Blog

By: Corey Jorgenson, Head of North American Markets
April 9, 2021

By: Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Indigo Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer & Board Director

Farmers depend on water for their business, as much as seeds, sun, and fertilizer – and it shows. Agriculture consumes 70% of the world’s freshwater an 85% of the available water in the U.S. annually. With growing demand for food running up against increasing water stress from droughts and declining groundwater resources farmers are in need more than ever of sustainable practices and inputs to reliably grow food.

Larkin Martin manages a family-farming operation in Courtland, Alabama, where she raises cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat. Her cotton is now part of a sourcing collaboration with The North Face to craft clothes with regeneratively-grown materials. The premier outdoor apparel and gear brand is not only paying for sustainable and well-made raw materials, but also ones with a clear and strong history for end customers to appreciate. When Martin, an art history major, took over the farming business from her father in 1990, she became the seventh generation to manage the land—and brought with her a discerning eye, fresh perspective, and global mindset.

A conservation biologist steering sustainability and sourcing for a luxury fashion group? You better believe Helen Crowley, Head of Sustainable Sourcing & Nature Initiatives for Kering’s 14 luxury brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga, gets some surprised reactions. In her defense, she has always loved nice shoes—even when doing field work.

P.J. Haynie is a fifth-generation row crop farmer based out of Virgina with a satellite operation in Arkansas. Winter wheat, barley, corn, and soybeans – the same crops P.J.’s family grew through his whole childhood – are in use on his completely non-irrigated peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay, while cotton peanuts, rice, and sweet potatoes grow in the Delta.

By: Kathryn Elmes, Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships with Indigo Carbon

Businesses and consumers are laser-focused on making sure the credits they buy are a true measure of progress against climate change.

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. 

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:

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.