regrow. Furthermore, it is proposed to leverage ongoing eddy-flux covariance tower data collection, remote sensing-model fusion and advanced model development to improve IPCC Level 2 (FieldPrint) and 3 (DayCent & DNDC model) estimates over the course of the project. USA Rice plans to work with MMRV partners to issue a certificate stating the grain participated in this pilot with quantified reductions. For years two and beyond, USA Rice will assist with the promotion to the surrounding industry that the pilot grain exists, which will vary dependent on the organization interested in purchasing the grain, which is why multiple MMRV partners have been brought in. This project will support historically underserved producers, with a focus on Black farmers.
Lead Partner: USA Rice Federation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Black Growers Council, Warehouses4Good, Entergy Corporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., California Rice Commission, Delta F.A.R.M., Walmart Corporation, Walmart Foundation, Nestle’ Purina PetCare Company, The Mosaic Company, RiceTec, Inc., Anheuser-Busch, Riceland Foods, Delta Plastics, Corteva Agriscience, Field to Market, Arva Intelligence, Regrow, University of Arkansas, Mars; Kellogg’s
Primary States Expected: AR, CA, IL, LA, MS, MO, TX
Major Commodities: Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Scaling Up the Industrial Hemp Supply Chain as Carbon Negative Feedstock for Fuel and Fiber
This project will help with commercializing and marketing climate-smart hemp crops while driving soil carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The project aims to provide effective valuation and monetization of environmental services, including carbon dioxide removal via implementation of new genetics and management practices to increase sustainability of hemp as an annual crop in the U.S. The project plans to support small-scale, minority and other underserved farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs. Partners are planning Climate-Smart marketing and technical feasibility studies. Leaf and soil samples will be collected from farm sites. The project plans to use data collection to verify satisfactory model performance of various computer simulation models used to manage natural resources [e.g., COMET-Farm, DayCent, The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and The Agricultural Policy / Environmental eXtender (APEX)]. Marketing feasibility studies and technical feasibility studies are planned to be conducted during the Climate Smart grant study to determine the scale and location of the plants. The project plans to pre-contract and identity preserve crops. The project plans to support small and minority and underrepresented farmers by paying producer license fees, incentives and seed costs.
Lead Partner: Lincoln University
Other Major Partners: National Hemp Association, Kansas Farmers Union, Missouri Farmers Union, Missouri Organic Association, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Oklahoma Farmers Union, ShowMe State Hemp Association, Missouri Department of Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Research Center, Oklahoma State University, Prairie View A&M University, St. Louis University, Southeast Missouri State University, University of Missouri, Benchmark Design, Cquester Analytics, DTE Materials, HempWood, Midwest Natural Fiber, New West Genetics, REA Resource Recovery Systems, Rockwater, Renaissance Fiber, The GIC Group
Primary States Expected: MO (and CO, OK, TX for test plots only)
Major Commodities: Hemp
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $5,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Texas Climate-Smart Initiative
This project, the Texas Climate-Smart Initiative (CSI), is a five-year multi-commodity pilot project to transition Texas' large agricultural sector to climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) practices and develop new markets for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to provide financial incentives for a wide array of climate-smart practices including cover crops, forestry practices, grazing and pasture management practices and nutrient management. Planned marketing efforts include brand creation and cost-benefit analysis tools for producer use. The project plans to verify practice implementation through site visits and remote-sensing methods, evaluate soil organic carbon stocks and GHG emissions using a combination of direct sampling and modeling techniques, and adapt the Texas Best Management Evaluation Tool for reporting and tracking of carbon and GHG benefits. Innovative aspects of the project would involve the evaluation of new sensor technology to assess changes to soil organic carbon to reduce MMRV costs, as well as development of a mobile application for the producer to use for verification of climate smart practice implementation. The project plans to develop decision tools for producers based on a cost-benefit analysis of CSAF practices; create and evaluate a “Climate Smart” brand for its ability to develop and expand new markets for commodities produced with CSAF practices; cultivate additional relationships with downstream entities to build marketing channels and traceability for climate-smart commodities in the supply chain; and establish a protocol for determining ownership of carbon benefits through each step in the supply chain. The project aims to ensure recruitment of small-scale and underserved producers. Recruiting materials are planned to be available in English and Spanish, and events in the South are planned to include Spanish speaking speakers. In some areas, equipment is planned to be available to accomplish project objectives and overcome adoption barriers.
Lead Partner: Texas A & M Agrilife Research
Other Major Partners: Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board, Prairie View A&M University, University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, Tarleton State University, BCarbon, Nori, Plains Cotton Growers Association, Texas Wheat Producers Board, TX Corn Producers Board, TX Sorghum Producers Board, TX Rice Producers Board, U.S. Rice Producers Association, TX Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association, TX International Produce Association, TX Citrus Mutual, TX Pecan Growers Association, TX Small Farmers & Ranchers Organization, 100Ranchers, TX Cattle Feeders Association, TX Association of Dairymen, TX Poultry Federation, TX Forestry Association, TX Chapter of National Women in Agriculture, Global Revive, Small Producers Initiative, American Plant Food
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Citrus, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Forest Products, Grapes, Hemp, Livestock, Olives, Pecans, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sorghum, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Validating Agrivoltaic Technology with Underserved Agricultural Producers
This project plans to pilot the climate-smart co-location of agriculture and solar power (agrivoltaics) to measure and evaluate greenhouse gas benefits and promote equitable climate-smart commodity market development for Hispanic farmers and ranchers. Partners also plan to provide direct financial and culturally relevant technical assistance to participants for implementing agrivoltaic systems on their farms and ranches.
Lead Partner: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Other Major Partners: Purdue University, AgriSolar Clearinghouse, HOPE for Small Farm Sustainability, Texas/Mexico Border Coalition (TMBC), Starr County Industrial Foundation (SCIF), Hub of Prosperity, Zamora Ranch, Justice and Mercy Energy Services (JustEnergy), RGV Solar LLC
Primary States Expected: TX
Major Commodities: Beef, Goat Meat, Lamb, Livestock, Orchard, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $2,229,200Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
- Utah
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet UT (PDF, 301 KB)
Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Vermont
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet VT (PDF, 303 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Improving Forest Carbon Sequestration and Storage by Establishing Supply Chains for Low-Quality Wood Material and Incentivizing Sustainable Forestry Practices
This project pilots an incentives program to advance sustainable climate-smart forest management and create additional low-quality climate-smart wood market supply chains. Nearly every participant would be small scale or underserved, who would receive direct payments for retaining larger and higher quality trees. The project's partners would market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material. The primary approach to greenhouse gas benefit quantification when implementing management will be conducted via a calculation of tree biomass (and associated carbon) that was retained by comparison to the desired landowner goals, and associated growth at the end of the project period. Total carbon that would have been removed will be estimated using a sampling protocol similar to other carbon program field verification processes. The project's logging partners will market the resulting climate-smart commodities, leveraging their well-established working relationships with buyers who require the low-quality wood material (paper and pellet mills, and biomass heating/electric production). It is expected that virtually all of the producers/ landowners (50+) enrolled in this project will fall under the small or underserved category (e.g., beginning farmers, veterans, minorities, etc.), or both.
Lead Partner: AMRO United Corporation
Other Major Partners: LBS Ecological, Future Forest Management
Primary States Expected: CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,862,360.80Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project
This project will implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot and Tribal owners to store more carbon in the forest, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials. The project aims to include Climate-smart forestry practices like reduced impact logging, timber stand improvement thinning, maintaining legacy trees and brown ash as a component of New England’s forests, as well as maintain cultural integrity and economy of First Nations. This project plans to utilize the monitoring and verification program created by AFF and TNC for the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) that provides a sophisticated methodology for determining carbon stocking and can differentiate between areas treated with practices and the surrounding landscape. The program plans to advance markets for climate-smart forest products with a focus on high-value wood in the mass timber sector. The project plans to engage affordable housing agencies across the region in utilizing mass timber construction. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production.
Lead Partner: New England Forestry Foundation
Other Major Partners: Seven Islands, Weyerhauser, Wagner Woodlands, Baskahegan Land Company, Robbins Lumber, Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, University of Maine, The Nature Conservancy, Woodlands Partnership of Northwest Massachusetts, Massachusetts Tree Farm Program, Hull Forestlands, L.P., Heyes Family Forests, LLC, Trust to Conserve Northeast Forestlands, American Forest Foundation, Spatial Informatic Group, Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, Spiritos Properties, LLC, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Quantified Ventures, WoodWorks, Forest Stewards Guild, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Our Climate Common, Highstead Foundation, Massachusetts Forest Alliance, Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Appalachian Mountain Club, Massachusetts Woodlands Institute, Tom Walker, John Hagan, Daigneault Consulting
Primary States Expected: CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration - A Value-Added Commodities Approach for United States Dairy
Through this project, Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) climate-smart pilots will directly connect the on- farm greenhouse gas reductions with the low-carbon dairy market opportunity. DFA will use its cooperative business model to ensure that the collective financial benefits are captured at the farm, creating a compelling opportunity to establish a powerful self-sustaining circular economy model benefiting U.S. agriculture, including underserved producers. The project will utilize MyFarms which was built to accurately quantify & track GHG emissions. Some of tools used by MyFarms are SAFELink, Fieldprint Platform & COMET-Planner. Dairy One will provide the technical assistance, outreach, soil testing, consulting & training DFA farmer-owners. Dairy One will also help farmers implement the practices DFA included as part of the accelerating regenerative agriculture portion of project. DFA will provide technical assistance for manure management. The project will create and market low-carbon dairy products through an extensive manufacturing and sales network. A marketing consultant will be used to help market these low-carbon dairy products. DFA already has an existing milk brand so low-carbon milk products will be an additional product available to consumers. This project will enroll small and underserved producers such as Black and Hispanic communities, Amish, Mennonite and Hutterite communities. In the New Jersey milkshed 77% of participants would be small & underserved producers and the Massachusetts milkshed 28% would be classified as small & underserved producers. DFA will hold informational meeting which will help inform DFA members on the climate-smart program availability.
Lead Partner: Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Dairy One Cooperative, Inc., MyFarm, LLC, Dairy Nutrition Management and Consulting, LLC, Nestlé, Mars, Unilever, Barry Callebaut, Dairy Management Inc., U.S. Dairy Export Council, National Milk Producers Federation, Global Dairy Platform, Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, CoBank, AGPROfessionals, ReGen Ag,
Primary States Expected: CO, CT, KS, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, VT
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $45,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
- Virginia
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet VA (PDF, 306 KB)
Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Grasslands: The Root of Agricultural Carbon Markets
A diverse partnership of 28 entities will develop climate-smart grasslands agriculture markets and practices for the eastern U.S. through a large-scale pilot project. The project collaborates with 245 working farms to install innovative, scientifically sound practices, including grazing, seeding grass and using soil amendments, that improve soil carbon storage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and maintain operational profitability and resiliency. The project plans to market climate-smart beef with the ultimate goal of launching a cooperative to sell climate-smart beef products. COMET, DayCent, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) & LI-COR will all be used to monitor the effects of the proposed climate-smart practices and management to be implemented. 100 participating farms will have baseline testing in Year 1 and in Year 5 to see what effect the different practices had on the land. This project will document the impact of traditional and innovative practices on SOC and GHG outcomes. This information will help producers market climate-smart commodities to several potential markets such as access to verified GHG-reduction supply chains, marketing ecosystem services as off-sets, formation of a producer cooperative & development of an interactive web platform to facilitate engagement with prospective market for Carbon Credits. In addition, the project will work with industrial partners within the finishing/processing supply chain to provide an opportunity to engage with a climate-smart chain access and benefit. The project will use existing & successful programs with 11 partner Land Grant institutes to engage the underserved/minority population. The “Farmers Veteran Coalition” of Tennessee will be used to reach veterans in the farming community. Also, the National Grazing Land Coalition (NGLC) will engage with Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization & Indian Nations Conservation Alliance. The project will prioritize counties within the nine-state project area that are economically distressed or have disproportionate representation of small and limited resource farmers. The overall goal is to enroll at least 30% of producers who are either underserved, beginning, veteran or limited resource farmers and 30% of producers within economically distressed counties.
Lead Partner: The University of Tennessee
Other Major Partners: Univ. of Arkansas, University of KY, University of MO, Clemson University, NC State University, Purdue University, TN State University, Univ. of TN Institute of Agriculture, VA State University, VA Tech, Tyson Foods Inc., JBS USA, Corteva Agriscience, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Ecosystem Services Marketing Consortium, American Forage & Grassland Council, National Grazing Lands Coalition, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, multiple state cattle associations, American and Tennessee Farm Bureau Federations, The Nature Conservancy, American Bird Conservancy, Monarch JointVenture, National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative, TN Department of Agriculture, MO Department of Conservation, VA Department of Conservation and Recreation, University of Maryland, Colorado State University, Auburn University
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, IN, KY, MO, NC, SC, TN, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Forage Small Ruminants
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Cover Crop Utilization to Boost Anaerobic Digestion, Transform Chicken Litter, Enhance Soil Health, and Create Climate-Smart Commodity Pathways for Small Farms on the Delmarva Peninsula
The project would directly address underserved producers on the Delmarva Peninsula by promoting climate-smart cover crops as a feedstock for digestor facilities. Project partners anticipate these facilities plan to provide a per acre incentive for harvested climate-smart cover crop biomass making them more economically sustainable and allowing for several project partners to promote and distribute the climate-smart products. This project plans to focus on environmental justice especially in communities impacted by environmental hazards, social-economic stress and poor infrastructure. The renewable energy produced (biogas, including methane content) will be quantified using a mass balance approach, with the energy output based on the mass of poultry litter and cover crop inputs. All energy inputs and outputs from the digester operation to cover crops, field application, and soil sequestration will be quantified, and the COMET online management tool will be used for estimating changes in soil C sequestration, fuel, and fertilizer use resulting from changes in land management. The project has formalized several partnerships to promote and distribute the climate-smart products under the project and will disseminate information regarding the cover crops and field amendments generated by this project. One of the partners will facilitate the integration of underserved producers into the new climate-smart cover crop supply chain. This project will also focus on the environmental factors inherent to the implementation of any new agricultural practice or technology.
Lead Partner: University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Other Major Partners: Delmarva Land and Litter Collaborative, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, 2020 Farmers Cooperative, Planet Found Energy Development, University of Maryland College Park
Primary States Expected: MD, VA
Major Commodities: Corn, Grass
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the Participation of Marginal Producers and Landowners to Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Practices: Continuous Efforts of 1890 Agroforestry Consortium
The project plans to support small-scale and other underserved producers in three states with financial and technical assistance to transform their traditional production into a multi-pronged agroforestry-based climate-smart, sustainable production system. All producers and landowners are planned to receive financial incentives to cover costs of inputs and services Partners will form a marketing network for labelling, packaging, and branding CS commodities. The project's MMRV plan will include core sampling for carbon sequestration benefits in soil, in-field measurement of GHG effluxes, and quantification of carbon sequestered in trees and shrubs based on above and below-ground biomass. To measure GHG benefits associated with climate smart animal-production systems, partners will include the use of mobile small animal GreenFeed measurement systems, forage biomass samples, and other collected data. The GHG benefits associated with the implemented climate-smart practices will be verified based on the carbon sequestration and GHG emission results and their continuity over the project period, using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET). The project will adopt a robust marketing plan to explore, create, expand, and promote climate smart commodities marketing during the project period and create an inter-state marketing consortium to educate producers and landowners on how to promote domestic markets for their climate-smart commodities. The project will also facilitate the setting of premium prices for the climate-smart commodities by introducing labels/badges and marketing materials on packaging and branding, e.g., a climate-smart logo and the price per unit of climate smart commodity on the label/badge. This project, led by a minority serving institution, is expected to enroll primarily small and underserved producers and landowners. Each participant will receive financial incentives to procure inputs and pay for services required for implementing climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Tuskegee University
Other Major Partners: Alabama A&M University, Virginia State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Primary States Expected: AL, MD, VA
Major Commodities: Fruits, Livestock, Medicinal Herbs, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Grazing Regeneratively for Appalachian Sustainable Solutions
Underserved farmers would receive financial and technical assistance to support the transition from typical livestock systems management to climate-smart practices. Practices implemented include land management plans, prescribed grazing, bale grazing, native grass and silvopasture establishment, incorporation of legumes and non-leguminous forbs, and use of traditional and novel soil amendments, such as biochar. The project would provide producers with marketing assistance for grass-fed beef products as long as producers meet required criteria of certifications and product quality. MMRV will be accomplished with a variety of approaches through COMET-Planner to determining baselines, soil analysis, grazing evaluations, practice measurements, and ecological outcome verifications (EOV). GHGs and carbon sequestration metrics will be evaluated on farms across both VA and WV. The long-term verification includes a comprehensive soil health analysis and must be done at the start of the project, then every five years to remain EOV certified. The short-term monitoring utilizes the Ecological Health Index to assess improvements in ecological health and services. Marketing will utilize producer need assessments, related producer surveys, econometric estimation, and market discovery to guide the marketing of climate-smart products and market analysis for producers in Appalachian Virginia and West Virginia. A design of the economic evaluation to perform econometric analysis of the data will allow for an estimate of the potential marketability of GRASS beef. Through their market discovery work, data will be provided on demand based on trends related to climate-smart products and opportunities through additional outlets. A marketing agency will provide label development, brand identity design, event marketing, packaging design, digital media materials, and promotional content for climate-smart beef. The mission of GRASS is to support and empower 135 farmers in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia and Virginia, many of which are considered small and/or underserved. Equity through this effort is paramount. Small and underserved producers will be targeted for outreach and have the opportunity to participate through a plethora of options for climate-smart practices and systems. By embracing these practices, producers will enhance working land resiliency, support high carbon sequestration rates, foster healthier soils, and generate economic benefits for many small and underserved farmers in Appalachia. Virginia State University (1890 land-grant) Cooperative Extension Small Farm Outreach Program will provide the organization of producer-led on-farm field days in Appalachian Virginia, which will allow for peer-to-peer learning.
Lead Partner: West Virginia University Research Corporation
Other Major Partners: West Virginia University (WVU), Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, The West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA), Hickory Nut Gap (HNG), Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Agricultural Best Management Practices Match Program (VACS)
Primary States Expected: VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,795,300Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000National Black Growers Council Regenerative Agriculture Pilot Program (National Black Growers Council: Black Cotton/peanuts)
In this project, the National Black Growers Council (NBGC) plans to work with underserved farmers to test regenerative agricultural practices and determine which are best suited for various regions and farm types in the Southeast United States. Once complete, NBGC plans to scale up participation to include additional farmers, providing incentives to increase adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices and leveraging market data to sell climate-smart products to corporate partners who need to meet sustainability goals. The project will calculate carbon sequestration resulting from project practices utilizing the COMET Planner Tool. NBGC alongside its partners, will provide access to farm data management software. Access to this software will provide producers with the tools necessary to reliably measure and model the impact of the proposed practice(s); to monitor and report soil carbon sequestration; and to incorporate other soil and data-monitoring practices. Potential software includes FieldView by The Climate Corporation, NutrientStar by the Environmental Defense Fund, Adapt-N by Agronomic Technology Corp, AgVerdict by Verdesian Life Sciences, and SoilVision by Agrocares. Throughout the program’s duration, NBGC and its partners will share the progress and results of the program through events, in-field presentations, and through their corresponding media platforms. As farmers begin to market their Climate-Smart commodities, they will have the opportunity to work with Cargill representatives on how to best interpret the commodity markets and leverage their Climate-Smart regenerative agriculture-driven fields to help meet broader corporate sustainability targets. National Black Growers Council plans to target outreach for enrollment to producers who meet the definition of underserved and will receive enrollment bonuses for participation as well as a per acre incentive. Training, equipment, supplies and technical assistance will aid the underserved farmers in adopting and sustaining Climate-Smart regenerative practices.
