In the first three years of its carbon program, Truterra paid over $21 million to farmers for the sequestration and reduction of over 1.1 million metric tons of carbon. Truterra President Jamie Leifker said the number of farmers participating in the carbon program grew last year by 58 percent compared to 2022. The re-enrollment rate is over 90 percent. Truterra, a subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, works with downstream companies like Nestle to promote sustainable farming practices. Payments are paid based on the actual amount of carbon stored rather than a set per-acre payment. Truterra licenses the farmers’ data. “Data can be a really emotional topic,” said Leifker. “What Truterra centers its effort around is the excellence around how we manage that data and we ensure that the data is owned by the farmer. We’re licensing it for the purposes of creating a carbon asset only and that’s the only right that we have to convey that asset to the downstream customer; the farmer retains the ownership long-term.” Listen to the interview.
