ESMC, Benson Hill partner to support Midwest farmers participation in Agricultural Carbon Markets

In Missouri, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, a non-profit member-based organization launching a national scale ecosystem service market program for agriculture, and Benson Hill, Inc., a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, completed the first year of a carbon credit pilot leveraging Benson Hill’s farm to ingredient business model.

Over 2021, ESMC executed several successful projects with soy and corn farmers across the Midwest to generate carbon credits and earn payments for reduced greenhouse gases and increased soil carbon as an outcome of their on-farm practice changes. The project with Benson Hill is particularly unique because of the organization’s closed loop business model, giving Benson Hill the capability to leverage its data aggregation from the farm through ingredient manufacturing, and streamlines the carbon credit generation process within ESMC’s program.

Debbie Reed, ESMC Executive Director, noted, “Our digitized program enables seamless enrollment and participation for farmers. The innovative model we are testing with Benson Hill allows us to develop farmer support from seed to harvest, and it enables rapid aggregation and utilization of robust data sets. This type of integrated partnership and infrastructure is critical to scale a long-term viable market that meets buyer and seller needs equally.”