Lead Partner: National Black Growers Council
Other Major Partners: Cargill, Bayer, Syngenta
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MS, VA
Major Commodities: Canola, Corn, Cotton, Peanuts, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Sugarcane
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,789,600Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Producer Led Collaborative Effort to Fundamentally Transition the U.S. Beef Supply Chain to Carbon-Smart
This eight-state project will amplify production of climate-smart beef by expanding market drivers, grassroots support networks, and early adopter mentors and providing technical assistance for the adoption of climate-smart grazing practices to substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. The project plans 90 percent of participants will be small-scale producers. The project will utilize Indigo’s quantification platform which is founded on four pillars: soil measurement, producer data collection, biogeochemical modeling, and complete field-based GHG accounting, these methods will estimate in-field GHG emissions, and supporting Climate- Smart market development through advancements in grazing GHG quantification. Quantification of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock change will be primarily based on repeated measurements of SOC using high-density soil measurements on participating fields. In addition, EarthOptics uses an innovative, cost-effective approach (“C-Mapper”) that combines soil measurements from vehicle- and satellite- remote sensing, ground-penetrating radar and electromagnetic induction, and machine learning to map SOC and bulk density across fields to assess stock change. Soil mapping will be performed on all fields at the time of enrollment and again three years later. SOC and bulk density maps generated by EarthOptics will be used as inputs to a GHG impact assessment. The quantification platform estimates GHG emissions reductions from new practice adoption, based on comparison with the emissions from the continuation of a baseline of field-based historical practices. The platform will estimate SOC stocks and annual direct emissions of N2O and CH4 in grazing systems. Multi-year simulations of DayCent-CR will also provide continuous estimation of SOC stocks changes, to provide GHG impact estimates in years lacking direct measurement. Trace gases, including N2O and CH4, will be calculated annually using approaches found in standard protocols that include grazing, including the CAR Grassland Protocol and Verra’s methodology for grasslands. The project plans to trace beef from "Pasture to Plate" using EID tag & AgriWebb software. Through certification with Integrity Beef, producers will be able to market Climate-Smart beef directly to consumers, leading to more vibrant and profitable local food systems in communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast, and beyond. For smaller-scale producers, a diverse and accessible array of local and regional marketing partnerships will be developed. The project will pilot using Regenified and to broadly and deeply connect buyers, farmers, farmers markets, processors, wineries, restaurants, and more. The project will engage diverse underserved producers, including black, veteran, women, and beginning beef producers. 90% or more of participating operations are anticipated to fall into the small-scale category. The project will include a mentorship program working closely with FHF and Farmer Veteran Coalition to recruit underserved and small-scale producers. The project will also recruit from its extensive network of producers who have received technical assistance through the Women for the Land Conservation Learning Circles.
Lead Partner: American Farmland Trust
Other Major Partners: The Integrity Beef Alliance, Indigo Ag, AgriWebb, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Earth Optics, OpenTEAM, U.S. Biochar Initiative, and Farmer Veteran Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, GA, MD, MS, OK, PA, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Production and Application of Biochar in Agricultural Practices at Small and Underserved Farms: Soil Enhancement, Carbon Sequestration, and promoting Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to develop biochar-based climate-smart practices and technologies that may be implemented on farms, especially on underserved farms, and to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. In addition to free training and consulting, the producers are planned to receive a financial stimulus per acre of farmland used to implement climate-smart practices using biochar such as soil amendment, water infiltration and manure composting. Partner institutes and companies plan to contract with the landowners and producers to purchase some of the resulting commodities for research, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. The partners will rely on the COMET-Planner and COMET-Farm tools to calculate the Green House Gas (GHG) and carbon benefits of the proposed practices. They will also work to develop a sensor array system to detect farm GHG emissions in real time. Lastly, they will conduct soil sampling to analyze and verify real soil organic carbon and nitrogen. The project will also use validated approaches to measure the GHG emission from the farmlands and evaluate carbon sequestration in biochar amended farms as benchmarks. Partner institutes and companies will contract with producers and landowners to market and purchase some of the resulting climate-smart commodities for consumption, product development, and food manufacturing purposes. University of Delaware and partners plan to conduct studies on consumer preferences for climate-smart commodities through the willingness to pay studies for the commodities at both online and physical markets. This project will be conducted in partnership with one of the largest minority-serving universities in the United States, and the landowners and producers will primarily be underserved producers. This grant will focus on increasing profitability of small and underserved farms including expanding markets for their farms' climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: University of Delaware
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of California, Davis, Florida A&M University
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, DE, FL, GA, MD, NJ, OR, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Citrus, Hemp, Greens, Legumes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,854,923Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont
Aimed at the southern piedmont vegetable farming community, this proposal will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increases carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart (CS) agriculture. The Project will use COMET-Planner for farmers to evaluate soil GHG emissions and C-sequestration potentials on their farms. The project will also cross-validate Farm2Facts with COMET-Planner to ensure farmers are obtaining the highest level of data. The project will use farmers markets throughout the Southern Piedmont as vehicles to market CS vegetables, increase consumer and farmer buy-in, track CS commodities from producer to consumer, and learn about ways to influence consumer behavior toward purchasing more CS commodities. Estimating that each participating farmer will receive cash incentives to implement climate-smart practices across the five years mostly to underserved and disadvantaged Southern Piedmont farmers.
Leading Partner: Rodale Institute
Other Major Partners: University of Georgia, Virginia Association for Biological Farming, Georgia Organics, Emory University, Soil Health Institute, University of Tennessee, Clemson University, North Carolina State University, University of Wisconsin - Madison, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Connect Group, LLC
Primary States Expected: GA, NC, PA, SC, VA
Major Commodities: Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture: Supporting Producers to Promote Productivity, Markets, and Environmental Benefits
This project will build climate-smart markets for a variety of agricultural commodities and help to make adopting climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices more economically viable for producers by compensating them at a rate that guarantees a reasonable return, with a price floor that surpasses costs. It also proposes to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for climate-smart labels to help assess the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certification model that can used with private sector purchasers. GHG impact is planned to be quantified using tools such as USDA’s COMET and Field to Market’s Fieldprint Calculator (for rice), which do not require extensive on-farm sampling. This project plans to use producer self-verification and select audits. Livestock pilots plan to include recommendations on verifying methane reductions using practical, scientific, and cost-effective methods, such as drones. The project plans to estimate impact based on statistical models rather than monitoring every field and adjust certificate values based on the determined accuracy of producers’ self-verified GHG claims and level of additionality. The project plans to conduct research on consumer willingness to pay for various climate-smart labels to help assess the size of the private market and label effectiveness and develop a national climate-smart agriculture and forestry certificate model that can be used with private sector purchasers. The project plans to provide outreach for meaningful participation (at least 40%) by underserved producers through mechanisms such as funding allocations, minimum payments, and equity payment terms.
Lead Partner: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Other Major Partners: Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Farmers Union, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Arkansas Rice Federation, Agricultural Council of Arkansas, Minnesota Soil Health Coalition, Minnesota Farmers Union, Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Assoc., Natl. Assoc. of Conservation Districts, National Black Growers Council, Sustainable Food La, Environmental Initiative, Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR)
Primary States Expected: AR, MN, ND, VA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Dairy, Livestock, Pork, Pumpkins, Rice, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Sunflowers
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program
This project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. Project plans to provide participants up to three years of financial assistance for climate-smart practices like nutrient management and cover crops. To enhance market opportunities for participants, partners plan to leverage and enhance their existing relationships within the apparel industry. The project technology platform will leverage existing data reporting infrastructure, SHI’s measurement of soil health and carbon outcomes and track GHG benefits through the supply chain. The project plans to utilize remote sensing, conduct representative soil sampling and GHG monitoring, and perform in-person visits for each field. The project plans to build demand for climate-smart cotton and insets produced throughout the project duration to fashion/textile brands and retailers by leveraging and enhancing existing relationships between project partners and the apparel industry. The project plans to enroll 20% underserved producers.
Lead Partner: U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC
Other Major Partners: Soil Health Institute, Cotton Incorporated, Agricenter International, North Carolina A&T State U, Alabama A&M U, Texas AgriLife, National Cotton Council, Targe Corporation
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, FL, GA, KS, LA, MO, MS, NC, NM, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA
Major Commodities: Cotton
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000
- Washington
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet WA (PDF, 303 KB)
A Vibrant Future: Pilot Projects for Climate-Smart Fruit and Vegetable Production, Marketing, and Valuation of Ecosystem Services
This project will incentivize growers of specialty crops to adopt climate-smart production using practices like tillage management, alley cropping, water management and soil amendments, in order to establish consumer-driven climate-smart markets for fruits and vegetables grown using climate-smart practices. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry. This would include a consumer-focused “climate-smart seal” to be affixed to fruits and vegetables and/or traceable and tradeable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” that growers can use in financial transactions. Models to assess carbon sequestration, GHG emissions, and ecosystem services using the Tier 1 (field experiments and AI models), Tier 2 (proximal sensing and remote sensing informed AI models), and Tier 3 (DayCent/COMET) approaches are planned to be compared using error and uncertainty metrics. The project also plans to statistically analyze the data and conduct quantification of ecosystem services for each specialty crop using the multi-scale Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) platform. The project aims to develop tools for marketing climate-smart commodities that will be suitable for specialty crop growers, and could be adoptable by the larger ag industry, two (not mutually exclusive) opportunities for growers to capitalize on the consumer demand in order to realize benefits of investing into CSAF practices: (1) consumer marketing toolkit which will be made available to growers participating in the program and industry-wide and/or (2) traceable “climate-smart benefits bundles (CSBB)” which enable buyers (e.g., processors and retailers) and consumers to reliably understand the breadth of climate-smart practices used and transparently determine the levels of different benefits delivered, and then use this knowledge to differentiate between the produce grown with traditional practices and produce grown with varying levels of climate-smart practices. Small and minority farmers will be recruited with assistance from Alcorn State University’s Small Farm Integrated Pest Management and the 1890-IPM Consortium network.
Lead Partner: International Fresh Produce Association
Other Major Partners: University of Florida, Frehner-Jens Consulting, Alcorn State University, Measure to Improve, LLC, Bayer, Bland Farms, Bolthouse Farms, Calavo, Campbell Soup Company, Del-Monte, Driscoll's, Limoneira, Monterey Pacific, Noble Produce Holdings, Sun Pacific
Primary States Expected: AL, CA, FL, GA, LA, MS, WA
Major Commodities: Berries, Fruits, Grapes, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Alliance to Catalyze Transition Incentives through Open Networks for Climate-Smart Agriculture
This project will develop the systemic tools and approaches necessary to catalyze change by operating in three areas simultaneously: equipping and training Technical Service Providers for CSA implementation, creating transition finance incentives for producers, and developing a robust and self-sustaining marketplace for climate-smart commodities. A market expansion strategy is planned to leverage the partnership networks to expand purchaser commitments, develop transition financing models and a CSA connector and marketplace exchange to match buyers, funders and producers and implement community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION plans to deploy at least 25 percent of Producer Incentive Program funds to Black and other underserved producers and include information sessions available at no cost and a website with detailed FAQ, info, and dedicated phone and email assistance in English and Spanish as well as materials and services available in the following languages: Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, and Punjabi. Expected carbon gains are planned to be initially estimated using COMET-Planner, which will then be verified by monitoring carbon stocks for each project using the Range-C or Crop-C Monitoring Frameworks. In addition, 5% of projects are intended to be monitored intensively using these frameworks to produce strong levels of inference, 75% are planned to be monitored more moderately, and 20% are planned to be monitored at low intensities. Management data in the Ag Data Wallet integrates directly with GHG models and farm calculators such as COMET-Farm or Cool Farm Tool, allowing producers to complete certification recordkeeping GHG benefit through the same process, and these modeled datasets can be supplemented with soil test results, satellite data and imagery, and other site specific data points to provide one platform for managing all of the information needed to model, monitor, report, and verify a farms impact on climate change and carbon sequestration. The Market Expansion strategy is planned to leverage the immense breadth of the network across ACTION to 1) expanded purchaser commitments, 2) Innovative Transition Financing models, 3) CSA Connector and Marketplace Exchange for matching buyers, funders and producers, and 4) community engagement and consumer marketing. ACTION will partner with place-based ag technical assistance organizations and farmer networks to deploy at least 40% of farm project funds to support historically underserved (HU) farmers. Recognizing the historic inequities of accessible farm project cost-share funds, market entry support, and soil analyses for these farmers, ACTION will provide double the amount of billable hours for technical assistance providers and HU farmers to engage in this work as compared to non-HU. Three Regional Markets Program Managers will have a target of enrolling HU farmers for at least 52 of their 95 farm projects.
Lead Partner: The Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, Inc.
Other Major Partners: CARCD, CO Dept of Ag. Conservation Fund, General Mills, Mad Ag, ME Soil Health Network, OpenTEAM, CROPP Cooperative, Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture, Potlikker Capital, Stonyfield, CFDN/RC&D, Food Solutions New England, Institute of Food Technologists - Global Food Traceability Center, ME Farmland Trust, NH Conservation Commission, Organic Trade Association, Regenerative Rising, The Center for Good Food Purchasing, The Soil Inventory Project, VT NOFA, Our Sci, LLC, SustainCert, The Organic Center, Carbon A List, Field to Market, FORA, James Beard Foundation, Sustainable Agriculture Education, Zero Food Print, American Farmland Trust,AgStack, Point Blue, Conservation Technology Information Center, Digital Green, Element84, FarmOS, Heartland Science and Technology Group, Greenexus(LookINTO), Purdue University, Regen Network, Tech Matters, Terran Collective, Permanent
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, ID, MA, ME, MD, MT, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, VA, VT, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Rice, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Blue Carbon, Green Fields: Mobilizing Marine Algae to Benefit Sea and Soil in the Pacific Northwest
This project plans to pilot a mutually beneficial collaboration between aquatic and terrestrial farms in the Puget Sound region, revolving around the removal and reconveyance of nuisance seaweed for application as a Carbon-sequestering soil amendment. This product would be used on small, direct-to-consumer, specialty crop and diversified farms and the crops would be marketed to pre-existing regional markets that support demand for climate-smart commodities. Shellfish farmers would benefit from new revenue streams from nuisance seaweed, the value of improved shellfish health and seawater quality and the potential for new marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with implementing a verified climate-smart practice. The project will engage in a three-tiered approach to quantification of GHG benefits, with Tier 1 involving use of the COMET Planer tool, Tier 2 based on a simple biomass and soil sampling regime, and Tier 3 involving a more complex replicated experimental design to provide a robust knowledge base for interpretation of Tier 2 results. The MMRV framework will be organized around a verification system developed and overseen by Puget Sound Restoration Fund and the Hershman Fellows during the project time period and designed to be simple enough to continue beyond the project timeframe without undue burden or costs to participants. The marketing plan for this project is centered around building strong local supply chain connections between terrestrial farms utilizing this innovative sea-to-land practice and pre-existing regional markets that already support demand for climate-smart commodities. The project will focus on the potential for new climate-smart marketing opportunities and/or premiums associated with the business’ implementation of a verified climate-smart practice. Recruitment efforts and subsequent technical assistance and market development will be focused on small direct-marketing specialty crop producers. Initial recruitment will take place through one of the largest and most comprehensive farm incubator programs in the country. The farm incubator program provides access to equipment, infrastructure, land, marketing, and capital as well as bilingual training and education in sustainable and organic agriculture practices to beginning farmers with an emphasis on underserved populations.
Lead Partner: University of Washington
Other Major Partners: Washington State University, Viva Farms, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, Baywater Shellfish
Primary States Expected: WA
Major Commodities: Beans, Fruits, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,865,136Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Farmer Cooperative-Led, Partnership-Driven Project for Implementing Novel Perennial Cover Crop Species in Specialty Crop Systems and Integrating with Innovative MRV and Carbon Market
In this pilot project, producers would receive cost-share, technical assistance, capital investment and marketing support for using Oakville bluegrass cover crop in their commercial specialty crop operations. In addition to the creation and sale of carbon offsets, Oakville bluegrass plantings would give producers the opportunity to engage in climate-smart insetting, the practice of applying GHG offsets to one’s own supply chain. The project partner would seek further underserved producer membership through co-op director Nav Athwal’s network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. In this project, baseline soil carbon stocks will be quantified by analyzing soil samples. Samples will be collected by a combination of third-party contractors and Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative staff when Oakville Bluegrass is planted. The samples will be analyzed by a contracted minority-serving institution. In parallel, Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative will collaborate with Vitidore, Inc. to validate the accuracy of Vitidore’s technology for cost-effective measurement of the impact of the no-till conservation, conservation cover system on the accumulation of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC). This project's MMRV will use a system for quantifying soil carbon sequestration with machine-learning and a combination of manual and remote data inputs where its associated processes encompass data collection, synthesis, and predictive modeling of offsets with three predictive models: (i) a biomass prediction model; (ii) a baseline soil prediction model; (iii) a carbon stock prediction model. The carbon stock model uses the soil and biomass models as inputs and provides the final carbon offset prediction to be presented to third parties wishing to verify the results. The project will focus on three key strategies: 1. Establishing a branded mark for climate-smart management of orchard and vineyard floors and organizing meetings with buyers of California wine grapes and nuts to negotiate favorable terms for growers who license the mark. 2. Increasing the rigor of existing sustainability certification schemes to enable certification agencies to identify and reward growers of climate-smart wine grapes and nuts. 3. Engaging leading nut processors and nut grower associations to adopt standards for climate-smart nut production and reward producers who adhere to those standards with better terms for their commodities. Cost-effective and accurate measurement of emissions impact is a key part of the co-op’s strategy for expanding markets for members who implement climate-smart agriculture practices. The project partner(s) will seek further underserved producer membership through a network of over 200 Punjabi American producers. This project will aim to provide a viable pathway for these producers to engage in climate-smart agricultural practice implementation. Asian Americans will be prioritized for further co-op recruitment and participation in this project. The conception of the co-op and this project are tailored specifically to permanent specialty crop production.
Lead Partner: Oakville Bluegrass Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Vitidore, Minority Serving Institution (TBD)
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, OR, WA
Major Commodities: Grapes, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,938,777.25Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
- West Virginia
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet WV (PDF, 303 KB)
Building Soil, Building Equity: Accelerating a Regenerative Farming Movement in Appalachia and the Southeast
This project seeks to build climate-smart markets and sequester carbon over thousands of acres of Appalachian and rural southeastern land through strategic recruitment from networks of producers. The project will use education, outreach, technical assistance, and incentivizing producers to adopt climate-smart agriculture. COMET-Planner will be used to determine estimates of activity impact on GHG, COMET-Farm will be used to build out a historical and plot specific report. Soil carbon testing, through Kansas State University will allow producers to monitor increases in soil carbon sequestration over time in their climate-smart implementation plots, and Working Trees, a venture out of Stanford University using smartphone cameras and LiDAR, satellite remote sensing, and machine learning to empower producers to monitor the carbon impact of agroforestry efforts. The project will work with specific farmer alliances like SURREF (Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families), a collection of 30+ black farmers on regenerative agriculture-based south Appalachians to deliver Building Soil Building Equity (BSBE) solutions and opportunities to the participating farmers. The project plans to allocate funding for technical assistance, implementation and monitoring for underserved producers. Of those enrolled, the project team plans to commit to 75% representation of underserved communities.
