Making Sense of the Carbon Credits Conundrum
November 9, 2022 
Although everyone within the agricultural industry agrees that sustainability represents the future, exactly what form this effort ultimately takes is still up-in-the-air for many initiatives.
Take carbon credits, for instance. For the past few years now, large companies such as Microsoft and PepsiCo have pledged their support for this sustainable agricultural practice. Likewise, many ag-oriented corporations such as Corteva Agriscience and Land O’ Lakes have also gotten fully behind carbon credits. But getting ag retailers and their grower-customers on board has proven to be a much harder task.
At the recent PACE Executive Forum, held in late October in Kansas City, MO, one speaker described to attendees just how difficult getting growers to sign on for carbon credits has been. According to Amy Winstead, Vice President of Business Innovation and Agronomy for GreenPoint AG, her company recently identified 24,000 of its grower-customers to potentially take part in a carbon credits program. Following several rounds of screening and explanation, this list was narrowed down.
“In the end, only two growers were made the offer,” said Winstead. “Two, out of 24,000.”
Based upon the numbers, other ag retailers are just as uncertain what kind of role they might play in the carbon credits push. In fact, according to statistics from the 2022 CropLife 100 survey, only 39% of the nation’s largest ag retailers see their companies playing a “big role” in future carbon credits programs. The majority, 53%, foresee ag retailers playing a “small role” in these initiatives. The remaining 8% believe ag retailers have “no future” in the carbon credit programs of their grower-customers.
Loading ...At this point, it will be interesting to see how these market trends and attitudes may change as the 2023 growing season gets underway. However, the early data suggests the road to agricultural sustainability will definitely have a few bumps along the way.
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