Organic Valley and Cooperative Regions of Organic Producer Pools (CROPP) Cooperative were awarded a $25 million United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate-Smart Commodities grant. The funding begun in May 2023 and will help farmers implement key greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and removal projects to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Parametrix has supported Organic Valley on its sustainability journey since 2019 with the development of a GHG inventory and carbon disclosure project support. For this USDA project work, we will lead the program management and technical carbon and reporting elements. This program helps Organic Valley farmers to implement additional regenerative, climate-smart farming practices that meet or exceed USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service practices standards. As some of the original pioneers in organic farming, Organic Valley farmers are already implementing many of these practices. However, the new program is designed to incentivize and assist them to reduce their footprint even further.

Participating member farms will receive a carbon payment equal to a set price per metric ton of carbon reduced or removed. In exchange farmers will agree to maintain the practice for a set amount of time and not participate in any external carbon markets. The resulting carbon inset will stay with the farm and with the Cooperative. All practices will have an associated monitoring, reporting, and verification plan so that practice performance can be tracked and reported over time.