5 Ways Truterra Wants To Break The Carbon Market Adoption Plateau

On the heels of announcing its 2024 carbon programs, Truterra president Jamie Leifker says the industry is still in the messy middle of realizing the potential of these programs for farmers. 

As the program offerings have expanded, notably, Truterra’s increased focus to offer opportunities for long-term practitioners, the effort to increase farmer participation still requires overcoming great inertia. 

“We can move so much faster. By our estimates, less than 2% of farmers are participating in these programs industry wide,” Leifker says. “For us at Truterra, for the first two years, we sequestered 462,000 metric tons, paid $9 million. But it was still less than 300 growers enrolled in 2022 and 2023.”

For 2024, Leifker says the business has a goal to enroll 2 million acres via its network of 60 Truterra retailers. 

So what needs to be done to break through the adoption plateau? Leifker and the Truterra team are taking the following approach: 

1.    Encourage its retail network to prioritize carbon markets. 

“In the future, sustainability may not grow a retailer’s business, but growing retailers will use sustainability to grow their business,” Leifker says. 

Via the carbon market opportunities, such a foundation for the future is being built now. 

“We’ve got the opportunity to build confidence at the farm level to sign up. Via a greater connection with ag retailers we can drive the agronomic recommendation and Truterra program enrollment,” Leifker says. “It’s been slow for retailers because it’s hard to make the priority list. Therefore, we have to do more in demystifying how the carbon market works to give the confidence to propose a grower participating.”

Truterra has increased the number of retailers offering its carbon programs by 20% every year.

“We think it’s unique and an advantage to work through ag retailers. Many have tried to go around the channel. The trusted adviser relationship the ag retailer has with the farmer is tested in time. That’s our full commitment. We are going to work via retailers. We’re going to work with them to get to and stay with the farmer as a long term and durable approach to the market,” Leifker says. 

2.    Integrate carbon into the business of ag retail 

“We’re telling retailers to make this part of how they are going to market, and not a separate thing,” Leifker says. 
He sees a future with sustainability embedded in each department.

“When retailers make a recommendation for the entire acre, that now includes from seed to the crop’s grain, food or fuel outcome. To make the value proposition they are bringing to growers more robust and more complete, sustainability can’t become ‘another department,’” Leifker says. 

From the Truterra perspective, they’ve seen the greatest success with retailers who have dedicated resources hiring a sustainability manager or marketing manager to help with the integration and maximize the opportunities. 

3.    Make the data lift easier

Carbon markets require data collection, sorting and sharing—usually from multiple years. 

“We know farmers are doing the right things with sustainability practice changes, but what we are missing is creating an ease of doing business via these carbon market programs,” Leifker says. “Connections are being created, and we can take 80% of the lift out with the data connections we’ve built.” 

4.    Recognize high retention rates

While the sign up process still requires lots of education and outreach, Leifker is encouraged by the high retention rate of the Truterra carbon program so far. 

“The comfort level of the grower with Truterra is strong—our retention rate is over 90%,” he says. “What’s key is enticing the farmer with strong enough incentives.” 

5.    Buy into the long-term outlook

“Market access will be key for the retailer to work with the right grower of the future. And the grower will need a retailer to navigate this complex and technical space,” Leifker says. 

The carbon program is  illustrating how Truterra’s ag retail network  is bridging the gap between food companies and farmers. 

“In order for this to be successful we have to create a value proposition that creates value for both sides. We are learning that we have tp start talking about the fact that we producing food and fuel. It’s not grain and livestock. So really focusing on helping people understand where their grain is going. And then creating the connections between the processors and the receivers of the grain,” he says. 

Leifker adds, “In the past, we focused on max bushels, especially when margins were so good, it was just more bushels. Then the focus was more efficient bushels, i.e.  less spend per bushel harvested. Now, it’s about more efficient revenue. It’s not just what you are hauling off the field, but also how to monitor the production of those bushels.”