2021 Spring Insights - Flipbook - Page 7
Leading the way to a sustainable future
Looking for answers on sustainability and carbon credits?
River Valley Cooperative can help.
River Valley Cooperative continues
to strive for new and state-of-the-art
ways to work with member-owners to
implement and document best soil
health management and stewardship
practices. Stewardship has always
been important, but now more
than ever, it is gaining exposure and
momentum across the country.
In February of 2021, River Valley
Cooperative signed an agreement with
Truterra, LLC, a subsidiary of Land O’
Lakes. Truterra offers the only farmerowned, farmer-driven food and ag
sustainability program in the U.S.
The Truterra™ Stewardship Platform
is a groundbreaking system that
delivers profitability, stewardship,
and key insights on a field-by-field
basis. What does this mean to our
member-owners that participate?
River Valley Cooperative’s Data
Specialist will use this state-of-theart platform to work with growers to
gain a deeper understanding of each
field they farm. With this tool, River
Valley Cooperative can document
the grower’s stewardship efforts and
capture the information needed to
participate in developing markets such
as carbon and sustainably produced
commodities.
An example of one of these
developing markets was announced
this past month by Truterra with the
launch of TruCarbon, a new carbon
program that will help growers
generate and sell carbon credits to
private sector buyers. TruCarbon
represents the first and only farmerowned carbon program in the U.S.
designed to provide both the best
experience for farmers and a different
approach for carbon credit buyers.
TruCarbon offers buyers carbon
credits created by populating soil
and conservation science field data
“River Valley Cooperative is a
proud partner in this endeavor
to bring new conservation
resources to the farm. Our
agronomists have continuously
delivered positive results to our
farmers, and we look forward
to adding additional value with
the TruCarbon offerings.”
-Craig Patty
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
in combination with confirmation
procedures. This program will
make it easier to develop and sell
carbon credits. By working with River
Valley Cooperative Data Specialists
utilizing the Truterra™ platform, the
new TruCarbon program provides
growers and River Valley Cooperative
a powerful soil health planning suite
of tools. These tools will help growers
decide what is best for their business
while optimizing their fields’ carbon
credit potential. TruCarbon also
maximizes the value and return for
farmers with a premium carbon credit
value.
TruCarbon is launching with
Microsoft as its first secured buyer to
purchase carbon in 2021, which will
help meet its ambitious commitment
to be carbon negative by 2030. For this
initial launch, participating farmers
may receive $20 per ton of carbon with
payments this summer for this first
tranche of credits. Qualifying farmers
may be compensated for carbon
credits retroactively up to five years
based on the soil health practices
they adopted in those prior growing
seasons.
With the launch of TruCarbon™,
our partner Truterra is working
through channels to reward River
Valley Cooperative customers whose
practices now have the potential
to earn carbon credits. Today, the
relationships between local farmers
and carbon buyers begin. These are
exciting times for growers, and River
Valley Cooperative looks forward to
helping our customers take advantage
of these opportunities.
To learn more, please contact
your local River Valley Cooperative
representative or visit us at www.
rivervalleycoop.com. We’re ready to
begin answering sustainability and
carbon questions today!
CARBON CREDITS
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