Bayer, Bushel & AWS launch carbon measurement tool for US farmers

Bayer and grain-marketing startup Bushel have teamed up with Amazon‘s Web Services (AWS) to launch Project Carbonview – a data-based carbon measurement tool aimed at helping farmers to better assess and report the carbon footprint of their produce across the supply chain.

Built on AWS, the opt-in program uses Bayer’s Climate FieldView app to collate data taken from the farm alongside logistics and transportation data skimmed from close to 54,000 users of Bushel’s grain-trading software platform in order to determine the carbon impact of end products.

For its pilot phase, Project Carbonview is focused on “creating awareness and acceptance for low-carbon fuel markets,” the companies said in a statement. As such, it will initially be working with farmers in the US who are growing corn for ethanol production. The new tool will assist these growers “from planting through production” to become more sustainable farmers by “providing the data needed to make more informed purchasing decisions and reduce their carbon emissions.”

Project Carbonview is Bayer’s latest farmer-facing initiative pushing for more climate-smart practices in the US.Eventually, the partners plan to expand the offering to other countries and other crops, including other “feed grains, food grains, and oilseeds such as soybeans.”

Initially, eligible US farmers can opt into the Project Carbonview program and be compensated for participating. The longer-term goal is to compensate growers based on their implementation of sustainable farming practices and to enable more farmers to gain access to the financial gains created by carbon markets.

Food systems from farm to fork produce almost a third of total global emissions, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. However, in the US as in other countries, more work must be done to incentivize farmers when it comes to adopting practices that can mitigate those emissions, from planting through production. That includes better tools for carbon measurement.

Project Carbonview will be piloting with US corn producers in 2022 and has plans to expand to other regions and feed grains like oilseeds and soybeans in the future.

“While FieldView helps farmers make more informed decisions on their own operations, Project Carbonview will make it possible for them to drive sustainability improvements across the entire value chain,” Leo Bastos, global commercial ecosystems lead, Bayer Crop Science, said in a statement.

“The integration of our leading digital and data science under Project Carbonview will give farmers greater choice and resources to be compensated for more productive and sustainable decisions on-farm.”