Bluesource Announces Regenerative Agriculture Program with $5M Initial Fund

Premiering program to bring 320,000 acres of farmland into Regen Ag practices, mitigating over 500,000 metric tons of CO₂ annually. 

Salt Lake City, UT: Building upon over twenty years of experience in environmental services and carbon finance markets, Bluesource is announcing a new regenerative agriculture program that provides the agricultural industry with opportunities to gain value from carbon reduction and sequestration practices. This program is an answer to the significant and sizable need for climate action in the sector.   

The Bluesource Regenerative Agriculture Program is now underway through two collaborating partnerships on an initial 320,000 acres of U.S. farmland. A $5 million investment by Green Star Royalties, subsidiary of Star Royalties Ltd (TSXV: STRR, OTCQX: STRFF), finances Bluesource’s ability to provide upfront payments to farmers enrolling in the CarbonNOW® carbon farming program developed by Locus Agricultural Solutions (Locus AG). Bluesource will be verifying sequestered soil carbon and marketing the associated carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market. It is estimated that this initial project will mitigate over 500,000 metric tons of CO2e per year. Bluesource is currently pre-marketing credits to interested buyers.   

It is estimated that 95% of cropland across the United States could be eligible to participate in carbon programs, providing immediate benefits to soil health and production as well as for the climate. Despite this statistic, few currently employ climate-oriented practices. This program and its initial fund provide opportunities to incentivize sustainable farming methods that have failed to take root across the country due to the barriers associated with practice changes, awareness, and market maturity. Bluesource provides services for the management of offset development, marketing, and sales to provide growers and other entities in the agricultural supply chain with the pathway to monetize carbon from regenerative ag practices. Unlike other programs that only pay farmers after the carbon credits are issued and sold, this program is paying CarbonNOW farmers up front annually as well as providing a share in the revenue from carbon credit sales over time. We believe this will lead to greater initial acceptance and permanence for the commitment to practice changes.   

“The potential for climate action in the agricultural sector is significant and critical to enact if we are to achieve necessary global emissions reductions,” stated Jamie MacKinnon, Bluesource Executive Vice President. “The power and capacity for change resides with small and large-scale farms alike, but the level of complexity, costs, and mechanisms required to get involved have all presented formidable barriers until now. We are proud to announce our first partners in this endeavor, Green Star Royalties and Locus AG, as we leverage our carbon market experience to bring more farms onboard. This is working capital, working today to address the climate crisis before us.”  

The science of soil carbon is rapidly maturing, and over the last two years, Bluesource has leveraged its unparalleled experience in development of large-scale offset aggregations and bio-sequestration projects to be able to develop and manage projects that meet the highest standards for GHG quantification.  

Regenerative Agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. The purpose of regenerative agriculture is to promote soil health and to rebuild organic matter. The associated greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and sequestration offer opportunities to provide financial incentives to undertake regenerative practices, as well as generate other benefits related to improving water management, reducing nitrogen-based fertilizers and increasing biodiversity.  

“Surveys have found that less than 5% of U.S. farmers participate in carbon farming programs, with one of the biggest hesitations being carbon credit payouts,” said Chad Pawlak, CEO of Locus AG. “Green Star Royalties’ and Bluesource alleviate this hesitation by enabling farmers in our CarbonNOW program to receive immediate upfront payments and guaranteed annual minimums, while generating premium carbon credits.”  

Alex Pernin, Chief Executive Officer of Star Royalties, commented: “We are thrilled to have established a long-term partnership with such a high-quality carbon offset developer. Bluesource has developed carbon credits representing more than 150 million metric tons of CO2e emissions removed from or avoided being released into the atmosphere, and they have a further goal of reducing 500 million metric tons by 2025. Our teams are jointly passionate about financing a greener future. We view the application of Star’s royalty investment model as an innovative solution to financing the transition of U.S. farmers to regenerative agriculture, and in turn, to originating premium carbon offset credits. We are again first movers in a novel and highly scalable business model and look forward to significantly larger project development across the North American farming industry.”