Lead Partner: Accelerating Appalachia, Inc.
Other Major Partners: National Center for Appropriate Technologies, Kentucky State University, Working Trees from Stanford University’s TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Harvest, GRC Advising, Latin Talent Accelerator
Primary States Expected: GA, KY, NC, OH, SC, TN, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Cotton, Fruit, Pork, Row Crops, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset Wampanoag
Primary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Grazing Regeneratively for Appalachian Sustainable Solutions
Underserved farmers would receive financial and technical assistance to support the transition from typical livestock systems management to climate-smart practices. Practices implemented include land management plans, prescribed grazing, bale grazing, native grass and silvopasture establishment, incorporation of legumes and non-leguminous forbs, and use of traditional and novel soil amendments, such as biochar. The project would provide producers with marketing assistance for grass-fed beef products as long as producers meet required criteria of certifications and product quality. MMRV will be accomplished with a variety of approaches through COMET-Planner to determining baselines, soil analysis, grazing evaluations, practice measurements, and ecological outcome verifications (EOV). GHGs and carbon sequestration metrics will be evaluated on farms across both VA and WV. The long-term verification includes a comprehensive soil health analysis and must be done at the start of the project, then every five years to remain EOV certified. The short-term monitoring utilizes the Ecological Health Index to assess improvements in ecological health and services. Marketing will utilize producer need assessments, related producer surveys, econometric estimation, and market discovery to guide the marketing of climate-smart products and market analysis for producers in Appalachian Virginia and West Virginia. A design of the economic evaluation to perform econometric analysis of the data will allow for an estimate of the potential marketability of GRASS beef. Through their market discovery work, data will be provided on demand based on trends related to climate-smart products and opportunities through additional outlets. A marketing agency will provide label development, brand identity design, event marketing, packaging design, digital media materials, and promotional content for climate-smart beef. The mission of GRASS is to support and empower 135 farmers in the Central Appalachian region of West Virginia and Virginia, many of which are considered small and/or underserved. Equity through this effort is paramount. Small and underserved producers will be targeted for outreach and have the opportunity to participate through a plethora of options for climate-smart practices and systems. By embracing these practices, producers will enhance working land resiliency, support high carbon sequestration rates, foster healthier soils, and generate economic benefits for many small and underserved farmers in Appalachia. Virginia State University (1890 land-grant) Cooperative Extension Small Farm Outreach Program will provide the organization of producer-led on-farm field days in Appalachian Virginia, which will allow for peer-to-peer learning.
Lead Partner: West Virginia University Research Corporation
Other Major Partners: West Virginia University (WVU), Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, The West Virginia Conservation Agency (WVCA), Hickory Nut Gap (HNG), Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Agricultural Best Management Practices Match Program (VACS)
Primary States Expected: VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,795,300Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Mid-Atlantic Conservation Innovation Fund Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will help expand climate-smart markets and address climate-smart plans and practices for hundreds of dairy producers and will provide an on-ramp and serve as a catalyst for additional state and private capital to bolster the implementation of whole farm plans. The project will use the COMET Tool and programming platform to quantify estimated increases in soil carbon and reductions in greenhouse gases (GHGs) associated with newly adopted climate-smart practices. The project will also use Ecosystem Service Market Consortium/ESMRC’s MRV platform and programing infrastructure to collect partner data and quantify increases in soil organic carbon and reduction of GHG emissions. The Project’s climate-smart commodity marketing strategy focuses on three distinct channels: (i) direct to major product wholesale purchaser (General Mills); (ii) channel marketing partnership (MDVA Milk) and (iii) direct to retail and consumer channels (SMC). Partnerships with major retailers will be secured to sell the climate-smart commodities. Project will target outreach to small and underserved producers. Some of the groups represented are minority and women-led operations, new and beginning farmers, Black farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers and veterans. In total 75% of participating producers are expected to be small or underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Conservation Innovation Fund
Other Major Partners: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative Association, South Mountain Creamery, Stroud Water Research Center, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, William Penn Foundation, Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative, Lancaster Clean Water Partners, Virginia Tech Extension, Pennsylvania Soil Health Coalition
Primary States Expected: DE, MD, PA, VA, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000
- Wisconsin
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet WI (PDF, 304 KB)
ADM and Partners' Climate-Smart Solutions
This project will utilize incentive payments to thousands of producers across 15 states to adopt and implement climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, like cover crops, reduced tillage and nutrient management, and develop markets. Part of the project will include engagement of ADM's 5,000 underserved producers to promote CSA opportunities, resulting in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals. Project plans to provide cost-share on a per acre basis to reduce costs for early adopting end users. ADM plans to transition climate-smart products to be sold a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded with the supply chain. Soil carbon sequestration is planned to be forecasted using COMET-Planner, and biogeochemical modeling is planned to be used to quantify sequestration values from farmer data and soil sampling in conjunction with remote sensing. Field to Market's Fieldprint Calculator will also be used to quantify the benefits of practice adoption. This project plans to use a representative subset of acres to gather, analyze, and report certain metrics for the project. ADM plans to create a market that differentiates climate-smart commodities by establishing cost sharing opportunities for these end users to receive the benefits of a lower carbon supply chain. Climate-smart products are planned to be created over the duration of the project. ADM plans to market climate-smart products at a premium per bushel, allowing climate-smart practices to be funded within the supply chain. The project plans to direct funding for incentive payments to underserved producers. ADM also plans to conduct targeted communication about this climate-smart opportunity to black, minority, veteran, young and small producers to grow the percent allocation of direct payments to these producers.
Leading Partner: Archer-Daniels-Midland Company
Other Major Partners: Costco, DKY, EarthOptics, Farmers Business Network, Field to Market, Flint River Soil and Water Conservation District, Food Works Group, Iowa State University, Purdue University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Keurig-Dr. Pepper, Mid- America Biofuels (ADM Joint Venture), National Black Growers Council, Practical Farmers of Iowa, American Farmland Trust, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Ducks Unlimited
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MO, MI, MN, MS, ND, NE, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Peanuts, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Engaging Family Forests to Improve Climate-Smart Commodities (EFFICACI)
This project will address the relationship between family forest owners, the forest products industry, and broader climate goals across the eastern US. The goal is to build a region-wide climate-smart commodity (CSC) forest program that leverages the field-tested Family Forest Carbon Program, an engaged and trusted landowner network, and advanced digital forestry tools to engage traditional and underserved partners and advance the production and marketing of CSC forest products. Currently, forest management and climate change mitigation projects in the US rely heavily on the USDA FIA program, which uses a network of ground-based plots measured every 5-10 years at an intensity of one plot per 6,000 acres. The project plans to use the USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis program data in concert with a variety of remote sensing variables for regional scoping, planning, and determination of broad landowner eligibility criteria. However, to determine individual landowner’s eligibility, a more targeted, personalized data collection procedure is needed. During the term of the grant, AFF and its partners will market the resulting, third-party verified climate benefits from participating properties not as carbon credits, but as climate benefits associated with wood products sourced from the woodbaskets in which the participating properties are located. EFFICACI will partner with companies (e.g., International Paper and Domtar) and organizations (e.g., Forest Stewardship Council) to develop, brand, and pilot this CSC system. The project plans to work with Center for Heirs' Property Preservation and Women Owning Woodlands to increase the participation of underserved minority and women forest owners in climate-smart practices, dedicating five workshops for these two groups. Through the grant period, the project anticipates engaging 450 underserved landowners in South Carolina and at least 400 more in additional states.
Lead Partner: American Forest Foundation
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, Purdue University, Center for Heirs Property Preservation, South Carolina Lega Services, Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Legal Services Alabama, Women Owning Woodlands
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, GA, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH NY, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Expanding Agroforestry Production and Markets
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase capital investments in tree planting that will increase the supply of agroforestry commodities utilizing a network of leaders in forestry. This will work directly with manufacturers and retailers to connect potential buyers with producers (including underserved producers). Project plans to provide 95 percent cost-share to participating underserved producers implanting climate-smart practices. Partners also aim to work with trade organization to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-producers” label which will bring a price premium to producers. The project plans to utilize the USDA’s COMET-Planner tool to estimate GHG reductions for the proposed agroforestry project. All data collected during the project are planned to be stored in Propagate’s Overyield platform, providing producers and TSPs access to all data required for GHG benefit verification. Verra’s Afforestation/Reforestation of Agricultural Lands methodology will also be used for verification of GHG benefits for producers seeking to sell carbon credits on the voluntary market. The project aims to help negotiate contracts with commercial buyers for the harvested produce or timber and profit-sharing agreements with investors and producers and plans to work with trade organizations to develop certification standards for an “agroforestry-produced” label, for which consumers and manufacturers will be willing to pay a price premium. The project’s qualification process plans to prioritize underserved and small producers and provide 95% cost-share for implementation for underserved producers.
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: Propagate, Savanna Institute, Tuskegee University, University of MO Center for Agroforestry, VA Tech, Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative, Appalachian Sustainable Development, Canopy Farm Management, Cargill, Handsome Brook Farm, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Practical Farmers of IA, Resource Environmental Solutions, Sustainable Farming Association, Trees Forever, Trees for Graziers, University of Illinois, Association For Temperate Agroforestry, Osage Nation, Agroforestry Partners, Live Oak Bank, Walnut Level Capital, Yard Stick, Propagate, Working Trees, University of Hawaii, Cargill, Danone, Applegate, Epic Institute, General Mills, Current Cassis, Simple Mills, Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, 1890 Consortium, AgLaunch Early Adopter Network, Lincoln University, FarmRaise, University of Vermont - Extension, NY Tree Crop Alliance, Mānoa’s Indigenous Cropping Systems Laboratory
Primary States Expected: AL, CT, DE, GA, HI, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Berries, Forest Products, Fruits Trees, Nuts, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $60,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership
This project proposes to accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. This project plans to support the implementation of more than 1 million acres of crop crops across 20 states. It also plans to enable corn and soybean commodity groups to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction goals while supporting their farmer members and advancing more productive and sustainable practices, using remote sensing, satellite imagery and other data science techniques while “ground-truthing” with a statistically significant set of soil samples from participating fields and a marketplace interface powered by an integrated monitoring, reporting and verification platform. The project includes a 20 percent reserve for underserved producers and a survey plan to assist with recruitment.
Lead Partner: National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Soil Health (National Corn Growers Association, the United Soybean Board, and the National Pork Board), National Center for Appropriate Technology, National Association of Conservation Districts, Soil Health Institute, University of Missouri, The Sustainability Consortium, Data Transmission Network, MBSH Consulting
Available States: DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, NC, NY, OH, PA, SD, TN, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Growing, Marketing, and Measuring the Climate-Smart Impacts of Organic Grain & Field Crops
This multistate project will enroll field crop farmers already engaged in organic grain production or desiring to transition to organic systems. Each participating farmer will receive an enrollment incentive for the duration of the project that will compensate them for their time, farming expenses, implementing climate-smart agriculture practices like cover crops and diverse crop rotations, attending regional Grower Summits, assisting with monitoring greenhouse gas benefits on their farm, and working with Field Service Coordinators. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the commodities that they are producing. Field Service Coordinators will assist enrolled producers with using the USDA’s online Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) to evaluate the potential carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from adopting the organic and crop rotation production practices. The project will also monitor and measure environmental indicators that relate to soil and water biophysical processes on all enrolled farms, and how those processes contribute to, or mitigate climate impacts. In order to expand markets for climate-smart commodities, a promotional program will be developed aimed at increasing the awareness of consumers, buyers, processors as well as producers of the benefits of utilizing climate-smart practices. Each producer will also work with field service coordinators and marketers to develop an Individual Marketing Plan, aimed at promoting the climate-smart commodities that they are producing. Through field days and other educational events, including annual conferences, hosted by project partners, this project will engage hundreds of underserved farmers annually that will visit farms implementing diverse crop rotations and learn firsthand about the benefits of climate-smart organic systems, leading to enrollment.
Lead Partner: Marbleseed (formerly Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, Inc.)
Other Major Partners: Michael Fields Agricultural Institute; Ohio Ecological Food & Farming Association (OEFFA), OFARM Cooperatives, Organic Farmers Association (OFA), Tennessee State University (TSU), Kansas Black Farmers Association (KBFA)
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, TN, WI Major Commodities: Grains, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops, WheatApproximate Funding Ceiling: $4,519,785.09
Implementing Precision Ag Tech to Expand the Participation of Small Grazing Dairy Farms in Climate-Smart Commodities
This project plans to make direct payments and provide technical assistance to small-scale dairy farmers to implement climate-smart grazing management. The resulting climate-smart milk is planned to be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. A network of the farms is also planned to serve as training sites, enabling the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue. This project aims to streamline the process of MMRV for dairy grazed milk by using PaddockTrac, a precision technology developed specifically for managed grazing systems, to collect data and implementing a statistical correlation model allowing above ground forage data to predict below ground carbon sequestration and storage, reducing data collection costs. There will also be a standard developed for communicating verified data through the food supply chain that is built on EPCIS/GSI, while simultaneously leveraging a digital marketing campaign to accelerate consumer awareness. The climate-smart milk will be marketed through a shared digital marketing campaign and tactical marketing tools to accelerate consumer awareness and build trust and industry adoption. All farms enrolled under this project are anticipated to meet the definition of underserved producer. A network of the farms will further serve as training sites, allowing the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship (DGA) program to aid producers in expanding their positive climate impacts while generating revenue.
Lead Partner: Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship Inc.
Other Major Partners: Institute of Food Technologists, Cedar Grove Cheese, Painterland Sisters, Uplands Cheese, University of Missouri, Dillon Analytics, Stiel Ventures
Primary States Expected: CT, DE, IL, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VA, VT, WI & WV
Major Commodities: Dairy
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,770,293Incentivizing Climate-Smart Growing Practices, Expanding Climate-Smart Markets and Developing Brand Awareness
This project will use selected climate-smart agricultural practices to educate, train, incentivize, and measure farming practices that reduce greenhouse gases, as well as brand and develop a market for climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide small-scale grain and specialty crop growers incentive payment for implementing climate-smart practices like cover crops, residue and nutrient management and windbreaks. DeLong (& 3rd party auditor) plan to verify practice implementation using documentation and select field visits. COMET-Farm or Granular Insights system will be used to estimate GHG benefits. The project plans to create global awareness and consumer preference for CSCs through existing buyer relationships creating CSC labeling for use on consumer goods. Project partners plan to play an active role in education, outreach, and inclusion of small and underserved producers, who will also receive an additional incentive on top of the climate smart practice incentive.
Lead Partner: The DeLong Co., Inc.
Other Major Partners: Marquis Energy, Western New York Energy, Ingredion, Pioneer Pet, Granular Inc.(a Corteva Agriscience Company), Agris (Greenstone), Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Rock County Ag Business Council, Heartland Business Systems, Wisconsin and Southern Railroad, The Artisan Grain Collaborative, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Practical Farmers of Iowa
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OH, PA, WI
Major Commodities: alfalfa, corn, soybeans, wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain
This project aims to expand climate-smart markets and remedy lack of available data on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production by providing open-accessible data and training and enabling monetization of climate-smart practices through a pilot designation in a digital marketplace. Additionally, this project develops an inclusive workforce that specializes in implementation of climate-smart practices by engaging underserved producers and financially supporting them as they learn these practices. Project plans to provide participating underserved producers an incentive payment, technical assistance, marketing assistance, and the revenue from the climate-smart hemp produced. Planned practices include cover crops and nutrient management.
Lead Partner: Iconoclast Industries, LLC
Other Major Partners: Cedar Meadow Farm LLC, University of Florida, Stockton University, Florida Department of Agriculture, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, SB Friedman Development Advisors, M4MM, Canndigenous, EntreVation LLC, Legacy Farms Group, Delta Agriculture, Auredia, Validere, Bravo Logistics, Highway Vodka
Available States: CO, FL, NE, NY, OK, PA, TX, VA, WI
Major Commodities: Hemp
Agreement Amount: $15,000,000Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Midwest Climate-Smart Commodity Program
This project will build markets and provide funding to farmers via outcome-based contracts for the reduction and removal of carbon dioxide through the adoption of new climate-smart practices. The remaining project funding will support farmer enrollment assistance, carbon quantification, technical assistance support, measurement, reporting and verification, and underserved farmer outreach and enrollment. Monitoring for this project is planned to include remote sensing, field inspections, farmer operational records, field audits and soil sampling. The Program plans to use an approach developed by the SWOF that accounts for and tracks both nitrous oxide (N2O) emission reductions and soil carbon sequestration separately at the field level. The project will develop and expand systems for a large-scale corporate inset market, including farmer enrollment, CO2e quantification, inset verification, reporting and inset tracking. The project will also quantify and verify nitrogen and phosphorus runoff reductions using the USDA-supported Nutrient Tracking Tool and pursue additional water quality commitments to increase the total USDA match and extend the number of acres available for enrollment. The project plans to reserve 20% of contracts for underserved populations supported by dedicated conservation agronomist technical assistance. Additionally, a minority and underserved outreach contractor will develop a custom outreach plan and bilingual materials for Hispanic farmers.
Lead Partner: Iowa Soybean Association
Other Major Partners: PepsiCo, Cargill, Renewable Energy Group, Ingredion, Target, JBS, Coca-Cola, FarmRaise, Rural Community Assistance Partnership, AgOutcomes
Primary States Expected: IL, IN, IA, KS, MO, MI, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Major Commodities: Corn, Soybeans, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $95,000,000Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program: Building a Multi-stakeholder Path to Produce, Market and Promote Climate-Smart Commodities Across the U.S.
This project will expand climate-smart markets and help finance partnerships and incentivize farmers to advance the Organic Valley Carbon Insetting Program. Organic Valley will use two strategies to reduce supply chain emissions: mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and maximize opportunities for carbon sequestration, focusing specifically on dairy and eggs as the climate-smart commodities. The project plans to provide participating producers, mostly underserved producers, incentives for climate-smart practices like cover crops, reduced and no-till, prescribed grazing and soil amendments. Project plans to execute market and sales strategies of climate-smart dairy and egg products in branded Organic Valley products and in ingredients and bulk products. OV-CIP will follow an innovative, best practice approach to Scope 3 value-chain GHG intervention quantification. CSAF practices and farm level carbon accounting will be validated and verified according to standards established by the Global GHG Protocol. COMET-Farm and/or COMET-Planner will be used to quantify GHG benefits for all CSAF practices currently available in the COMET modules. COMET-Energy will be used for energy practices. The project team has expertise with the suite of COMET tools. USDA’s Entity Scale Methods will be used to quantify GHG benefits for practices not included in the COMET tools. In partnership with VCI, OV-CIP will accelerate progress towards a low-carbon food system by channeling private industry investment and public grant funds towards the implementation of CSAF practices on a large-scale. The scaling of CSAF practices will yield opportunities to market the resulting climate-smart commodities. Organic Valley has secured supply chain partnership commitments from Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, and General Mills/Annie’s Organic. Supply chain partners for this project will promote and quantify the benefits of climate-smart commodities through brand marketing efforts. Partners will participate in supply chain mapping exercises led by VCI and will report on shared emissions reductions, providing a pathway for shared reduction claims and a chain of custody/proof of purchasing to ensure the impact on the shared commodity Over 95 percent of farmers participating in the project are anticipated to be small and/or underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools
Other Major Partners: Good Company, SustainCERT, PUR Project, Yardstick, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Planet Labs, American Farmland Trust, Organic Trade Association, The Organic Center, Agrilab Technologies, Inc., Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Amicus Solar Cooperative, Carissa Stein Consulting, GDS Engineering, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Interlace Commons, Sarah Flack Consulting, Savanna Institute, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Trees for Graziers, Stonyfield Organic, Nancy’s Organic/Springfield Creamery, General Mills/Annie’s, Lasso Solutions, Inc., Working Trees
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, NH, NM, NY, OH, OR, PA, SD, TN, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Preparing Wisconsin’s Farmers for a Climate-Smart Market
This project plans to advance climate-smart commodity market development by providing direct financial and technical assistance and incentives to support for implementation of climate-smart production. Minority underserved farmers who manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market can develop a niche climate-smart milk market for selling healthier, higher quality milk at a premium. This partnership will utilize established and scientifically accepted methods for measuring, quantifying, monitoring, reporting and verifying the outcomes from climate-smart production practices. The project team will conduct an annual greenhouse gas equivalent (GHGe) inventory of all participating farmers using COMET-Planner or COMET-Farm. In some projects, for on-dairy emissions, the FARM-ES system will be used to inventory annual greenhouse gas fluxes and accounting across inventoried years will be done utilizing the DRAFT C-Sequ techniques in alignment with IPCC standards. The focus of this project is local markets, direct to consumer, providing opportunities for producers to expand into neighboring markets and allow producers to engage in conversation with their processors on the increased value of their commodity. The project has 2 goals: 1) Entry point for Micro-farms currently selling to local restaurants, at farmer’s market or direct to consumer including development of Local Climate-Friendly/Water-Friendly branding/certification. 2) Ensure local dairy farmers remain profitable in a changing market by development of niche market for Nutrient Rich Milk. This project will invest in targeted technical and financial assistance to underserved and small producers. Additionally, minority, underserved farmers that manage microfarms focused on selling products direct to consumer, through local farm to table restaurants or farmers market will be engaged in development of a locally sourced, climate/environmentally friendly branding effort.
