Land O'Lakes, Inc. Project Aimed at Scaling Production and Addressing Equity in Climate-Smart Farming Selected by USDA in Historic Funding for Climate-Smart Commodities

Project will deploy funding from USDA's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities and matching funds from grant partners to scale production and demand for climate-smart corn, soybean, wheat, cotton and milk production

ARDEN HILLS, Minn., Sept. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Truterra, LLC, the sustainability business of Land O'Lakes, Inc., one of America's largest farmer-owned cooperatives, and American Farmland Trust (AFT), a nonprofit focused on farmland protection and stewardship, along with additional industry, non-profit and food and agriculture company grant partners and supporters, today announced their successful bid for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

In a highly competitive application process, Truterra and AFT's Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture's Regenerative Transformation) pilot project distinguished itself with in-depth experience in production agriculture, access to infrastructure to scale rapidly due to industry-leading access to farmers across the country, the trust that grant partners have already built through 225 years of collective experience working side by side with farmers, and a pragmatic approach to connecting pieces of the puzzle that already exist to help shape a more self-sustaining ecosystem. As a result, the pilot project intends to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by approximately 7.2 million metric tons of CO2e over the course of five years – roughly the equivalent of taking 1.5 million cars off the road for a year.1

"Land O'Lakes, along with AFT and other grant partners, is ready to tackle what is fundamentally a connection problem in the current climate-smart commodities market. We want to close those gaps by creating a self-sustaining ecosystem that connects farmers already doing incredible work to support sustainability on their operations with the food and agriculture companies looking to buy those products, all while addressing cost, risk and knowledge barriers to regenerative agriculture practice adoption," said Land O'Lakes President and CEO Beth Ford. "As a farmer-owned cooperative, I see tremendous opportunity for Land O'Lakes member-owners and local retail agriculture businesses to lead development and scaling of this new market – and be rewarded for their stewardship while future-proofing their businesses for the long-term."