On August 15, 2022, Bayer announced the launch of ForGround, a farmer-first digital platform that will transform the way farms of all sizes can more easily make the transition to regenerative agricultural practices.
Bayer is still trying to cope with the negative fallout (both financial and public image-related) of their disastrous acquisition of Monsanto, the world’s hated company (for good reason), so this new program should help in that regard.
ForGround offers growers tools, resources, discounts, as well as and the potential to earn revenue through the Bayer Carbon Program7 for the adoption of regenerative practices and to connect with businesses looking to advance their climate restoration-related carbon goals.
Based on the successful foundation of the existing Bayer Carbon Program, ForGround will expand and evolve to go beyond mere carbon offsets to explore ways that farmers can make a positive impact in their operations, rather than simply reducing the negative impacts (as originally documented in The Restoration Economy back in 2002, which was the first major book to document the rise of regenerative agriculture.
The program works via the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices and technologies, and offers the potential to connect with companies to help them meet their climate goals from foot printing to value chain interventions all the way to carbon offsets.
“As a global leader in agriculture, Bayer is uniquely positioned to help drive lasting change by working directly with farmers and businesses through leveraging our global scale to reduce our impact on the planet and support farms for generations to come,” said Leo Bastos, Head of Global Commercial Ecosystems, Bayer CropScience.
“We know that better harvests and a better future start with healthy soils and investing in farmers’ success – and believe that the ForGround platform will help them make the transition to more sustainable practices – and ensure agriculture is part of the climate solution,” he added.
Through ForGround, Bayer will assist enrolled farmers to implement and manage practices that can help provide benefits to their land such as improved soil health, increased water availability, fewer inputs, increased weather resiliency, and less soil erosion, as well as the opportunity to generate incremental revenue by connecting them with programs like Bayer Carbon.
The company claims that the available benefits at launch are:
- Best-in-class practice transition support with agronomic support, evidence-based field studies & trials, curated content & events, like-minded community and trusted network of leading experts;
- Connection to potential new revenue streams for adopting these new practices (i.e., Bayer Carbon Program);
- Reduced transition cost barriers, including incentives and rewards such as a free subscription to Climate FieldView™ Plus (Climate FieldView™ is Bayer’s industry-leading digital farming app, allowing even deeper understanding of farmers’ fields).
This platform enables farmers to participate in this increasingly transparent supply chain where consumers are interested in knowing how their food is produced.
ForGround participating companies can take advantage of a suite of digital applications powered by Climate FieldView™ to define and offer incentive programs that allow them to achieve their sustainability goals.
“Our difference lies in understanding different needs, realities and adoption rates from farmers and different ways companies can create a positive impact to the environment,” says Bastos.
“ForGround is a key commercial piece of how we are working to achieve our goals of reducing our customers’ in-field carbon emissions in major agricultural markets by 30 percent and becoming carbon neutral in our own operations by 2030. Supporting regenerative agriculture goes beyond our own sustainability commitments and together with farmers and other companies we can transform value for collective impact,” concluded Bastos.
ForGround digital platform is now live and available for farmers and companies in the United States and will be globally expanded in the near future.
Photo via Pixabay.