Lead Partner: Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Wisconsin Farmers Union, Pheasants Forever, Outagamie County Land Conservation, Utah State University
Primary States Expected: WI
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Dairy, Grains, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,994,088Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000The Partnership to Define Climate-Smart Commodities Impact and Unlock Consumer Demand (TSIP Partnership for Impact and Demand)
This project will build climate-smart markets and streamline field data collection and combine sample results with modeling to make impact quantifications accurate and locally specific but also scalable. Targeted farms produce value-added and direct-to-consumer Specialty Crops as well as the 19 most common row crops in the United States. The Soil Inventory Project (TSIP) will measure, monitor, report, and verify soil carbon sequestration. TSIP and The Meridian Institute will monitor aboveground carbon via the reimbursement process and reliable pre-existing estimates (COMET). TSIP will summarize MMRV work on a yearly basis and share with project partners and the USDA. TSIP will report GHG benefits per farm, per project, per commodity, and per dollar expended basis. The geospatial data layers generated under this proposal will be available for integration into further scalable modeling tools like the COMET planner as a resource for producers interested in implementing CSAF. By defining and delivering specific and market-ready Climate-Smart Commodities impact quantifications, this partnership will catalyze consumer demand for climate-smart row crop commodities, Fruits, vegetables, Specialty Crops, and wine, empowering producers. Over 25% of the funding is planned to go to small/underserved producers. Particular outreach will be conducted to enroll small producers, including first generation immigrant farmers in New York and BIPOC farmers in North Carolina.
Lead Partner: The Meridian Institute
Other Major Partners: The Soil Inventory Project, Corteva Agriscience, Jackson Family Wines, Cakebread Cellars, A to Z Wineworks, Medlock Ames, Ridge Vineyards, Hunt Country Vineyards, Silver Oak & Twomey Cellars, Spottswoode Estate and Vineyard & Winery, Crimson Wine Group, The Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, Nature4Justice, Vayda
Primary States Expected: CA, IA, IN, MI, MN, MO, NE, NC, ND, NY, OK, OR, SD, WI, WA
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Corn, Grapes, Row Crops, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Transforming the Farmer-to-Consumer Supply Chain with Climate-Smart Agriculture Partnerships
This project will focus on creating end-to-end supply chain partnerships to optimize the value of climate- smart commodities, focusing on dairy feedstock and including a manure management component. Soil sampling will be conducted for crop practices, and SEC EcoPractices software will be used for full MMRV at these sites. Dairy farm MMRV will be based on Cool Farm Tool modeling. Overall modeling methodologies include COMET-Farm, Cool Farm Tool, life cycle analysis accounting and Nutrient Tracking tool, and monitoring for all sites may include remote sensing technology and on-farm visits. The project will pilot an end-to-end value chain marketing approach where multiple participants in a climate-smart supply chain can co-invest together with farming partners to accelerate scale, minimize additional costs and drive new value. The project will build consumer and market confidence in the net-positive impact of climate-smart commodities through commodity traceability mechanisms and leverage the partnership with Danone North America and Target to market climate-smart commodities to consumers. The project aims for about 65% of the farms engaged in this project to be small and/or underserved farms.
Lead Partner: Carbon A List LLC
Other Major Partners: Danone North America, Target, Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC), University of Wisconsin, Beck’s Superior Hybrids, Inc.
Primary States Expected: CA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MD, MI, MN, NE, ND, NM, NY, OH, PA, SD, TX, UT, WI
Major Commodities: Dairy, Oats, Soybeans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000
- Wyoming
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet WY (PDF, 303 KB)
Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Climate Beneficial Fiber: Building New, Accessible, and Equitable Market Opportunities for Climate-Smart Cotton and Wool
This project will expand the existing Climate Beneficial™ fiber program: a system for sequestering carbon, regenerating soil health and resilience, improving social equity, and bolstering America's ability to produce climate-smart fiber. A newly created, open-source, Carbon Farm Planning and Verification Platform will streamline climate-smart agriculture planning and verification for producers, verifiers, and supply chain stakeholders. The project plans to have a trained Planner monitor implementation, ensuring that practices are implemented in accordance with practice standard criteria linked to the COMET tools. A Portal database architecture is planned to allow for anticipated and realized GHG benefits to be queried by project, region, commodity, or dollar expended, allowing these data to be aggregated and analyzed at various scales. Within each fiber commodity and region, the project plans to help producers negotiate a price premium that provides enhanced commodity value for Climate Beneficial fiber while building stronger and more resilient direct market relationships. Our approach is informed by market pricing thresholds and production costs that include the price of Carbon Farm Planning and implementation. This project aims to meet the equity goals of the Justice40 Initiative, directing at least 40% of project benefits to small, beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran, limited resource, and women farmers, as well as producers growing specialty crops.
Lead Partner: National Center for Appropriate Technology, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Carbon Cycle Institute, Colorado State University Dept of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fibershed, Seed 2 Shirt, New York Textile Lab
Primary States Expected: CA, GA, IN, MT, NC, NY, SD, TN, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cotton, Sheep, Wool
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation)
This project, which will reach across 43 states, aims to catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits. Truterra plans to work with food and ag companies to acquire project grown climate-smart commodities. Truterra’s quantification methodology would include a modeled-plus-measured approach to quantify GHG removals, using a field-level calibrated version of the DayCent model for both the baseline (producer’s actual prior practices) and the current state with new practice. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines would be used to determine emissions from all sources that cannot be effectively modeled using DAYCENT and WEPP (used to determine energy demand of field passes based on crop operations); model runs would be supported by soil sampling stratified by soil (physiochemical class, soil textural class, and soil drainage class), management (Generalized Tillage Intensity Rating (gTIR) for each of the past six years, grouped into low- or medium-tillage), and climate (temperature and effective precipitation). Truterra plans to work with Food and Ag companies to 1) better understand the commodity production practices in their supply chain, 2) identify geographies where working with producers on CSC will have the most impact, 3) deploy resources through the Network to create a “supply” of practice change, and 4) procure the resulting GHG or other ecosystem service assets. This system would enable food companies to acquire CSCs, rewards producers for producing them, and offers Network members an incentive payment for helping make it happen. The project plans to equip 11 underserved producer organizations with access to the Truterra sustainability tool, services and programs, and provide targeted support on approximately hundreds of thousands of acres as well as train Black Climate-Smart Agronomists through internships/fellowships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) throughout the Southeast. The project also plans to provide priority access to all project technical and financial assistance opportunities and train and incentivize 10 or more underserved producers to host Farmer Peer Networks.
Lead Partner: Truterra, LLC
Other Major Partners: Ag Gateway, Biofiltro, Continuum Ag, ESRI, Equilibrium Capital, Farmobile, FarmRaise, John Deere, La Crosse Seed, Macquarie, Microsoft, Northern Star Seed, Sound Ag, Strand Gard Stewardship, WinField United, American Farmland Trust, Black Family Land Trust, Farm Credit Council, Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, Soil Health Institute, Butcher Box, Campbell Soup, Green Plains, Hershey, Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Nestle Purina, Perdue, Primient, Tate & Lyle, Cloud Ag, Colorado State University, SustainCERT & 50 ag retail cooperatives, Venture37 Services, United States Biochar Initiative, OpenTEAM, Allied Soil Health Services, Western NY Crop Management Association, Agricultural Consulting Services
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Specialty Grains and Oilseeds: Covering America from Coast to Coast
This project increases on-farm crop rotations via a holistic management soil health protocol that results in identity preserved specialty grains and oilseeds, as well as a new category of climate-smart cover crop seed. The climate-smart specialty grains and oilseeds project will encourage farmers in the Northern Great Plains and Upper Midwest to raise climate-smart Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina and develop related climate-smart markets. Project plans to provide technical assistance and direct financial climate-smart practice incentive payments or producer premiums for CS commodities. Partners plan to provide each underserved or small-scale producer participant a whole farm analysis enrolling more of their acres in working land conservation programs. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to quantify GHG benefits from both the contract specialty grain and oilseed fields and the resulting cover crops planted from their production. This project plans to grow five Specialty Crops (Oats, rye, flax, buckwheat, and winter camelina) in a comprehensive climate-smart manner. Millborn Seeds plans to connect cover crop seed users. A target of 25% of total acres each year are planned to be reserved for underserved or small producers, ensuring that at least 25% of the incentive payments for the per bushel premium will go to these two producer groups. Additionally, an underserved rate is planned to be used for cover crop or perennial forage planting adoption, and technical assistance is planned to be provided to all participants on an individual basis. Each underserved or small producer are planned to receive a whole farm analysis from AgSpire on how more of their acres could participate in additional working lands conservation programs, beyond the enrolled acres in this project.
Lead Partner: Millborn Seeds, Inc.
Other Major Partners: AgSpire, EarthOptics, High Plains Biochar, Biochar Co-Op, Value Added Agriculture Development Center, Grain Millers Inc., Iowa Cover Crop
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, MT, NE, ND, SD, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Buckwheat, Camelina, Flax, Oats, Oilseeds, Rye, Specialty Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000
Connected Ag Climate-Smart Commodities Pilot Project
This project will expand climate-smart markets for many agricultural commodities and provide direct payments, technical assistance, and data management strategies to producers of row crops, beef, dairy, pork, and other commodities to adopt climate-smart practices and strategies. The project plans to have Conservation Agronomists verify GHG outcomes in Years 2 and 3, working with project partners, including technology partners such as AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, Trimble, and The Sustainability Consortium, to capture all necessary data points and conduct the required requirements analysis. Project partner Trimble will be responsible for using the COMET-Planner tool to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas benefits. The Sustainability Consortium plans to identify member companies in its network to source commodities that meet internal targets and supply chain goals in conjunction with producers. In addition, the project plans to rely on technology partners, including AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, SIMPAS, and Trimble, to design a data strategy that includes a framework for tracking climate-smart commodities through the supply chain. Additionally, the project plans to guide participating producers to sell their climate-smart commodities parallel with industry commitments. The project plans to provide outreach to enroll at least 50% underserved producers, including Hispanic, Black, American Indian; Asian; Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander, women and small-farm operators.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Tuskegee University, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, AGI/Farmobile, AgriWebb, Certis Biologicals, Ducks Unlimited, Farm Journal Foundation, National Pork Board, SIMPAS, The Sustainability Consortium, Trimble, US Round Table for Sustainable Beef, American Breeders Service (ABS), Merck Animal Health
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NE, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef, Corn, Cotton, Dairy, Fruits, Potatoes, Pork, Small Ruminants, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Tree Nuts, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $40,000,000Creating Climate-Smart Commodities through Enhanced Rock Weathering in Agricultural Settings
Project participants would use basalt dust instead of agricultural lime to increase soil pH through a method known as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which speeds up a natural carbon sequestration process. Project funds would be used to cover all material, application, and monitoring costs for farmers as well as developing markets for the low-carbon carbon smart commodities grown by participating farmers. The project plans to determine the extent to which this process can increase crop yields, reduce agricultural nitrous oxide emissions (N2O), and decrease fertilizer and lime costs, much of which may benefit underserved agricultural producers at a time of record high input costs and increasing economic pressures. In addition to CO2 removal, the project will measure N2O emissions associated with agriculture. The project will measure net CO2 emissions at the ecosystem scale using the eddy covariance method. In addition, the project will monitor trace metals (e.g., As, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu) in the soils and in crops to ensure that any ingrowth of metals meets EPA guidelines and model predictions. Producer co-ops and associations (Farm Foundation, the Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres and Switchgrass Spirits) will oversee marketing of Climate-Smart Commodities to next-stage buyers. In addition, the project will direct market beef and vegetables to restaurants, distributors and grocers. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is committed to enrolling grain suppliers to create carbon negative whiskey, supporting production and marketing of corn, barley and rye Climate-Smart Commodities from growers. Yale will work directly with growers and distributors to develop and provide climate-smart labeling with QR codes linking to information about Climate-Smart Commodities to expand markets and branding potential of Climate-Smart Commodities. This project involves underserved and small producers in the following ways: (1) targeting crops that represent the highest acreage totals for farmers of color and more historically diverse regions, (2) partnering with diverse producer networks and (3) ensuring eligibility for early adopters. In total, this project will involve 20 small and underserved producers with ability to expand enrollment of small and underserved producers in future years.
Lead Partner: Yale University
Other Major Partners: Georgia Inst. of Technology, Grodan, Agoro Carbon Alliance, Black Oaks Center, The Land Connection, Zumwalt Acres, Farm Foundation, Carolina Sunrock
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Barley, Beef, Chickens, Corn, Peanuts, Rye, Soybeans, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,898,690Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Expanding Opportunities for Evidence-Based, Climate-Smart Grassfed Beef by Enhancing Income Streams through Retail Food Channels and Carbon Markets for a Producer Network Spanning the Rockies to NE US
This project aims to expand the climate-smart regenerative grassfed beef market with market incentives for producers to address the regenerative cost differential, product promotion activities to increase demand at the higher premium-price, and participation in a carbon-credit project to pay producers for carbon sequestration ecosystem services. The project would employ a model-based approach to capture the soil carbon dynamics of grazing practices, which requires calibration with locality-specific measurements of precipitation, temperature, soil, vegetation, etc. for statistical validity and high confidence level. The project plans to develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and climate-smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. The project will develop a simple, low-cost program for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) that farmers can easily and inexpensively administer to quantify management impacts on soil and biomass C stocks and GHG emissions for grazing land systems and Climate-Smart beef, employing on-the-ground measurement of soil carbon stocks, producer-sourced management information, and process-based models of grazing land carbon dynamics. Climate-Smart grazing produces value for two different markets –regenerative-verified beef for a commodity market of consumers and food brands and sequestered carbon for a carbon market of companies wishing to reduce their carbon footprint to meet sustainability commitments. This project explores market-based incentives for implementing Climate-Smart grazing practices that create value for producers in both commodity and carbon markets. Under this project, Intertribal Agriculture Council will: 1) assess barriers, opportunities, and provide support needed for tribal producers to transition to regenerative grassfed beef production and to develop a Tribal beef brand; and 2) conduct outreach and recruit underserved Tribal farmers to supply the producer’s network.
Lead Partner: TH Cattle Company, LLC
Other Major Partners: Western Sustainability Exchange, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Yard Stick, HowGood
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,467,050Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West
This project offers a comprehensive approach that empowers conservation districts and other eligible entities to help build climate-smart markets and provide technical assistance to a diverse range of producers; provides three years of financial and technical assistance to producers; quantifies and verifies climate benefits on behalf of producers; develops a rating as a market signal so participants earn more for products grown with healthy soil practices; and evaluates and validates carbon and soil-water research for the arid West. The project plans to use COMET-Planner to verify GHG benefits. In addition, Colorado State University will study impact and adoption of climate-smart soil health practices. The project plans to use a STAR Rating System to market & receive premium for climate-smart products. Branding opportunities for STAR related products will be used. The project plans to support multiple underserved producers with financial assistance. To ensure equitable administration that includes small/underserved producers, improved understanding and awareness of climate-smart commodities among small and underserved producers, expand their access to participation and reduce market entry risk, the Colorado Department of Agriculture is partnering with Sangre de Cristo Acequia Association (SdCAA) and others to help guide recruitment and peer to peer learning.
Lead Partner: Colorado Department of Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Champaign County Soil and Water Conservation District, Colorado Association of Conservation Districts and Conservation Districts in other states, Colorado Open Lands, Colorado State University, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Sangre de Cristo Association of Acequias, University of Idaho, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, Utah State University, University of Wyoming, Audubon Society, Colorado Corn Administrative Committee, Acres USA, Quivira Coalition, Yardstick, Zero Foodprint, Bob’s Red Mill, Quinn Snacks, Groundup Consulting
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, MT, NM, UT, WA, WY
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Corn, Grains
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389Low Carbon Beef USDA Pilot Program: A Fully Integrated Lifecycle Approach to Reduce GHG Emissions from Beef Cattle at Commercial Scale
This project will help to implement climate-smart methods in beef production, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and expanding climate-smart markets and generating carbon credit revenue for producers. COMET will be used for benchmarking carbon sequestration. This project will use Vytelle SENSE to identify high performing animals for reproducing based on feed intake, weights & behavior. Vytelle INSIGHT will help producers make genetics selections based on dry matter intake & enteric methane emissions. AgSpire will provide forage and range soil testing along with technical assistance to producers. The use of artificial insemination to breed cattle to a more feed efficient animal that produces less methane emissions will be used. This project will use the approved Low Carbon Beef Certification received from the USDA to market cattle under the Low Carbon Beef label for a projected premium. The project will work with Missouri Prime Beef Packers who will procure, slaughter & sell the beef under the Low Carbon Beef Certification. Missouri Prime Beef will pursue high-value retail marketing channels for beef produced during this pilot project. The project will include 30 progressive & diverse cow-calf producers. Of the 30 producers-10 producers will be small producers & 10 producers will be underserved producers. In total 66% of producers in project will be small & underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Low Carbon Technologies, LLC
Other Major Partners: Low Carbon Beef, Where Food Comes From, Inc., AgSpire, Millborn Seeds, Inc., Tiffany Cattle Co, Inc., Missouri Prime Beef Packers, Alga Biosciences, Vytelle USA, Elanco Animal Health, Inc., Helical Solar Solutions, LLC
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Permanently Reshaping the National Beef Herd through Grassroots Genetic Selection for Climate- Smart Outcomes
This project seeks to establish a new Climate-Smart Commodity – namely feeder cattle sired by bulls selected on the basis of reduced enteric methane emissions and associated beef products. Enrolled ranchers would be eligible to receive incentives for each purchase of cows and select breeding bulls that produce reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed. Calves from participating herds would be enrolled in an information management system which tracks the genetic, health, and production data of individual animals as they move through the beef supply chain. This would allow participating ranchers to differentiate their calves on the basis of Climate-Smart outcomes and market those calves to prospective buyers. Partners plan to enroll underserved producers and younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. GHG will be measured directly from individual beef cattle daily using the C -Lock GreenFeed units. Simulation models for GHG emission will be generated from correlated traits (weight, dry matter intake, sex) in addition to utilizing the phenotypic data generated as time evolves in this project. The development of the phenotypes will result in superior GHG animals that will produce the next generation of beef cattle. These cattle will inherit superior genetics for reduced GHG emissions. This cascade of improvement can be followed for all animals enrolled in the Blockyard (Blockchain technology), additionally genotyping with the InheritSelect product will allow for genetic confirmation of animals with reduced GHG emissions. Compliance criteria and verification methodology utilized will be grantee auditing, computer modeling, and AI. The generation of EPDs is a verification process that is standard in livestock animals. The project will market the sale of live cattle and breeding stock via the establishment and utilization of networks. This will leverage the networks to promote and market the reduced GHG emission domestic cattle sales. This partnership brings together multiple networks that create opportunities to place young bulls that excel for reduced CH4 emissions and are more feed efficient by consuming less feed into the market. This project aims to reach into this emerging demographic of younger, first-generation beef cattle ranching start-ups to partner, mentor, and support. This project is committed to outreach to first-generation African American, Latino-American, Asian-American, Native American, and smaller operating ranches for support under the project.
