Meet Bill Jones, the Anheuser-Busch Agronomist Helping Brew a New Wave in Sustainability
After five years of working at Anheuser-Busch, first as an agronomist, now as the agronomy manager for rice, Bill Jones has seen firsthand how consumer demand for traceability and sustainability comes down to data integrity and analysis. Consumers and farmers both want data to inform their decisions – whether that’s what to buy or which farming practices to use.
4 Easy Steps to Get the Best Cash Grain Bid
By Rodney Connor, Head of Offering Product Strategy, Marketplace
Although cash grain bids show a certain price today, the farmer won’t get that price when it’s all said and done. That’s because the price doesn’t include all of the costs incurred along the way, and this misdirection often leads to confusion and poor marketing decisions. Here are the four steps for getting the best cash grain bid:
3 Tips for Farmers to Plan for a Successful 2021
Hear from three Indigo agronomists – Monica Campen in Missouri, Bryan Randall in Ohio, and Evan Brehm in Iowa – on the steps they are taking with Indigo growers across the country to ensure a successful 2021.
5 Ways to Celebrate World Soil Day
It may not make its way on to many calendars this season, but World Soil Day is a holiday we can get behind. In honor of the day, we’ve rounded up a few ways you can celebrate by learning about the many benefits of soil health.
A Major Milestone for Measuring the Climate Benefit of Agriculture
By Max DuBuisson, Director of Carbon Policy, Indigo Ag
The agricultural carbon market just took a major leap forward: In October, rigorous protocols for “soil enrichment” carbon credits were approved and published by two of the world’s leading offset standard-setting bodies, Verra and the Climate Action Reserve. This unlocks the industry's potential to become an immediate part of the climate solution both by drawing down and sequestering carbon, as well as reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through practice changes supported by technology and data advancements. These innovative protocols incorporate the policy and scientific advancements necessary to finally unlock the massive global potential for offset projects on cropland and grazing land.
JPMorgan Chase’s Marisa Buchanan on Why the Firm is Investing in Agricultural Carbon Credits
Growing up in the Bay Area in the 1990s when the population was exploding and the city was buckling to provide transportation, relief from traffic congestion, and affordable housing, Marisa Buchan thought, “There has to be a better way.” This led her on a path to a career in sustainability. “As I had more exposure to environmental issues, such as climate change, I realized just how closely linked these issues are,” she recalls. She’s now the Head of Sustainability for JPMorgan Chase, a firm taking the lead in long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Under Marisa’s leadership, JPMorgan Chase just partnered with Indigo Carbon to purchase agricultural carbon credits and support farmers’ businesses as they draw down carbon from the atmosphere and reduce emissions to create a more beneficial agriculture system. Learn more of her vision in this interview.
Meet Matt & Kelly Griggs, Whose Family Operation Has Seen Water Conservation Success
Griggs Farm LLC has been operating in Tennessee since 1882. Today, it is run across approximately 2,000 acres by Matt and Kelly Griggs, husband and wife who came back to the farm from college in 2002, and Matt’s sister Jocelyn, who joined shortly thereafter in 2005. The focus over the last two decades has been conservation, which has netted the family reductions in herbicide, fertilizer, and irrigation.
Meet Mike Bretz, a Corporate Sustainability Specialist Turned Carbon Farmer
Before Mike Bretz was figuring out how to capture carbon in his family farm’s soil, he was in a boardroom working to take carbon out of his company’s supply chain. The project – which included reducing travel and optimizing backhauls, offsetting with carbon credits and planting trees – was the culmination of a 30-year career in the food industry. For Mike, it was a months-long crash course in how much one company could scale back their carbon footprint, help to preserve our climate; only when you’re forced to save do you realize how much you spend.
Meet Kasey Bryant Bamberger, Whose Ohio Farm Uses Tech to Unlock Nature’s Power
Kasey Bryant Bamberger is a third-generation partner in Bryant Agriculture Enterprise. That’s a general title, with broad responsibilities, from running the financials to ensuring safety and compliance, selecting crop insurance to driving public relations.With a collective footprint of 16,000 corn and soybean acres, the Bryant’s operation spans six counties of southwest Ohio—all of which are under Kasey and her cousin Heath’s trained operational eye.
Meet Ray Sneed, Whose Focus on Sustainability Has Increased Profitability
Low cost, high output. That’s the mindset of Ray Sneed and his four brothers, a family of row crop farmers based north of Memphis, Tennessee. It’s a mindset that has led the Sneeds to rely on beneficial practices – to use cover crops and no-till across their soybeans, cotton, corn, and wheat acres. Recently, they have brought on some cows and calves to the farm to try the benefits of integrated grazing.