A Closer Look at Yard Stick’s Climate-Smart Commodities Partners, Part 1

On September 14, 2022, the USDA announced 70 projects that will receive up to $2.8 billion combined in grants from its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative.

The three criteria for successful project proposals were:

• Provide technical and financial assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on a voluntary basis on working lands;
• Pilot innovative and cost-effective methods for quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas benefits; and
• Develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities.

This is a major opportunity not only for American agriculture, but especially for us here at Yard Stick PBC; those goals hugely align with our mission. The USDA was specific and explicit in its desire to see a plan for world-class measurement, reporting and verification at the core of each of these proposals. They know that the data is the engine that will make this initiative a success.

Creating “innovative and cost-effective methods for quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification” is why we created Yard Stick; this is what we do.

As such, we were included as major partners in six successful project bids with $225 million in grants combined. Each project is unique and fascinating in its own right, so we wanted to take a deeper dive into each one and highlight the opportunities that make us super excited to be aboard with these great partners. Below is the first two; four more to come soon!

Climate Change, with Organic Valley

In 2021, Organic Valley announced its goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve this goal, Organic Valley undertook a multi-phase carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) and found that the co-op’s farms’ practices at that time meant “carbon sequestration from pasture as well as from forage and crop production reduced net emissions by 15 percent on average.”

In 2022, the co-op announced its intent to reach that goal through carbon insetting rather than offsetting — that is, Organic Valley is dedicated to reaching carbon neutrality by incentivizing and improving the practices that already lead to carbon reduction and removal on their own farms and in their own supply chain.

One of the key cornerstones of this effort is soil carbon sequestration, and that’s where Yard Stick is poised to make a huge impact. With our MRV technology attached as a key component to the project, Organic Valley applied for — and received — a $25 million grant from the USDA to implement the project across 28 states.

Here’s the project description Organic Valley submitted:

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.

Organic Valley is already a fantastic partner of ours and we have a real opportunity to help them rapidly improve and expand their soil carbon sequestration initiatives. We have a multi-season partnership across multiple regions today for testing and reporting on soil carbon after a successful pilot at Organic Valley’s Kickapoo Valley Reserve test plots in Wisconsin.

We believe Organic Valley’s insetting program could be a model for other organizations; direct decarbonization of one’s own supply chain sets a company up for success in reaching net-zero emissions goals far better than offsets!

Here’s what Nicole Rakobitsch, Organic Valley’s Director of Sustainability, said the company was honored by the USDA’s selection of their program and was excited to work with Yard Stick and its enter project partners.

“At Organic Valley, we’re so excited to work with Yard Stick to advance the state of soil carbon measurement innovation,” Rakobitsch said. “We deeply share a mission to provide small family farms with technology to measure and show their great work on-farm. Just last month we saw how grazing pastures can sequester carbon, and that work grows with this historic set of partnerships.”

Expanding the STAR Program Across Colorado and the West, with the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

In 2021, the Colorado state legislature passed HB21–1181 and SB21–235, which respectively created and funded the Colorado Soil Health Program.

That program uses the Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources (STAR) framework, which “allows farmers and ranchers to evaluate their current production system, identify areas for improved management to increase soil health, document their progress, and share their successes,” according to the program’s website. Colorado uses the STAR framework to evaluate 11 different cropping systems and grazing lands for soil health, rating management activities on a 1 to 5 rating system.

By focusing on soil health, Colorado believes “STAR could become a market signal to pay producers more for products grown using healthy soil practices and produce an onramp to other opportunities.” One of those additional opportunities is most definitely soil carbon sequestration!

The program also provides financial and technical assistance to farmers to help them implement practices that will improve their STAR rating, called STAR Plus.

This is the project description the Colorado Department of Agriculture submitted to the USDA:

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 was granted $25 million to expand this program throughout Colorado and in eight other states: Idaho, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Yard Stick was thrilled to be invited to provide a support letter to this initiative alongside our friends and research collaborators at CSU/CQuester Analytics. We are excited to see where this project leads.