Lead Partner: Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Other Major Partners: Leachman Cattle of Colorado, Brahman Country Genetics and Brahman Country Beef, Zoetis, Allen Genetice Solutions
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NM, NV, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Major Commodities: Live Feeder and Breeding Cattle
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,732,841Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High- Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000
- Territories
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet CNMI (PDF, 298 KB)
Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet GU (PDF, 298 KB)
Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet VI (PDF, 345 KB)
Commodities and Practices to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Pacific Island Agriculture and Forestry Systems
This project plans to market climate-smart commodities and achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions in Pacific Island agriculture and forestry systems while improving affordable food and nutrition security of disadvantaged, at-risk, island communities. Partners plan to employ an inter-disciplinary, culturally sensitive approach when working with local farmers and forestry managers. Technical workshops are planned to showcase various climate-smart practices and underserved producers and landowners are planned to receive stipends for participating in the project. Partners plan to conduct market research to better understand emerging and untapped markets and customer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for climate-smart commodities. University of Guam will be using DAYCENT. The DAYCENT process-based model will be used because it has been applied and tested for estimating GHG emissions from forested ecosystems in a wide range of climatic regions and for cropland, grazing lands, and cultivated wetlands. GHG emissions will also be estimated using the COMET farm tool, where applicable. Connecting the consumer with the climate-smart commodities will happen through a variety of ways. UOG will partner with locally owned supermarkets to facilitate the selling of these commodities using the results of the market survey to show consumer demand for the products. Commodities will also be sold at the local Farmers Cooperative market. The communications lead will assist in strategizing the best way to get information about these commodities to the demographic-user groups who expressed willingness to pay in market surveys. Climate-smart products will also be advertised on social media, news talk radio, and newspaper, ideally directly linking consumers to producers. Additionally, the Guam Green Growth Network will promote the climate-smart commodities produced in this project. Most producers participating in the project will be underserved producers, including producers of Asian and Islander ethnicities, small-scale farmers, and farmers that rent land. A place-based, culturally sensitive, outreach strategy will be developed to ensure the wide participation of the farming community in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. The heart of this project rests in the Farmer Incentive Program, which will provide participating farmers and producers incentives and stipends to participate.
Lead Partner: University of Guam
Other Major Partners: Government of Guam, Washington State University
Primary States Expected: GU, CNMI
Major Commodities: Fruits, Specialty Crops, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Hispanic Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative
This project plans to work with Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic pasture and forage farmers to diversify and increase production while managing climate-smart farming methods and quantifying environmental outcomes. Project partners would address cultural and language barriers to provide technical assistance for implementing practices and marketing their beef in new revenue streams. Farmers with under 100 acres under management would be offered a higher flat fee per year. Victus aims to develop an easy-to-use platform that will enable farmers to run field-level simulations from APSIM, DSSAT, and COMET-Farm (via the API, for Florida farms only) to estimate key crops (yield, crop mass, development, water, and nitrogen- use efficiency) and soil (carbon, nitrogen, water) metrics from the farming systems in the project. Besides providing valuable information for farm management and planning, the soil metrics derived from these models are increasingly used for the estimation of carbon storage and emissions of GHGs, such as N2O. The project plans to market climate-smart beef and breadfruit and develop the capacity of Puerto Rico and Florida Hispanic farmers to diversify and increase production and climate-smart market access, including local and direct marketing opportunities and ecosystem markets. The project plans to design and implement a culturally appropriate procedure to certify climate-smart commodities produced by Hispanic farmers to expand markets, and develop new revenue streams or increase current ones. The project is dedicated to enhancing the climate-smart economic benefits for Hispanic farmers in Florida and Puerto Rico through incentives.
Lead Partner: Victus Puerto Rico, Inc.
Other Major Partners: mano-Y-ola LLC, Bien-Estar Agrícola LLC PR, Fundación Santa Elena de la Sabana Inc. PR, NTDS Consulting Group
Primary States Expected: FL, PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Breadfruits
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,926,250Increasing Accessibility to Regenerative Farming Practices and Markets for Small and/or Underserved Producers
This project will expand markets for commodities produced using Climate-Smart regenerative practices. All pilot participants would be paid a stipend to cover time spent on climate-smart regenerative farm planning and emissions reduction plan design. Each farm would also have access to incentive payments, dependent on their emissions reductions and specific implementation of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices. A Greener World plans to provide customized marketing support to all project producers. Partners would ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant and would assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell commodities for a higher premium. A comprehensive GHG assessment and forecast utilizing COMET-Farm will be integrated into the whole-farm Regenerative Plan that is core to the Certified Regenerative label. The use of COMET-Farm across the pilot will enable a common baseline of evaluation of emissions impact estimation tied to practice changes and form the basis for assigning incentive payments. The Soil Health Institute will assist with establishing soil health baselines and targets, and measurement and verification of soil results of climate-smart practices implemented by participating farms including measuring soil carbon stock on select farms. A Greener World will provide marketing support to all producers enrolled in the project including listing all climate-smart certified regenerative farms in their online directory, providing farms with press and media assistance, profiling farms on their website, sharing news about participating farms and products, assisting producers in designing new product labels, and assisting with organizing promotional events. A Greener World has existing relationships with retailers and wholesalers and will also offer assistance to these markets with locating and sourcing climate-smart certified regenerative products. Partners, including Rural Advancement Foundation International USA will help ensure all outreach and technical assistance efforts are culturally-relevant based on their prior experience working with underserved farmers. They will also assist producers in becoming Certified Regenerative which allows them to access new climate-smart markets and sell climate-smart commodities for a higher premium.
Lead Partner: A Greener World
Other Major Partners: Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA, Soil Health Institute, National Young Farmers Coalition, National Co-op Grocers
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Territories
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Livestock, Row Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,044,389NCBA CLUSA USDA NRCS CSC Project – Puerto Rico
This project will lead a consortium of cooperatives, farmer organizations, and minority serving institutions in Puerto Rico that will offer financial incentives to underserved farmers to adopt climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices for product and cover crops. The project plans to implement a wide variety of on-the-ground climate-smart practices including reduced tillage, strip-tillage, forest farming, and cover crops. The project aims to increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities by increasing the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. Due to limitation of USDA’s COMET Planner in PR, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or other U.S. Territories, the project plans to use the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) Carbon Calculator (http://afolucarbon.org). Developed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Winrock International, the AFOLU Carbon Calculator (ACC) uses Intergovernmental Panel on Climate CO2 Change (IPCC)-based accounting methods to assess and quantify sequestration potential of a range of AFOLU practices, including agroforestry, cropland management, and grazing land management. Third-party verifier SustainCERT plans to verify the greenhouse gas benefits generated by the project and its associated processes. NCBA CLUSA plans to work with several commodity buyers to market CSCs produced through this pilot project (large market chains, National Restaurant Association, hospitality sector, and McDonalds). The PRFA has a “100% Puerto Rico” seal it uses for locally produced products and has agreed to extend the seal for 100% PR Climate-Smart Coffee for differentiation. The project also plans to engage Rainforest Alliance, a leading third-party certifier for certification of CSAF coffee for export to external markets. Beyond the quantifiable benefits to farmers’ bottom lines, the diversification of crops grown in Multi-story Perennial Cropping systems would increase resilience for smallholders Puerto Rican coffee farmers, their families, and their communities. Given that Puerto Ricans rely on imports for more than 85% their food supply, farmers’ ability to expand into citrus, plantains, bananas, cacao, and other crops for local and for home consumption would have significant economic and food security benefits. PROCAFÉ estimates that this project would enroll thousands of coffee farmers in PR (where the vast majority of producers are underserved).
Lead Partner: Cooperative League of the United States of America
Other Major Partners: Productores de Café de Puerto Rico, University of Puerto Rico, National Co+op Grocers, Fondo de Inversión y Desarrollo Cooperativo, La Liga de Cooperativas de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Farmers Association, SustainCERT
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Coffee, Citrus, Plantains, Bananas, Cacao, Lumber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000Sustainable Market Approaches for Regenerating Territories with Agricultural Goods in Puerto Rico
The project will support and empower smallholder coffee farmers in Puerto Rico to transition to climate- smart agriculture and forestry practices through identification of viable practices and support for their implementation on farms. The project will also account of greenhouse gas-related benefits and co- benefits throughout the supply chain and develop of a unique Puerto Rican branded climate-smart coffee label and voluntary program. This project plans to focus on implementing agroforestry and afforestation practices on working lands, application of biochar as a soil amendment and multi-story cropping. Caribbean Regenerative Community Development (CRCD), Gnarly Tree Sustainable Institute (GTSI), and University of Wisconsin plan to co-establish the MMRV plan and local monitoring teams, coordinate baseline and follow-up data collection, build databases useful for the implementation of COMET-Planner and iTree on agricultural lands in PR, and engage with local universities to support student research opportunities and data collection; this task would encompass field monitoring, primarily through soil sampling and testing, as well as the development of lifecycle carbon accounting methodologies. The team also plans to evaluate MMRV methodologies that may support participants’ entry into carbon markets. CRCD and GTSI plan to partner to develop a climate-smart certification brand for Puerto Rican coffee and chocolate. CRCD’s marketing specialist plan to spearhead the development of the name and tagline, design a climate-smart certification that is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards, develop the brand story, provide product validation of the name, language, and design in both Spanish and English, create a brand website and social media starter kit, and launch a brand activation program to generate interest and excitement in PR’s premium quality, ethical, and sustainable coffee; GTSI and CRCD plan to ensure the climate-smart certification is in line with or exceeds third party certification standards and lead outreach and recruitment efforts with farmers. A woman-led 501(c)(3) non-profit founded and based in Puerto Rico that supports the development of sustainable agriculture and food security on the island plans to focus on small and underserved coffee producers in Puerto Rico.
Lead Partner: Caribbean Regenerative Community Development, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, University of Wisconsin, Cafiesencia (Cafi-Cultura Puertorriqueña, Inc.), University of Puerto Rico
Primary States Expected: PR
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,500,000
- Tribal
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Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities State Fact Sheet Tribal (PDF, 312 KB)
Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops
The project would promote climate-smart food production practices including strip cropping, multi-story cropping and others for desert adapted crops within four agrisystems. Producers would receive payments for implementing and auditing these practices and for additional practices as well as technical assistance specialized based on culture, language and experience. Through its partners, the project will create a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets. The project also plans to lease a commercial test kitchen for identifying culinary qualities of climate-smart crops, conducting consumer research, promoting a Desert Seed-to-Table program, and advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project will rigorously monitor and measure production shifts through adapting the COMET-Farm calculators and GAP tools of the USDA to six production practices and several crops that these tools do not currently cover in depth. MMRV will include portable photosynthesis systems to measure rates of CO2 uptake, and fossil fuel and water consumption monitoring. The project will also conduct an ecogeographic analysis to identify and prioritize crop varieties adapted to current or future growing conditions in Arizona that may lower GHG emissions through reduced agricultural water and energy inputs. Through its partners, the project will market and promote climate-smart food crops in a variety of ways including through the creation of a climate-smart logo, brand guide and messaging for multiple audiences and marketplaces such as chefs/restaurants, grocery stores, farmers market, and online markets: advancing retail market development and a consumer awareness campaign. The project has targeted outreach strategies for engaging Native American/Indigenous farmers, beginning and transitioning farmers, including through engaging existing organizations, tribal communities and networks; providing specialized technical assistance; and creating an experiential learning curriculum.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Local First Arizona
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beans, Cactus, Desert-adapted Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,782,261Building a Climate-Smart Domestic Rubber Industry and a Solution for Growers to a Water Crisis
This project will expand natural rubber production in the Southwest with lowered greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs in the region and for tribal stakeholders, and building a climate-smart rubber bioeconomy based on climate-smart and sustainable practices. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive, and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone, which is providing more than $35M in cost share to the project. The strategy would incorporate an integrated, robust, and comprehensive approach to data measurement and analysis, which includes soil carbon and plant measurements, ground level GHG measurements, flux tower measurements, soil carbon modeling, and holistic life cycle and techno-economic modeling. Data from field measurements and modeling is planned to be used to recommend large-scale adoption and feed directly into COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner. The project aims to include marketing the rubber to Bridgestone. Bridgestone is providing more than $35M in cost share, demonstrating its commitment to the development of the climate-smart natural rubber commodity. Bridgestone is currently pursuing numerous market areas and has already engaged prospective customers in many of those areas. Some specific market activities by co-product/product including natural rubber latex and resin. This project plans to pay a per acre per year incentive regardless of yield and fund planting, harvesting and delivery of the crop to the processing facility. The work proposed almost exclusively works with underserved and small producers, including the Tohono O’odham Nation and the Colorado River Tribes.
Lead Partner: University of Arizona
Other Major Partners: Bridgestone Americas, Inc., Colorado State University, OpenET, Tohono O'odham Nation, Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mohave, Chemeuvi, Hopi and Navajo peoples)
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Natural Rubber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West
This project will expand climate-smart markets for beef and implement climate-smart grazing practices in beef production for 120 operations across 13 states, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing market returns for participants. The project will use IPCC Tier 1 approach to estimating methane. Also, will use N2O and methane from soil and manure, soil carbon density and look at remote sensing methods while grazing forages and crop residues. The project plans to track cattle through the supply chain. A few partners will be engaged to provide climate-smart corn, wheat and other grain residue for finishing the cattle. The project will pay premium prices which will result in additional revenue to producers based on the climate-smart practices implemented to grow the beef cattle. 75% of participants are projected to be small to mid-sized family operations including 35 small producers and 700,000 acres managed by Tribal producers.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: Country Natural Beef, Beef Northwest, Northway Ranch Services, Quantis International, Stockpot Collective, Washington State University, Colorado State University, RaboResearch & Food Agribusiness-North America, Texas A&M
Primary States Expected: AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $10,000,000Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy
This project brings together Tribal, small family forest, and nonprofit wood producers with data scientists and the design and construction industry to manage and restore tens of thousands of acres in Oregon. The project will quantify the positive impacts of climate-smart management on carbon sequestration, wildfire intensity, and cultural values, and will also build resources for project teams to navigate climate-smart markets for wood procurement through pre-design, design, and construction phases and support sale. Carbon impacts of climate-smart timber purchasing is planned to be estimated by comparing the difference in carbon intensity for participating landowners against regional benchmarks of the carbon intensity of commodity timber production from industrial forestlands. Forest biomass and carbon stocks are planned to be measured using satellite imagery. A simple user-friendly web application is also planned to be scoped and developed to deliver carbon impact metrics per unit of roundwood which can then be converted into carbon impacts for specific end-products. The project work plans to recognize and make accessible the entirety of the Pacific Northwest climate-smart timber supply chain, track and trace the flow of fiber from source forests, through mills and processing, and into ten construction projects. To allow the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) community to differentiate between wood products based on forest carbon and associated ecosystem impacts, the project plans to build a simple, user-friendly web application that covers the contiguous U.S. This tool is planned to be designed with input from the intended end users, the AEC community, to ensure meeting their needs and providing them with an easy-to-use solution. In addition, contract payments to sawmills are planned to drive participation to grow transparency and data about log supply, as well as offer price premiums for sales of climate-smart wood to an interested buyer. Landowner sales incentives are planned to offer a premium to landowners for selling their wood to a participating sawmill. Producer payments are planned to focus on tribal partners, supporting culturally informed forest restoration work that partners would like to pursue on ancestral lands. Ecotrust also plans to engage in technical assistance and co-production of forest impact assessment deep dives involving Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MMRV) activities with several tribes. These deep dives will characterize embodied carbon and other quantifiable impacts associated with tribal forest management. The intent of these deep dives is to increase tribal capacity and readiness to engage in marketing of tribal timber as a climate-smart commodity.
Lead Partner: Sustainable Northwest
Other Major Partners: EcoTrust, Northwest Natural Resources Group, Trout Mountain Forestry, Vibrant Planet Data Commons, Washington Conservation Action, Virbrant Planet Public Benefit Corporation, Pierce Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CA, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $25,000,000Climate-SMART (Specific Management for Arizona Resilience and Transformation) Agriculture Best Management Practices
Participants in this Arizona-based project would be paid to apply climate-smart practices that reduce pesticide and fertilizer inputs; reduce tillage, use diverse cover crop, rest pastures and use rotational grazing. The project would emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing between Native American producers and other participants and would market climate-smart commodities through partnership networks. MMRV for the project will include the use of management evaluation, COMET-Planner, COMET-Farm, and soil sampling, with technical assistance staff monitoring progress with participants twice per year to assess continuation of chosen Climate Smart Farming practices. Combining the GHG quantification methodology with the producer reports on practices implemented, the project will calculate more specific estimates of GHG benefits generated per farm, and per project and will report the overall project benefits per dollar expended. The results of the project will be uploaded in COMET-Planner. The project will create markets of varying scales for enrolled producers, including a new "Climate-Smart” category on the Organic Trade Association's business directory, and local marketing of Climate-Smart goods with partners, Local First AZ and Pinnacle Prevention. The Organic Trade Association will connect buyers from across the U.S. to Organic and Climate-Smart products. Arizona State University Swette Center will guide producers who want to be certified organic through the process with training guides to sell products through the well-established organic certified market. The project seeks to focus on underserved populations and to create collaborative partnerships between indigenous traditional ecological knowledge (ITEK) and conventional producers to emphasize cross cultural knowledge sharing. Those farmers and ranchers who have already adopted USDA Organic standards and regenerative practices will also be engaged as our “early adopters” and help with the transfer of knowledge to conventional producers.
Lead Partner: Arizona Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance, Arizona State University Kyl Center for Water Policy, Arizona State University (ASU) Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Arizona, Local First Arizona, Pinnacle Prevention, Soil Health Institute, Northern Arizona University, Organic Trade Association
Primary States Expected: AZ, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Livestock, Organic Crops, Specialty Crops
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,902,482Climate-Smart Camelina
This large-scale pilot project aims to measure and validate the climate-smart advantages of camelina sativa (L.) in both rotational and winter cover crop production systems and build associate climate-smart biofuels markets. The project will accelerate farmer adoption of camelina as a non-food crop grown on idle acres to produce more plant-based feedstock for renewable biofuels and chemicals with low carbon intensity and no land-use change while increasing carbon capture in the soil. Using a combination of established models, ground-truthing sensors and imagery, the project plans to build artificial intelligence platforms and calibration portfolios that allow more accurate soil carbon measurement from satellites and sensors. The project plans to partner with ExxonMobil to provide a market for climate-smart camelina. By creating a system that aims to turn commodity camelina into a unique Climate-Smart crop, camelina may become a reliable, stable, low-CI feedstock to meet the demand for production of low CI-fuels in difficult-to-electrify transportation sectors like heavy-duty vehicles, aviation and marine. About 75 percent of project producers are anticipated to be tribal, small and beginning farmers.
