Farmers align with value chain to address land use change, protect natural resources

ST. LOUIS — A new Land Use Change Initiative is leading efforts to resolve inconsistencies in definitions, metrics and methodologies for quantifying land use change.

Funded by the United Soybean Board in partnership with Carbon A List, this multi-stakeholder initiative seeks to unite every step of the value chain in developing a unified solution to these challenges.

Farmers play an essential role in protecting our land’s natural resources through sustainable farming and conservation planning.

“Farmers have often been left out of conversations regarding land use change and its collective impact on agriculture. We weren’t at the table, so we had to build our own table through this land use change initiative,” said Steve Reinhard, USB chair and Ohio farmer who presented keynote remarks at LUCI’s recent Land Use Change Summit.

“North American agriculture and the half-million soybean farmers who represent 90 million acres can have a huge impact on climate solutions. Progress is a priority on our farm — not only when it comes to conservation, but improving land management.

“For example, the grids for monitoring our fields started at 5 acres, then dropped to 2.5 acres, and now we’re seeing it down to the acre and even half-acre to make input adjustments for soil health and crop productivity.”

LUCI started two years ago to proactively drive collaboration and advance sound science. The goal aims to achieve a better understanding of land use change that’s more representative of today’s farming practices, the role of grasslands in the agricultural system and ensuring system resilience.

Examples of farmers’ commitment to land use change and sustainable farming include:

• Through LUCI, convening key players across the agriculture, environmental science, corporate sustainability, academia and government sectors to coordinate land use calculations that preserve farmland and native and natural ecosystems.

• Spearheading Farmers for Soil Health in collaboration with the corn and pork commodity groups, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, to provide a cost share and technical assistance to farmers in 20 states aiming to double cover crop acres to 30 million acres by 2030.

• Investing in research to enhance seed genetics that can withstand drought and flooding, in addition to using genomics to accelerate the development of new soybean varieties, improving soybean protein and amino acid composition.

• Researching and educating farmers on new biological products for pest management, fertilizer and fungicides.

• Investing in communications and science translation to reach farmers and stakeholders across the value chain.

“Land use change is evolutionary, not revolutionary. Farmers are trying our best to do what we think is right for our land. And change is not always going to happen overnight, so please be patient with us. Look at the farmer as your partner and bring us along the way,” said Nancy Kavazanjian, USB director and Wisconsin farmer.

“Not only are we losing grasslands, we’re losing productive farmland to urbanization and acres being converted to warehouses, residential developments and wind and solar farms.”

“Right now, it is difficult to compete with our worldwide competitors on production alone. A consistent land use change model would make for a more even playing field, giving U.S. products the advantage we need to gain market share in an environmentally friendly marketplace,” said David Wessel, USB director and Illinois farmer.

LUCI recently hosted its inaugural in-person Land Use Change Summit at McDonald’s International Headquarters in Chicago, sponsored by USB, McDonald’s, Carbon A List and Fulton Market Group.

Gathering nearly 100 experts across the food and agriculture value chain, the summit set out to accomplish three goals: find common ground, set a strategic course and prepare to engage.

Several presentations, panels, breakouts and remarks from Robert Bonnie, U.S. Department of Agriculture under secretary for farm production and conservation, grounded this group on the task at hand.

LUCI participants narrowed consensus on definitions, consolidated data sources, increased the accuracy of land use change estimation and chartered next steps for a path forward.