Making Farmer-Centered Innovation Common Practice

Earlier this week, Farm Journal was named to Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies list for Trust In Food’s™ work on “cultivating a changemaking relationship with farmers” on the pathway to regenerative agriculture.  The honor is thrilling, especially as we were an outlier agricultural stalwart in a sea of ag-tech start-ups. But, it does leave me with […]

Connecting Producers to the Climate-Smart Economy with Opportunity Navigator

climate smart navigator

As I think about what to expect from this year’s Sustainable Ag Summit, I imagine there will be great celebration and excitement around the growth of conservation agriculture and investment programs — from the Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership program to new announcements from corporate giants like Walmart, General Mills and PepsiCo. Of course, all these programs ultimately […]

The Pathway To Helping Producers Do More With Data 

We’ve been talking about the opportunities and perils of producers and farm-level data management together with our colleagues at The Sustainability Consortium for quite a while. But the topic is now gaining more mainstream attention. An Aug. 22 article by Belle Lin in The Wall Street Journal asserts that the utilization of data is lower than expected a […]

How USDA Views Climate-Smart Commodities Program After Year One

How time flies when you’re…. busy working to support farmers and mitigate climate change!  It has been a full year since USDA announced the Climate-Smart Commodities Partnerships program.  Last week, I was fortunate to join USDA Secretary Thomas Vilsack at Gwenyn Hill Farm in Waukesha County, Wis., for an update on the program and the role […]

Why Local-Led Conservation Moves the Needle  

If you’ve been following us on social media, you’ll see a crush of field day activities as part of our work with America’s Conservation Ag Movement (ACAM). Our resident regenerative farmer and rancher, Jimmy Emmons, has been dotting the Corn Belt since June, and we’re eager to start our rotation of field days with our ACAM Conservation […]

Harnessing The Power of the Private Sector to Scale Climate-Smart Ag

The Trust In Food team was excited to be in Washington, D.C. this week with our partners to socialize the work of America’s Conservation Ag Movement and the importance of the private sector in helping producers engage with climate-smart solutions.  There is a collective need to scale practices and enroll new producers in climate-smart programs during the […]

Aligning Conservation Ag With What Consumers Want

Consumers are confused about what is healthy and what is sustainable, but it’s clear they are actively looking for options that make them feel like they are making responsible choices that are better for their well-being.  In an August 2022 report by NielsonIQ on alternative proteins that included meat and dairy, health and nutrition ranked as the […]

What’s the Future of Food?

I’ve just wrapped up two days participating in The Future of Food USA, led by the UK-based Innovation Forum group. It was my first time at this event, and I found it to be a fascinating mash up of leading food companies and their value chain partners with a distinctively global feel and focus on scaling […]

Tapping the Trusted Adviser Network

It has been a busy month of conferences and presentations in the world of sustainable agriculture. Last week, I had the privilege to present – in person!  – at the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers meeting. In October, I was with the Ag Retailers Association talking with their members about what Farm […]