Lead Partner: Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Oils, Bakersfield Renewable Fuels, ExxonMobil, Farmobile/AGI, Davis Instruments, Pessl Instruments, EarthDaily Agro, Intelinair, Earth Optics, Yard Stick, ARVA Intelligence, Li-Cor, Metros USA, The Ohio State University, The University of Montana BBER, Memes Associates, LTD, Crop Model License
Primary States Expected: CO, ID, KS, MO, MT, NE, ND, SD, OK, OR, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Camelina, Soybeans, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000Climate-Smart Chicken and Feed: Scaling Climate-Smart Grain and Poultry Commodity Production as a System-Level Climate Solution for the Midwest
This project would support poultry producers who follow diversified regenerative climate-smart grain production methods incorporating small grains, no-till, and cover crops, integrated agroforestry practices. Producers may receive payments to adopt a climate-smart grain rotation for at least three years and for Organic climate-smart chicken production. Producers would receive a premium price for chickens, paid by Tree-Range Farms. Multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners plan to promote the project with underserved producers. The project will conduct a 5-year study of a subset of farms that are following the climate-smart regenerative poultry silviculture protocols and the farms with climate-smart grain fields that supply them. Project partners will document changes to the soil’s physical properties (bulk density, stable aggregates), chemical properties (soil organic carbon, nutrient availability), and microbiological processes (greenhouse gas flux, nutrient cycling) of production supported by this project. This project plans to bolster and accelerate pre-existing partnerships to bring climate-smart poultry and grains to market, including through two purchasing partners, Tree-Range Farms and Oatly, who will serve as end markets for these products and offer unique support in developing climate-smart marketing tools geared toward consumers. The project lead is actively working with multiple strategic partners including tribal nations, immigrant-serving organizations, and other community partners to promote a climate-smart regenerative poultry system that is well-adapted for adoption by underserved producers given the smaller, modular, yet scalable production unit footprint, combined with significant ecosystem support.
Lead Partner: Regeneration International (Regenerative Agriculture Alliance)
Other Major Partners: Regenerative Agriculture Alliance (RAA); Freshwater Society; Minnesota State University Mankato; Carleton College; Tree-Range® Farms; Oatly, Regenerative Agriculture Solutions
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, MN, OK, SD, WI, Tribal
Major Commodities: Grains, Oats, Poultry
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,999Climate-Smart Commodities and Market Development within the Chickasaw Nation: Restoring Power to Small Farmers and Communities Through Pecan and Specialty Crop Engagement
Participating farmers would receive incentives for climate-smart practices, including reducing chemical applications on pecan trees and conversion of pastures to multiple species of native grasses. Through this project, the Chickasaw Nation plans to work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans would be sourced to sale for any industry interested in climate-smart pecans and to local consumers. The project will use an evaluation tool to record impacts of applied climate smart practices made to the land through best management improvements. These verification processes will be developed and overseen by two advisory teams. The verification process will be recorded in a digital Working on Regenerative Management Systems which is an easily accessible digital format. WORMS will capture change within fields over time including soil sample data and is an ESRI 123 Survey document to capture in field data improvements. COMET-Planner will be utilized to evaluate carbon capture improvements. The Chickasaw Nation (CN) will work with native pecan aggregators to divide verified climate-smart native pecans from non-verified native pecans. These pecans will be sourced for sales with partners. Marketing for specialty crops will focus on restoring lost engagement between underserved farmers and consumers within CN which will establish a fundamental blueprint to be utilized throughout other tribal nations and underserved communities and focus on utilizing opportunities through established programs to provide wholesome food to citizens through farmers markets through their nutrition division. Marketing will highlight the benefits of climate-smart commodities for consumers and allow an opportunity for increased profit for verified climate-smart specialty crop farmers, providing a direct link to those producers and consumers. In addition, the Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association will provide a state and national resource to pecan organizations and those markets. Most of the communities within the Chickasaw Nation’s treaty territory falls into nationally underserved categories. The Chickasaw Nation and project partners will work in collaboration to teach integrated management systems within native pecan groves not only to improve carbon capture but also to decrease carbon emissions among current underserved and small farmers. in addition, this project will focus on expanding climate smart education to local specialty crop farmers.
Lead Partner: Chickasaw Nation
Other Major Partners: Murray State College, Oklahoma Pecan Growers Association, Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Pecans, Specialty Fruits, Specialty Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,977,388Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho: A Public-Private-Tribal Partnership
This project will build climate-smart markets and increase adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 100 farms in Idaho through the provision of financial and technical assistance to producers, with a focus on barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, and hops. Project plans to direct 75 percent of funds to participant incentives for implementing a variety of practices including cover crops, no-till, biochar, cover crops with livestock grazing, interseeding of legumes and precision fertilizer application. The measurement and monitoring system are planned to be based on field and laboratory measurements using a spatially nested design to facilitate scaling-up of project results. The Carbon Management Evaluation Tools (COMET-Farm) are planned to be utilized throughout the project to establish baselines; this project also plans to generate data from field measurements of GHG emissions that will be used to improve COMET and other models for use within the western U.S. This project plans to focus on seven key commodities in Idaho with national and international markets: barley, beef, chickpea, potatoes, sugar, wheat, hops and specialty crops. At least 30% of enrolled producers are planned to be from underserved communities, including mostly veterans, women, and small producers.
Lead Partner: Regents of the University of Idaho
Other Major Partners: Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Nez Perce Tribe, Idaho Association of Soil Conservation Districts, The Nature Conservancy, The Wave Foundation, Desert Mountain Grassfed Beef, Salmon Safe/Kooskooskie Fish, LLC, University of Idaho, SaulGill, LLC DBA Arrowleaf Consulting
Primary States Expected: ID, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Chickpea, Hops, Potatoes, Specialty Crops, Sugar Beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing: Engaging in Community-Science and Practice from Maine to South Carolina
This project brings together 20 farming and agroforestry organizations, serving over 20,000 small to mid- scale and underserved farmers who are uniquely impacted by climate change. The project will include soil health and financial benchmark community science; peer-to-peer learning and support; expanded implementation of climate-smart practices; carbon benefits calculation and verification; and income stream innovations that result in increased sales from farms and forest lands that use and promote climate-smart practices. The project will implement data tracking through farmOS and SurveyStack which have standard and customizable data structures for environmental and practice monitoring to meet the production system-specific needs, and these tools integrate with Cool Farm, COMET-Farm, Cover Crop Explorer, and a customizable benchmarking data dashboard called the Farmers CoffeeShop. To further connect climate-smart products with buyers, the project will enhance the FoodShed Mapping tool through a REST API integration. The FoodShed Mapping tool, (powered by MarketMaker a digital platform and database of farm and food businesses) will enable buyers to search for and purchase from farms through a “climate-smart” tag, coordinating local and regional food supply chains by matching farm products with demand. The project is committed to integrating diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and anti-racism into their culture, programs, and services as well as ensuring they adopt the training, policies, practices, planning, and resources to do this work. The lead partner will hold their partners accountable for these same commitments. The project is partnering with Indigenous peoples throughout the region to ensure culturally appropriate technical services and training. In addition, the project is partnering with Spanish-speaking farmers to provide language equity in marketing, training, and outreach.
Lead Partner: Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
Other Major Partners: Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, OurSci-SurveyStack/FarmOS, Future Harvest, Maine Farmland Trust, ME Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA) - CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VT, OpenTEAM, Pennsylvania Certified Organic, Ramapough Lunaape Nation Turtle Clan, Kimberton Whole Foods, Kitchen Table Consultants, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Food MarketMaker Program, Pa Flax, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, PA Soil Health Coalition, Stroud Water Resource Center, TeamAg, Ramapough Lenape, Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, Houlton Band of Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pocasset Pokanoket, Powhatan Renape, Pocasset WampanoagPrimary States Expected: CT, DC, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, WV, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Dairy, Eggs, Flax, Floriculture, Fruits, Grains, Hay, Hemp, Livestock, Nuts, Oilseeds, Organic Crops, Poultry, Pulses, Rice, Seeds, Specialty Crops, Vegetables, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $55,000,000Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes
This project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification are planned to be conducted at multiple scales to: (i) verify that conservation practices are implemented, (ii) establish Soil Health and C Targets, (iii) estimate GHG emission reductions at the county/Major Land Resource Area (MLRA) level, (iv) verify GHG emission reductions at the farm field level, (v) verify soil C-sequestration estimates, changes in soil C, and changes in soil health at the farm field level, and (vi) report on the practices and their impacts on GHG emissions, C-sequestration, and soil health over the five-year project period. As a part of developing pilot markets, the project identified two companies (Threemile Canyon and Mart Produce) that are interested in investigating development of pilot markets and promotions for Climate-Smart labelled potato products. Additionally, a pilot marketplace for buyers and sellers using chain-of-custody ownership tracking via the block chain through supply chains is planned to be investigated for the potential exchange of C-credits among project participants such as contracts between producers and processors/handlers, and between processors/handlers and product purchasers. The project plans to engage independent grower networks to reach small and underserved producers and plans to work through tribal liaisons and partner networks to reach tribal producers. The three partnering tribes plan to enroll approximately 50,000 acres in the program. The project will continue engaging and enrolling additional tribes throughout the life of the project. The project will provide financial assistance as well as technical assistance.
Lead Partner: Oregon State University
Other Major Partners: Oregon State University, University of Idaho, Washington State University, Soil Health Institute, LoCo Plus, LLC, Seven Generations LLC, Industrial Hemp Association of Washington, Lamb Weston, Frito-Lay, Mart Produce, Simplot, Yakama Nation: Confederated Tribes and Bands, Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the ColvilleConfederated Tribes of the Colville
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Potatoes
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000
Cover Crop Seed Production Grown with Climate-Smart Wheat
In partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, this project plans to would provide financial and technical support to Tribal farmers to grow cover crop seed into wheat fallow systems with adequate precipitation. GO Seed plans to purchase the climate-smart cover crop seed from participating farmers and sell it to distributors removing a financial barrier to producers that would otherwise reduce participation in growing cover crop seed. Markets would be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed would have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. There are three primary indicators that will be assessed to quantify the impact on GHG emission balance from this project: the reduction from historical averages of N fertilizer use, soil carbon changes through time, and the number of acres that can add cover crops to their rotation because of the additional seed produced. Greenhouse gas benefits from reduced N applications will require thorough completion of a management questionnaire each year and this will be a requirement of the project before farmers are eligible for payment or receive more seed for production. Markets will be cultivated and expanded through existing relationships with millers and exporters. All wheat marketed will have a “Climate-Smart Wheat” seal on the purchasing paperwork. This project is a partnership with Tribal leaders from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation with letters of support from other Tribes. Together this project will have the opportunity to work with many tribal farmers and support the development of an emerging market.
Lead Partner: Grassland Oregon
Other Major Partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR); Intertribal Agriculture Council; Northwest Grain Growers; Agoro Carbon Alliance; Ace Connect LLC; Soil Health Institute; Oregon Wheat Commission, OR Wheat Grower’s League; Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network; Shoshone-Bannock Agri-Business Corp
Primary States Expected: ID, OR, WA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Wheat; cover crop seed
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,722,490.56Demonstration, Expansion, and Quantification of the Benefits of a Climate-Smart Commodity: Verified Regenerative Bison Products
The project will develop a demonstration program on tribal lands, implementing and expanding multiple climate-smart markets and practices in production of American bison, and will showcase the benefits of regenerative bison production to rangeland, ranchers, and climate. It will also create a new entity to maintain standards of regenerative bison production, track climate benefits and payment for those benefits through the supply chain and establish consumer trust. This project plans to support planting riparian areas, transitioning from crop land to native grass for bison grazing and native grass inter-seeding of existing pasture. A bison markets specialist plans to focus on a full “hoof to horn” utilization to sell multiple products including specialty cuts, ground bison, hides and bone meal. A bison-specific verification program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value. The project plans to quantify GHG emission reductions associated with conversion from conventional cattle grazing to regenerative bison grazing. GHG measurement and accounting are planned to be included in the expansion of the Arapaho and Cheyenne regenerative bison production program, and the creation of the world's first regenerative climate-smart bison verification program. For this project, a bison markets specialist would focus on full ‘hoof to horn’ utilization to sell multiple products, including specialty cuts, ground bison, jerky cuts, hides, and bone meal. The bison-specific verification program created within Savory Institute’s Land to Market program is planned to provide the basis for market differentiation and added value to both producer and partners. The project lead is the Tribe, and the work is planned to be completed in tribal land to improve bison grazing in native grass acres added.
Lead Partner: Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes
Other Major Partners: Frasier Bison, LLC, Mad Agriculture, Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buffalo Program, Intertribal Buffalo Council, Texas A&M University, Collaborative Earth
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $7,000,000Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Farmer-Led Climate-Smart Commodities Initiative: Building Success from the Ground Up
This project will expand climate-smart markets and establish dairy and sugar as climate-smart commodities by implementing climate-smart production practices, like cover crops and stripcropping, improving business practices for climate-smart commodities, and making use of data and information collected to inform future standards. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into available business opportunities and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plans focus on a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. The project plans to verify GHG benefits in accordance with established ecosystem service market rules for farms that on-ramp into an established ecosystem service market. For farms that adopt climate-smart production practices but do not on-ramp into an established market, the project plans to verify greenhouse gas benefits in project year 5. The project plans to encourage on-ramps into any business opportunity that a farmer is eligible to participate in and increase revenue streams associated with the adoption of climate-smart actions. Marketing plan is intentionally broad, leaving room for a bottom-up approach to establishing markets through farmer leadership in areas with farmer-led projects. Each farmer-led project under the proposal will be encouraged to create enhanced financial incentives for underserved and small farmers to encourage participation, like >100% cost-share on climate-smart production practices.
Lead Partner: Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Farmers for Sustainable Food, The Nature Conservancy, WI Department of Agriculture, Clean Wisconsin, Agropur, Headwaters Agriculture Sustainability Partnership, Center for Farm Financial Management - University of MN, Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, Houston Engineering, Inc., AGI Digital (Farmobile), U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension, General Mills
Primary States Expected: CA, CO, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, ND, NE, OH, OR, SD, WI, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Dairy, Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $50,000,000Elevated Foods Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities
This project will implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on a large-scale across cropland planted to Fruits and vegetables, with a particular focus on fresh Fruits and vegetable crops. Partners propose to implement practices on hundreds of thousands of acres planted to Fruits and vegetables in key growing regions across the United States, and extend the producer reach to urban farmers in Orange County, California, and the Navajo Nation, to meet the needs of small and historically underserved producers. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in CropTrak®, which offers a proprietary cloud and mobile platform to help food and beverage companies increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain. Once this data is entered, related greenhouse gas emissions and GHG emission reductions are planned to be calculated through third-party calculators integrated into the USDA COMET-Farm platform. Elevated plans to leverage its expertise in marketing and branding to pilot a climate-smart branding program for participating producers, to broadly communicate the value of climate-smart Fruits and vegetables with customers in multiple market sectors from farmers’ markets consumers to global retailers. Materials created through this effort are planned to include branded stickers for produce; branded produce bags and boxes; and the development of videos, social media promotions, and printed materials to share the value of climate-smart produce with consumers. The project plans to commit at least 25 percent of budgeted funds for producer incentives to support small and historically underserved fruits and vegetable producers.
Lead Partner: Elevated Foods, Inc.
Other Major Partners: California Department of Food & Agriculture, World Wildlife Fund, Solutions for Urban Agriculture, AgLaunch, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Feeding the Northwest, CropTrak, Decade Impact, Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops
Primary States Expected: AR, AZ, CA, FL, GA, KY, MO, MS, SC, TN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Fruits, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Growing the Impossible: Climate Smart Commodities in Tribal Homelands
This project plans to provide technical assistance, training, financial incentives and business planning and marketing support for climate-smart commodities produced on tribal homelands. This project plans to support climate-smart practices, including adaptive multi-paddock higher intensity rotational grazing which lead to increased soil organic carbon storage. The work is planned to align with holistic Blackfeet-specific regenerative grazing strategies in direct partnership with Tribal land managers and individual producers. The project will employ existing tools within their team for multi-domain analysis that overlay existing monitoring tools developed by PLHI and their partners, as well as in field measurements specifically applied to GHG mitigation and overall community well-being within the Blackfeet Nation. The monitoring practices include Western Sustainability Exchange’s verified grassland carbon storage on the carbon credit market, Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program assessment protocol, sciGaia’s semantic framework for socio-environmental-economic data called TrueView™ and the MSU/PLHI protocol for in field rangeland monitoring being undertaken locally in Blackfeet Nation. PLHI will integrate multi-domain monitoring approaches through using the ‘Piikani Wellbeing Index’ (PWI) on top of the TrueView framework, requiring the ability to analyze anything that contributes to meat production to understand its GHG impacts and to look for ways that more high-quality meat can be produced for less GHG cost, all the while maintaining the integrity and wellbeing of the ecosystem and the humans who operate within it. The project's relationships over the last three years set the stage for market receptivity towards climate-smart Blackfeet produced products. The Feasibility Analysis for a Blackfeet Nation Multi-Species Processing Plant and Branded Beef and Bison Products prompted the need to research potential market connections and begin to build relationships with those market buyers at the local, institutional, corporate and international levels. This project will benefit 11 Tribal sub-communities residing within the Blackfeet Nation but will also serve all other Tribal communities along the “hi-line” of Northern Montana and Rocky Mountain Tribes, while also creating a translational model for all Tribes residing across the Great Plains region. The climate-smart funds will bolster the technical assistance and outreach team, adding a full-time dedicated Market Development Specialist located within the community who will assist existing and new business owners with establishing their climate-smart agriculture business and help to bring them to a state of market-readiness and access capital in the form of loans and grants.
Lead Partner: Piikani Lodge Health Institute
Other Major Partners: Blackfeet Community College, Blackfeet Environmental Office, Montana State University-Soils Lab, Montana State University- Buffalo Nations Food Systems Initiative, Montana State University, Native Lands Project, Animo Partnership in Natural Resources LLC, Montana Audubon, Western Sustainability Exchange, SciGaia
Primary States Expected: MT, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison, Fruits, Hogs, Vegetables
Approximate Funding Ceiling: 4,914,533Growing Value for Producers
This project will create and pilot-test a farmer-friendly system that builds capacity with institutions interacting with a range of producers, including underserved producers, to support adoption of climate- smart practices and interact with commodity buyers in climate-smart markets. MMRV for this project involves a fully integrated, nationally scalable ACR Agriculture Registry designed, built, tested, and utilized for standardized quantification of GHG benefits using COMET Planner, automated cost-effective reporting, verification via plug and play design with data collectors, and linkage to a transparent registry system for the issuance to producers of serialized GHG Certificates for monetization to buyers. The project will spearhead a market development campaign including creation of a buyers’ club network to link producers and commodity/GHG certificate buyers. The project targets outreach to enroll at least 20 underserved producers.
Lead Partner: Winrock International Institute for Agriculture Development
Other Major Partners: Arva Intelligence, Intertribal Agriculture Council, Riceland Foods Inc.
Primary States Expected: AR, MO, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Beef, Rice
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $20,000,000Improving Access to Grazing Resources for Native American Producers
Native American farmers and ranchers would receive technical assistance and education, and at least $1 million in direct payments to support the adoption of climate-smart practices like rotational grazing and planting of native grasses. Partners plan to assist participants with validating greenhouse gas emission reductions and marketing climate-smart commodities, including creating marketable emission offsets or credits. This project will estimate the lifecycle for GHG emissions from current grazing practices on Indian lands and contrast this to net GHG after Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices are implemented. In this model, shifting more beef production to rotational grazing systems will reduce net GHG emissions when the full production process is examined. Verification of GHG benefits will be assured by project partners working on the ground with producers, as well as by Regrow quantification and remote sensing products, and when agreed by project partners that the projects are ready for submission to our independent third-party certification provider, SustainCERT, will also be submitted for verification. The project will design a system under the umbrella of the already existing certification trademark developed by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, the American Indian Foods (AIF) “Made/Produced by American Indians”, that presents a feasibility analysis of the cooperative inclusion of beef produced from the beef cattle raised by Native American producers. This feasibility analysis would identify end user interest in purchasing beef from producers who have adopted appropriate climate-smart practices as part of this pilot program. The ultimate goal would be to pilot a branded product for retail outlets. The project will utilize and expand the IAC’s existing Rege[N]ation programming as a platform to elevate the story of Native American and Alaskan Native agriculture and environmental stewardship while honoring traditional, cultural, Native-led Indigenous Stewardship Methods. This expansion will be piloted within the participating climate-smart cattle producer community of this grant. The AIF Market Access Liaison will work in concert with existing IAC programs to enhance climate-smart market access opportunities for American Indian producers. Seventy percent of the project budget will be allocated directly to Native American farmers and ranchers through a combination of direct payments, technical assistance, and technical education, and direct payments to support the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practices.
Lead Partner: Farm Journal Agricultural Foundation
Other Major Partners: Intertribal Agriculture Council, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Yield Lab Institute, Jackbilt Pictures, Inc., Silver Maple Strategies, Lightning S Livestock Solutions, Montana State University, Chief Dull Knife College, Oklahoma State University, College of Muskogee Nation, University of Florida
Primary States Expected: FL, MT, OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,925,025Iowa Tribe Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA) Innovation Pilot Program
The Center for Excellence in Regenerative Native Agriculture Pilot Program plans to educate Native American participants on climate-smart practices, provide long lasting benefits to soil and water health through climate-smart practices, and expand markets for climate-smart commodities. The CERNA Project plans to provide each producer annual incentives and premium payments and a one-time financial assistance payment for the necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices. Additionally, CERNA plans to directly support farmers by purchasing 100 percent of all eligible climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which would hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts. Center of Excellence for Regenerative Native Agriculture (CERNA)will partner with Miraterra to use their advanced methods for GHG benefit quantification and will also use COMET-Farm to provide the baseline approximation of how much carbon the implemented practices are sequestering. In partnership with Regenified, CERNA will verify that all commodities grown through this program were produced utilizing climate-smart practices. CERNA will directly support farmers by purchasing climate-smart commodities produced under this project, which will hold the “Regenified” label under premium contracts which meet buyer specifications provided by program partners. As the proposed CERNA Project is specifically aimed at outreach and training of Native American communities and their neighbors, the majority of enrolled producers will small or underserved. In total, each producer on average will receive annual incentives and premium payments. In addition, each producer will receive a one-time financial assistance payment to provide the producer with necessary education and training needed to implement climate-smart practices.
Lead Partner: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska
Other Major Partners: Regenified, Understanding Ag, Soil Health Academy, John Deere, Taste Profit Marketing, Oatly, Cooks Ventures, Global Processing, Bratney, Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Grey Snow Management Solutions, The Akana Group, The Intertribal Ag Council, Miraterra
Primary States Expected: IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE
Major Commodities: Barley, Corn, Oats, Rye, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,699Minnesota Climate-Smart Seedling Production Network
The proposed project plans to work with forest owners to grow a set of climate-adapted tree species resilient to the projected climate futures of Minnesota’s Midwest Broadleaf Forest, and monitor and market the climate-smart commodity. Producers would receive a payment for each tree seedling grown, in addition to assistance with start-up costs, provision of wild-collected tree seed, and cooperatively managed shipping and distribution of seedings. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot would bear a “Climate-Smart” label and would include native trees selected based on their projected climate capability. The project would provide free training opportunities about tree seed collection and seedling production market opportunities, paying a fair, hourly wage for participating tree seed collectors and provide start-up funds for interested producers, but for whom cost would be a barrier to enter the market. The project will quantify greenhouse gas benefits using COMET-Farm. In addition, the project will develop a mobile app that links to a statewide seed source data management system to track individual seed lots for up to 10-12 species that are selected for their climate resilience, drawing from both local and adjacent seed/hardiness zone. The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody). The project proposes building a market specifically for “Climate-Smart" seedlings that will be marketed to the growing numbers of climate-concerned Minnesotans, including land managers, who are looking for solutions to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Seedlings produced as part of this pilot will bear a “Climate-Smart” label and will include native trees selected on the basis of their projected climate capability. Marketing materials will be made available online so that practices are transparent as to what it means to be “Climate-Smart,” including seed collection practices, origins and tracking/growing (chain-of-custody).
Lead Partner: The Nature Conservancy
Other Major Partners: University of Minnesota-Duluth, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Three Rivers Parks District, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Urban Roots, Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota, Red Lake Nation, Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Monitoring and Evaluation, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Community Economic Development Associates (CEDA), University of Minnesota Extension, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships
Primary States Expected: MN, Tribal
Major Commodities: Tree Seedlings
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,997National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project
This project will implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands, with the goal of reducing hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and developing markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity. The project plans to have all enrolled producers document their practices and related acreage in an established and proprietary EcoPractices platform, a platform currently used by Nestlé and Danone to track and monitor climate-smart practices implemented by other commodity farmers in select and limited areas of their supply chains. Furthermore, GHG benefits beyond the farmgate plan to be quantified using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. In addition to farm-level monitoring of practices using the EcoPractices platform, the project plans to engage Prairie View A&M University, an HBCU; Texas Tech University, an HSI; Texas A&M University, an HSI; and Kansas State University to execute a technical program aimed at quantifying the value of emissions reductions associated with irrigation water use reduction and nitrate leaching, volatilization and runoff mitigation techniques. The project plans to collaborate with sorghum producers to take advantage of added value, primarily in the California fuel market with climate-smart sorghum being sold to ethanol companies for use in ethanol production, resulting in low carbon fuel credits for fuel purchasers and an incremental market premium for sorghum producers. The project plans for a minimum percentage of this project’s budgeted funds and technical assistance for small and historically underserved sorghum producers/landowners. Partners will conduct outreach to Black, woman, and Native farmers specifically.
Lead Partner: National Sorghum Producers Association
Other Major Partners: Kansas Black Farmers Association, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Kansas AgriWomen, Women Managing the Farm, Colorado Sorghum Association, Kansas Grain Sorghum, New Mexico Sorghum Association, Oklahoma Sorghum Association, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, United Sorghum Checkoff Program, Prairie View A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Field to Market, Rural Investment to Protect our Environment, Trust in Food™, National Cotton Council, American Coalition for Ethanol, Kansas Water Office, Pheasants Forever/Quail Forever, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Danforth Center, Northrup.ag; Arable, Argonne National Laboratory, Pinion, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Sustainable Environmental Consultants, ServiTech, Danone, Kashi, Bayer Crop Science, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Conestoga Energy Partners, Kansas Ethanol, Pratt Energy, Western Plains Energy, White Energy, Nu Life Market, CoBank, High Plains Farm Credit, Carbon A List, LLC, Sero Ag Strategies
Primary States Expected: CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sorghum
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $65,000,000Native Food Crops for Innovative Climate-Smart Production Models and Supply Chains – The Case of Blue Elderberry in the West
The project aims to assist early-adopter Tribal, underserved and small-scale producers to successfully produce a marketable elderberry crop from perennial planting, measure carbon sequestration and develop local processing capacity. Producers would receive an incentive payment per linear foot of elderberry planting, to cover the costs of establishment, maintenance, and the implementation of the additional suite of climate-smart agriculture practices. The project would identify potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), provide processing capabilities, and develop marketing materials. In addition to COMET Planner, the project will use three certification/verification protocols matched to the specific land base and production system to monitor and verify quantitative and qualitative ecological indicators and CO2 emission reduction through soil carbon sequestration and provide participating landbases a pathway to the climate smart market. The project will also monitor crop yields to track benefits per unit of harvested elderberries, will use remotely sensed data to monitor physical parameters, and will use geolocation enabled digital surveys to create a spatial inventory of project sites. The project will develop a system to value add and market the climate-smart native western blue elderberry, including by promoting to identified potential sales channels (including local direct sales, value-added products, sales to identified and potential companies/distributors/brands, and Indigenous tribal communities), providing processing capabilities, and developing marketing materials such as videography, photography, and web assets. Participating producers include small producers and underserved. The project also emphasizes workforce development within the Chumash community and will include funding to train Chumash tribal members to harvest elderberries for cultural purposes. The target audience for our outreach will include other underserved and small producers.
Lead Partner: White Buffalo Land Trust
Other Major Partners: The Santa Ynez Chumash Environmental Office (SYCEO)- Camp 4, Community Environmental Council, The Regents of the University of California – Agriculture and Natural Resources (e.g. UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program), University of California - Davis, Beyond the Farm, Cage Free Productions, Propagate, Design Firm, Just One Organics
Primary States Expected: CA, Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Western Blue Elderberries
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,633,935Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership
This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project. Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority. This project will utilize a combination of measurement systems including COMET, and farm level summaries along with third party reporting and verification protocols using Eco-Practices Platform. Proximity Malt and producer participants will receive third-party verified data and tailored outcome reports based on their operations, scientific research, and industry sustainability practices. This Proximity Climate Smart Partnership intends to develop new market opportunities for climate smart agriculture commodities by working across the supply chain, connecting farmer regenerative agricultural practices to consumer purchasing decisions. in particular the project will work to develop the climate-smart regenerative barley market through partnerships, standards, and incentives. The project will financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate smart barley market with focus and funding for small and underserved farmers.
Lead Partner: Proximity Malt, LLC
Other Major Partners: Sustainable Environmental Consultants (SEC); Grey Snow Management Solutions: An Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Company; New Belgium Brewing; Brown-Forman; Brewers Association; Founders Brewing Company; Odell Brewing Company, Rio Grande Water Conservation District
Primary States Expected: CO, DE, KS, MD, NE, NM, NC, PA, VA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Barley
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,999,524Recognizing the Role of Buffalo Production as a Climate-Smart Commodity
Partners plan to distribute project funding to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices related to buffalo herds. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative (TBMI) plans to assist Tribes in marketing their buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, develop sustainable programs for underserved Tribal buffalo producers and create a Tribally led national strategy for education and outreach of buffalo as a climate-smart agricultural product. The project will also leverage COMET and biological and range studies for measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification. This project’s MMRV approach comprises three activities: 1) Enrolling Tribal buffalo herd managers to report carbon tracking data using the Carbon Management Evaluation Tool (COMET) and related tools; 2) Conducting biological surveys on each enrolled site, along with recording climatic conditions, and herd management strategies; 3) Supporting a Native graduate student studying climate-smart buffalo and rangeland management. The Tribal Buffalo Market Initiative will provide technical assistance for the development of market opportunities, providing outreach and education materials that market buffalo as climate-smart. Outreach products developed will be distributed to Intertribal Buffalo Council Member Tribes and their 1 million+ enrolled Tribal members, including educational materials highlighting buffalo as a climate-smart commodity, with infographics showcasing the buffalo’s place in the carbon cycle, along with educational videos, pamphlets, and other materials relating to the health benefits of consuming buffalo meat. An online platform will be developed to link partners and stakeholders and foster the development of market opportunities. Funding will be distributed to 76 Tribes to incentivize their use of climate-smart practices as they relate to their buffalo herds. Travel assistance will be provided to Tribal representatives for travel to Technical Assistance trainings and to attend relevant climate-change and buffalo restoration events.
Lead Partner: InterTribal Buffalo Council
Other Major Partners: The Nature Conservancy, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Primary States Expected: Tribal
Major Commodities: Agroforestry, Buffalo
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,950,000Reducing GHG Emissions and Improving Soil Carbon Sequestration Potential through High- Carbon Soil Amendment
This pilot project will support expansion of climate-smart markets and implementation of climate-smart practices to augment conservation Best Management Practices and generate reference data to support development of regionally optimized ecosystem services models. The geographic focus of this project (CO, NE, WY, MT) has naturally low basal soil organic carbon, which means greater sequestration potential. Western Sugar Cooperative will use its close ties to the farmer and access to extensive production records to conduct high-level impact modeling using COMET to educate growers and build momentum for broad participation in an ecosystem services exchange. This project focuses on creating new value for Climate-Smart Sugar. Sugar users desire sustainable sugar. Fulfillment of most sugar user’s quantitative corporate sustainability goals relies heavily on domestic farmers. Currently, impact tracking is taxing for farmers, has high degrees of uncertainty, and likely results in double counting within the value chain. Using the cooperative structure to co-market ecosystem services will create competition for these valuable GHG benefits by allowing the farmers to fulfill a greater diversity of demand (e.g., CPGs, retailers, off-sets, public, etc.) and eventually spur incentives from the users of the Climate-Smart sugar. Farmers meeting the USDA definition of historically underserved are planned to receive 125% of the incentive with a 150% incentive for any implementation on Crow Tribe cropland: two-thirds to the farmer and one-third to the landowner.
Lead Partner: The Western Sugar Cooperative
Other Major Partners: Crow Tribe, Panhandle Research and Extension Center at the University of Nebraska, Center for Carbon Capture and Conversion at University of Wyoming, Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: CO, MT, NE, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Sugar beets
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $6,000,000Southwest Hub of the Western Working Lands Climate-Smart Network
The Southwest Climate-Smart Working Lands Hub plans to empower Southwest tribal beef and pork producers and their trusted partners to collectively develop, implement, monitor, quantify and broker climate-smart livestock projects. Participants would benefit from reduced transaction costs and retaining more value of their goods and services in local communities. Through partnerships, the project would provide expertise on data collection and analysis and provide highly skilled sampling teams. The project would provide participants culturally relevant technical assistance and assistance with entering and navigating the ecosystem service marketplace. National Grazing Lands Coalition (NatGLC) will lead the development and deployment of soil carbon monitoring protocols with all ranching and rangeland management partners. The project will employ COMET-Planner as a pre-planning tool to assess carbon sequestration potential on all participating ranches; conduct robust in-field sampling to validate the value of climate smart livestock and to provide data to advance carbon accrual models; and utilize new facilities for testing and soil analysis. The project will verify the quality and quantity of the climate-smart goods and services developed by participating livestock operations and then supply those to the marketplace to test their true value. The project will also develop a data system that securely links the goods and services to the story of land and livestock stewardship. Along with the data that verifies that story, NatGLC will provide a desirable product to a spectrum of end consumers. While the marketing focus of the project is on the premium value of climate-smart livestock using climate-smart grazing systems, capacity is included to explore additional revenue for project ranchers through carbon inset/offset credits. In addition, the project will expand and develop relationships with food system and purchasing partners, including Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and Tribal partners to explore the feasibility and utility of marketing through an indigenous beef label. The project is led by NatGLC, with board leadership representing small and underserved producers like the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance and National Farmers Union. An emphasis will be placed on engagement and support for underserved and small-scale ranchers, with a minimum of 50 participants which will all be based in the Southwest United States. As a major partner on the project, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance will bring their experience and existing relationships with tribal ranchers and other resource management partners across the Southwest, particularly the Navajo Nation and Navajo Agricultural Products Industry.
Lead Partner: National Grazing Lands Coalition
Other Major Partners: Working Lands Conservation, Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Northway Ranch Services
Primary States Expected: Tribal, AZ, NM
Major Commodities: Beef, Livestock
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,997,912.84
Strengthening Grassroots Leadership and Capacity to Scale Climate-Smart Production Systems and Facilitate Underserved Producers' Access to Markets
This project will work through its network of 3,000 conservation districts throughout the nation to grow and advance grassroots efforts to ensure producers and local communities are prepared to meet the demand and have access to climate-smart commodity markets. Project plans to support implementation of climate-smart practices like cover crops, nutrient management plans, forest stand management, prescribed grazing and forage and biomass planting. Planned marketing efforts include identifying strategies for building acres or products. The project plans to use COMET-Planner and/or other data models (e.g., Truterra Sustainability Tool, SYMFONI) to identify practice options that maximize carbon sequestration. HabiTerre’s technology and quantification solution – SYMFONI – captures the trade-offs and synergistic effects of the system of conservation practices implemented; HabiTerre plans to develop a farmer-facing dashboard that summarizes producers’ historical GHG emissions (e.g., soil organic carbon changes, N2O emissions, and CH4 emissions/uptake) at the field and farm levels. NACD plans to verify soil organic carbon (SOC) changes through soil sampling on a representative subset of fields. The project plans to support development of climate-smart market opportunities that benefit local economies and identify strategies for bundling acres or products, provide additional education on Scope 3 protocols and traceability, and what is needed to participate in climate-smart commodity markets. NACD also plans to cultivate national partnerships that facilitate access to growing climate-smart markets. Of the producers enrolled, over half are planned to be underserved producers. The project also plans to invest in the Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA) and organizations that serve tribal producers, as well as Rural Coalition and their members, the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund and Kansas Black Farmers Association to strengthen Conservation Districts’ outreach to historically underserved communities and producers.
Lead Partner: National Association of Conservation Districts
Other Major Partners: Indian Nations Conservation Alliance (INCA), Rural Coalition, the Kansas Black Farmers Association, and the Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, HabiTerre, Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Primary States Expected: AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, GU, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn, Livestock, Rice, Soybeans, Sorghum, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $90,000,000The Building Climate Success by Empowering Humans to Care for our Natural Resources
Through this project, tribal and other underserved producers would receive financial assistance for adopting climate-smart practices for livestock and pecan production in Oklahoma. Project partners plan to create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market climate-smart products, including the creation of a climate-smart marketing class session and other resources. Partners will measure/estimate environmental impacts of adoption of conservation practices through soil health assessments, soil carbon measurements, estimated reductions of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment from runoff, estimated changes in GHG emissions, and increases in infiltration rates at the project sites; COMET-Farm will be used where applicable. The monitoring and assistance with the verification of practices and results of those practices will be handled through the existing network of conservation districts and tribal conservation districts in Oklahoma. The project will create tools and partnerships for enrollees to market their products, including the creation of a marketing class session that focuses specifically on the messaging that encourages consumers to purchase climate-smart products, and a webpage with detailed information about labeling options and marketing 101 information.
Lead Partner: Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, Inc.
Other Major Partners: The Oklahoma Conservation Commission (OCC), The Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project (OBHRPI), The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Conservation District, The Choctaw Nation Conservation District
Primary States Expected: OK, Tribal
Major Commodities: Livestock, Pecans
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $4,916,285The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative
This project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment. The Initiative will offer two core innovative finance concepts: 1) climate-smart operating loans with lower interest rates and fees that benefit early adopters and 2) risk-sharing mechanisms including climate-smart practice-linked warranties that target key farmer barriers to adopting climate-smart practices. By pairing innovative finance incentives with comprehensive technical assistance, the Initiative will support growers in adopting or expanding climate-smart practices such as cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers. All project components plan to be registered in Field to Market’s Continuous Improvement Accelerator (Accelerator), an established program that employs a clear, public, standardized, and scalable approach for MMRV and allocating ownership of environmental impact from continuous improvement projects, quantifying impacts on GHG emissions and, where applicable, carbon sequestration using COMET-Planner. They will also be able to quantify field-scale changes in GHG emissions, soil carbon, and ancillary environmental benefits using Field to Market’s science-based metric and in some cases calculate Nitrogen Balance as another option to assess GHG emissions from nitrogen fertilizer management. The project plans to connect participating producers with market demand for climate-smart commodities from Field to Market’s Brands and Retail supply chain member companies, including J.M. Smucker Company, Kontoor Brands, McDonald’s, Mondelēz, Nestlé Purina, PepsiCo, The Andersons and Unilever. These companies are eager to support a ready supply of verified climate-smart commodities because it will help them achieve internal GHG reduction goals and meet growing demand from socially and environmentally conscious customers and investors for verified climate-smart outcomes. This project has multiple equity components, including outreach to small and underserved producers, with two distinct efforts to reach Native American and Black farmers. USDA funding will enable Akiptan and Intertribal Agriculture Council to offer climate-smart operating loans and market Native-produced climate-smart commodities via IAC’s American Indian Foods (AIF) and Rege[N]ation seal and pledge programs. Marketing and technical assistance will also provide economic benefits for participating Native producers. Additionally, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives will have the opportunity to create a supply-side project in the Accelerator and use Field to Market’s process-based standard to allocate claims to downstream companies that support the project. The project will provide additional support to Native and black producers by identifying likely partner companies and fostering introductions so that mutually beneficial connections could be made to market climate-smart commodities.
Lead Partner: Field to Market
Other Major Partners: Akiptan, Intertribal Agriculture Council, The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/ Land Assistance Fund, PepsiCo, Farmers Business Network, Environmental Defense Fund, Archer Daniels Midland, Illinois Corn Growers Association, Practical Farmers of Iowa, Nutrien Ag Solutions, Growers Edge, Mondelēz, Michigan State University, Coop Elevator, Farm Credit Council
Primary States Expected: AK, AL, AZ, CA, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MN, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, NM, NV, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TX, VT, WA, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Alfalfa, Barley, Corn, Cotton, Livestock, Peanuts, Potatoes, Rice, Row Crops, Sorghum, Soybeans, Specialty Crops, Sugar beets, Wheat
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $70,000,000The GEVO Climate-Smart Farm-to-Flight Program
The project aims to create critical structural climate-smart market incentives for low carbon-intensity corn as well as to accelerate the production of sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the sector’s dependency on fossil-based fuel. This project includes an immediate market opportunity to sell climate- smart, low-climate-impact corn. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project team plans to deploy an MRV platform that quantifies GHG benefits with the Argonne GREET lifecycle analysis model, with blockchain-based smart contracts that create efficient market mechanisms to facilitate the monetization and scaling of climate-smart commodities, GHG benefit attributes, and related instruments. The project also plans to work to identify new technological approaches to assess alternative approaches to minimize the frequency, intensity, and cost of current soil testing while maximizing accuracy; and to more accurately monitor and quantify the air and water impacts of nitrous oxide emissions. The project plans to use existing relationships within the airline industry to secure offtake agreements for low-carbon intensity sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuel purchasers. The project plans to establish an advisory council, which will include members from underserved groups, specifically focusing on gender equality and minority representation from the Native tribal organizations, to ensure project design and implementation adequately account for underserved producers and communities. Program materials, education and training are planned to be centered on minority-owned farms and the benefits of enrolling their farm acreage in a climate-smart commodities program with a minimum of 12% of project acreage under contract with underserved producers; this project also specifically aims to enroll two historically underserved groups: women (majority female-owned farms) in southeast Iowa and southeast Nebraska and Native American tribal organizations in South Dakota, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
Lead Partner: Gevo, Inc.
Other Major Partners: Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, South Dakota State University, Yard Stick, Colorado State University, Iowa State University, Standing Rock (SAGE) Renewable Energy Power Authority
Primary States Expected: IA, MN, NE, SD, Tribal
Major Commodities: Corn
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $30,000,000The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: Developing Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities
This project will create market opportunities for beef and bison producers who utilize climate-smart agriculture grazing and land management practices. The project will guide and educate producers on climate-smart practices most suited for their operations, manage large-scale climate-smart data that will be used by producers to improve decision-making, and directly impact market demand for climate- smart beef/bison commodity markets. The project will use COMET for calculating GHG benefits. SmartScore.ai will be used to develop software & warehouse to store data. Yardstick will also be used to measure soil profile organic carbon & bulk density. C-Lock will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions from the beef and bison. The project will market climate smart beef & bison meat with a certification of how the livestock were grown and fed. The animals will be tracked from birth through finish. 30.7% of total direct funds in this project will go to historically underserved producers.
Lead Partner: South Dakota State University
Other Major Partners: South Dakota State extension, SDSU Center for Excellence for Bison Studies, National Bison Association, Agspire, Tanka fund, Buffalo Ridge Cattle Company, Cold Creek Buffalo Company, Millborn Seeds, SmartScore.ai, Yard Stick, Texas A &M, C-Lock
Primary States Expected: CO, GA, IA, KS, MN, MO, MT, NC, NE, NM, NY, ND, OK, SC, SD, TX, WI, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Bison
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $80,000,000The Growing GRASS & Climate-Smart Value-Added U.S. Commodity Markets Project (Growing GRASS Project)
This multi-year project will pilot, test, and evaluate how the GRASS supply chain can be optimized for value and climate performance from farm and ranch to climate-smart markets, starting with the greenhouse gas benefits of grazing systems. The project will develop a certified ontology, identify regenerative practices, develop a virtual platform to track commodities through the supply chain. All information will be put into the COMET tool. Any other information that is outside of COMET will be shared with USDA to help improve or expand COMET. All Climate-Smart Commodities in project (meat, hides & by-products) will be tracked through supply chain traceability. Other Half Processing will continue to identify various tracking methods to accurately track all products. The project will use the findings from Other Half Processing to develop an open-access, cyber-secure platform to provide a clear picture of these diverse products move through the supply chain to eventually become customer-facing products while retaining their climate smart values. The goal is to find the least costly and most accurate ways to ensure that regenerative and climate-smart claims remain connected directly to the meat, hides and other byproduct commodity products. The project plans to recruit up to 1,000 producers for the first phase of project with at least 250 producers planned to be Native American and other historically disadvantaged producer communities. The project will target outreach to maintain this 25 percent for additional producers involved.
Lead Partner: American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.
Other Major Partners: Roots of Change, California Cattlemen’s Association, American Grassfed Association, Pure Strategies, UC Davis Food Systems Lab, IC-Foods, Autocase, Other Half Processing SBC, Regenerative Rising, Lookin.to, Textile Exchange, Pet Sustainability Coalition
Primary States Expected: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WI, WA, WV, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Beef By-Product, Bison, Bison By-Product
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $35,000,000TRACT Program: Traceable Reforestation for America’s Carbon and Timber
This project builds climate-smart markets for timber and forest products and addresses the need to expand and recover the nation’s forest estate to balance the demand for wood products with the increasing need for forests to serve as carbon reservoirs. The project will deploy funding, planning, and implementation of reforestation and afforestation activities in lands deforested by wildfire in the Western U.S. and degraded agricultural lands in the Southern U.S. Every acre planted and the volume of forest products generated will have a quantified and verified climate benefit in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships. The project aims to include a combination of small landowners and tribal representatives. Practice implementation incentives should increase the demand for climate-smart forest products, over time, improve the economics of climate-smart forest management and wood production. The project plans to invest in a new website and signage to educate consumers about the novel commodity and to provide project contact information for those wishing to engage in the program. By listing projects with a carbon registry, public records will be available and will include georeferenced planting project boundaries, a description of the planting project including densities and species compositions, quantification of carbon benefits in mtCO2e, and records of third-party project validation and verifications; these publicly available source records are critical as the foundation for supply chain tracking. The project aims to work with multiple Tribes in the west and small producers and community-serving landowners (i.e. counties and municipal governments) in the south. At least half of the total grant funding is anticipated to be reserved for technical and financial assistance for Tribes, family forest owners, and county/municipal ownerships.
Lead Partner: Oregon Climate Trust
Other Major Partners: Arbor Day Carbon, Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Nez Perce Tribe, TerraCarbon
Primary States Expected: AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, ID, LA, MS, MT, NC, NM, OK, OR, SC, TN, TX, WA, WY, Tribal
Major Commodities: Forest Products, Timber
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $15,000,000Waste to Plate: Building Circular Economies and Shorter Supply Chains for Livestock Reared on Regenerating Dryland Range with Organic Amendments
Quivira Coalition and partners plans to work with project participants to produce biochar and compost and them on degraded rangeland to enhance ecological function, carbon sequestration, and forage production Each producer would receive a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers, host fees to support the workshop, and supplies. This project would provide direct technical support to help producers finish animals on grass, optimize carcasses for their particular customer base, and build the tools, such as an online shopping cart or a social media presence, for region-based marketing. Quivira will use several methods for measurement and verification including: tracking the amount and type of feedstocks that are transformed into value-added organic amendments and fuel, equipment, and energy use for the amendments; Using in-field assessments of aggregate stability as a low cost, rapid estimate for organic carbon percentage and collecting aggregate soil samples from the deployment areas and adjacent un-amended controls in the top 10cm using the Range-C protocol from Point Blue Conservation; and tracking pounds of meat or other livestock products finished on these operations and sold through direct markets as well as fuel, equipment, and energy (storage) emissions for direct marketing meat or other livestock products. The project will partner with the non-profit OpenTEAM to have a data fellow train Quivira staff how to use open-source tools such as FarmOS. This technology infrastructure will enable efficient tracking of implementation: amount of feedstock used, and number of acres treated and the benefits of shortening the supply chain and total transit miles per pound of meat or other livestock product. As OpenTEAM platform interoperability develops, QC will compare their information to COMET Tools. COMET has models for organic amendments compared to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on irrigated and non-irrigated lands but not biochar. Producers will work with meat marketing experts to successfully, directly sell their meat to consumers in their regions. Each participant will also benefit from marketing tool kits (for organic amendments and for livestock products). The project will leverage their network of producers, grassroots organizations and agency contacts and communication strategies optimized for outreach with rural producers (newspaper, radio, and flyers in public areas in addition to social media) to solicit underserved applicants to receive technical support for production and/or use of organic amendments. Producers will receive substantive technical assistance on the following topics: organic amendment production; range restoration; pasture management and grass finishing; and developing business strategies for direct marketing. Each producer that hosts production/deployment will receive technical assistance and help with logistics and monitoring, as well as a stipend to support their time towards producing, deploying, monitoring, and communicating with technical support providers.
Lead Partner: Quivira Coalition
Other Major Partners: Reunity Resources, Trollworks, Wilson Biochar, Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance, Good Meat Project, Colorado State University
Primary States Expected: AZ, CO, NM, TX, Tribal
Major Commodities: Beef, Dairy, Sheep
Approximate Funding Ceiling: $3,535,886
- Executed Grant Agreements
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Below are copies of the original signed grant agreements for Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Please note that the documents will be provided on a rolling basis and redacted in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act and other associated laws.
- A Greener World Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- Accelerating Appalachia, INC Agreement (PDF, 23.5 MB)
- Adirondack North Country Association Agreement (PDF, 14.4 MB)
- AgriCapture, Inc. (PDF, 18.3 MB)
- The American Farmland Trust (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- American Forest Foundation Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- American Lamb Board Agreement (PDF, 15.3 MB)
- American Sustainable Business Institute Agreement (PDF, 19.8 MB)
- Archer-Daniels-Midland Company Agreement (PDF, 14.9 MB)
- Arizona Association of Conservation Districts (PDF, 17.9 MB)
- Blue Diamond Growers Agreement (PDF, 17.6 MB)
- California Dairy Research Foundation Agreement (PDF, 19.1 MB)
- Carbon A List LLC Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- Caribbean Regenerative Community Development INC Agreement (PDF, 22.2 MB)
- Central State University Agreement (PDF, 16.0 MB)
- Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes Agreement (PDF, 16.8 MB)
- Chickasaw Nation Agreement (PDF, 16.2 MB)
- Chico State Enterprises Agreement (PDF, 17.3 MB)
- Clemson University Agreement (PDF, 20.8 MB)
- Colorado Department of Agriculture Agreement (PDF, 18.4 MB)
- The Conservation Innovation Fund Agreement (PDF, 19.6 MB)
- Cooperative League of the United States of America Agreement
- Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools (PDF, 19.6 MB)
- Curators of the University of Missouri Agreement (PDF, 19.6 MB)
- Dairy Farmers of America, Inc Agreement (PDF, 16 MB)
- Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, Inc. Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- Dalla Terra Ranch Foundation (in Harmony Farm) Agreement (PDF, 17.2 MB)
- The Delong Co INC Agreement (PDF, 18.5 MB)
- Division of Agriculture of the University of Arkansas Agreement (PDF, 18.0 MB)
- ECOM USA, LLC Agreement (PDF, 19.0 MB)
- Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative Agreement (PDF, 16.8 MB)
- Elevated Foods INC Agreement (PDF, 17.4 MB)
- Fischer Farms Natural Foods, LLC Agreement (PDF, 19.8 MB)
- Florida A&M Agreement (PDF, 17.9 MB)
- Food Shed Inc. Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, LLC Agreement (PDF, 15.6 MB)
- Georgia Alabama Land Trust Agreement (PDF, 18.1 MB)
- Gevo, Inc Agreement (PDF, 22.5 MB)
- Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. Agreement (PDF, 19.1 MB)
- Grassland Oregon Inc Agreement (PDF, 18.6 MB)
- Handsome Brook Farms, LLC. Agreement (PDF, 20.7 MB)
- Iconoclast Industries, LLC Agreement (PDF, 18.3 MB)
- International Fresh Produce Association Agreement (PDF, 18.1 MB)
- Intertribal Buffalo Council Agreement (PDF, 17.5 MB)
- Intertribal Buffalo Council Amendment (PDF, 850 KB)
- Iowa Soybean Association Grant Agreement (PDF, 16.7 MB)
- Lincoln University (PDF, 18.7 MB)
- Low Carbon Technologies LLC Agreement (PDF, 18.7 MB)
- Lynker Corporation Agreement (PDF, 25.7 MB)
- Maple Hill Creamery LLC (PDF, 16.3 MB)
- Marbleseed Inc. Agreement (PDF, 16.9 MB)
- MCL Jasco Inc. Agreement (PDF, 16.1 MB)
- Meridian Institute Agreement (PDF, 18.0 MB)
- Michigan Association of Conservation Districts Agreement (PDF, 17.7 MB)
- Millborn Seeds Agreement (PDF, 17.1 MB)
- Mississippi State University Agreement (PDF, 16.7 MB)
- Missouri Organic Association Agreement (PDF, 17.8 MB)
- Mt. Folly Enterprises Inc. Agreement (PDF, 19.3 MB)
- National Association of Conservation Districts (PDF, 17.1 MB)
- National Black Growers Council Agreement (PDF, 17.5 MB)
- National Center for Appropriate Technology INC Agreement (PDF, 19.8 MB)
- National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Agreement (PDF, 18.4 MB)
- National Pork Board Agreement (PDF, 17.4 MB)
- National Sorghum Producers Association Agreement (PDF, 20 MB)
- The Nature Conservancy Agreement (PDF, 17.3 MB)
- New England Forestry Foundation, INC Agreement (PDF, 23.0 MB)
- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Agreement (PDF, 20.0 MB)
- North Jersey RC&D Area, Inc Agreement (PDF, 16.9 MB)
- Oklahoma Association of Conservation Agreement (PDF, 14.9 MB)
- Oregon State University Agreement (PDF, 18.7 MB)
- Oregon Climate Trust Agreement (PDF, 19.3 MB)
- Organic Association of Kentucky Agreement (PDF, 18.5 MB)
- Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture Agreement (PDF, 18.3 MB)
- Pennsylvania State University Agreement (PDF, 19.0 MB)
- Ponix Inc. Agreement (PDF, 18.7 MB)
- Prairie View A&M University Agreement (PDF, 18.1 MB)
- Prince George's County Maryland Agreement (PDF, 18.9 MB)
- Proximity Malt, LLC Agreement (PDF, 17.7 MB)
- Quivira Coalition Agreement (PDF, 16.5 MB)
- Regeneration International Agreement (PDF, 15.9 MB)
- Regents of the University of Idaho Agreement (PDF, 20 MB)
- Re-Nuble, Inc. Agreement (PDF, 16.2 MB)
- Rodale Institute Agreement (PDF, 23.0 MB)
- Roeslein Alternative Energy, LLC Agreement (PDF, 19.7 MB)
- Sonoma County Agreement (PDF, 17.9 MB)
- South Carolina State University Agreement (PDF, 17.0 MB)
- South Dakota State University Agreement (PDF, 19.9 MB)
- South Dakota State University Amendment (PDF, 740 KB)
- Star of the West Milling Company Agreement (PDF, 17.6 MB)
- Sustainable Northwest Agreement (PDF, 17.6 MB)
- Tennessee State University Agreement (PDF, 21.2 MB)
- Texas A&M University Agrilife Research Agreement (PDF, 18.7 MB)
- Texas A&M University Kingsville Agreement (PDF, 18.0 MB)
- Texas A&M University (Kingsville) Amendment (PDF, 571 KB)
- Texas Tech University System Agreement (PDF, 17.5 MB)
- TH Cattle Company LLC Agreement (PDF, 17.3 MB)
- Truterra, LLC Agreement (PDF, 23.8 MB)
- Tuskegee University (Agroforestry) Agreement (PDF, 17.8 MB)
- Tuskegee University (Sheep & Goats) Agreement (PDF, 17.8 MB)
- University Corporation at Monterey Bay Agreement (PDF, 18.4 MB)
- University of Arizona Agreement (PDF, 19.9 MB)
- University of Arizona Agreement (PDF, 19.4 MB)
- University of Delaware Agreement (PDF, 17.7 MB)
- University of Guam Agreement (PDF, 19.2 MB)
- University of Illinois Agreement (PDF, 17.9 MB)
- University of Maryland Eastern Shore Agreement (PDF, 19.0 MB)
- University of Tennessee Agreement (PDF, 18.4 MB)
- University of Texas at Arlington Agreement (PDF, 18.8 MB)
- University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Agreement (PDF, 17.8 MB)
- University of Washington Agreement (PDF, 18.2 MB)
- USA Rice Agreement (PDF, 17.2 MB)
- U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, LLC Agreement (PDF, 18.9 MB)
- U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol Amendment (PDF, 320 KB)
- Vanguard Consortium Agreement (PDF, 36.8 MB)
- Victus Puerto Rico, Inc. Agreement (PDF, 18.2 MB)
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Agreement (PDF, 20.3 MB)
- West Virginia University Research Corporation Agreement (PDF, 19.1 MB)
- Western Sugar Cooperative Agreement (PDF, 17.6 MB)
- White Buffalo Land Trust Agreement (PDF, 17.3 MB)
- Winrock International Institute Agreement (PDF, 18.0 MB)
- Wolfe's Neck Farm Foundation, INC Agreement (PDF, 22.8 MB)
- The Wolfe’s Neck Foundation, Inc. Amendment (PDF, 355 KB)
- Working Landscapes LLC Agreement (PDF, 18.5 MB)
- Yale University Agreement (PDF, 17.6 MB)