MEDIA RELEASE: As the Australian environmental market is set to be worth $24 billion by 2030, farmers across the country are joining forces to gain greater access.*
More than 80 farmers, conservationists and landcarers behind Regen Farmers Mutual have designed an Australian first approach that radically changes the existing model of brokerage for environmental goods and services.
The farmer-owned mutual is calling on other farmers to join them as they launch their foundational product – the Environmental Farm Assessment, which tells farmers their opportunity across all carbon, biodiversity and conservation markets
Regen Farmers Mutual reduces transaction costs and delivers the scale needed to enable farmers to aggregate their market power and better engage in Environmental Goods & Services (EG&S) markets.
The shared ownership of the infrastructure also enables greater efficiencies in training, execution and compliance, and broadens the types of transactions and the value captured from data and provenance.
Andrew Ward from Regen Farmers Mutual says it is a one in a lifetime opportunity to avoid dysfunction and is launching at a time when many farmers feel they are lacking the scale needed to capture more value and negotiate the best possible deal.
“We will deliver negotiation power by bringing farmers together and enabling them to retain more value from transactions.”
“With the Carbon Market Institute estimating the environmental market will be worth $24 billion – we know some aren’t always acting with the right motivations.”
“Resulting in a market where transaction costs are punitive, income is unequally shared and self-interest hides behind complexity. And, if you look at the history of water markets and the regulated carbon offset markets, there is good reason for farmers to be reluctant about these coming changes.”
“A farmer-owned broker and wholly aligned with its farmer-owners,Regen Farmers Mutual’s unique value offering sees 80 cents in the dollar of EG&S ending up in the farmer’s pocket, compared to the current offering of 50 cents ending up in the farmer’s pocket,” says Ward.
“Our model has been developed by farmers for farmers with 10 cents going to shared ownership of infrastructure, training and education for the group and the remaining 10 cents going to Regen Farmers Mutual for technology, negotiation and the measurements that are required.”
“It is farmers that collectively manage the biodiversity and carbon sinks upon which all Australians depend on when meeting any national target. We also know all Australians, whether they are in the country or city, want to provide a safe and protected habitat for our wildlife, especially after the devastating bushfires in 2019/20”
“Farmers are critical to the market and can’t be left without power. They need to know the value of their environmental assets, like native habitat and native animals.”
“We assist farmers across five phases of an EG&S transaction, including engagement, definition, marketing, execution and delivery.
“The more farmers that ultimately join as members, the stronger Regen Farmers Mutual’s negotiating power will be. Combined, the members of the mutual have the ability to shape markets in their favour for once. It will also create a mechanism to attract private sector capital to invest in credible and appropriately structured transactions.”
“Together, farmers can have the size and influence required to negotiate a better outcome.
While collaborating to share risk and resources, secure lower cost inputs and market their production more effectively.”
Ward says Regen Farmers Mutual’s Environmental Farm Assessment offering is a simple way for farmers to get involved and every farmer that joins strengthens the ability of the Regen Farmers Mutual to deliver the best outcomes for Australian farmers.
“It has the ability to tell farmers their opportunity across all carbon, biodiversity and conservation markets. By creating a ‘digital twin’ of their farm and obtaining an indicative assessment of its environmental value viewed through a range of metrics, farmers can then model different environmental actions and the way these would impact their operations and income. They can also see if they qualify for member rebates and become a co-owner of the Regen Farmer Mutual.”
“Empowering farmers to capture the ‘green’ credentials of their farm and enabling them to transact, manage environmental market contracts and clearly demonstrate the green provenance of their produce,” says Ward.
There’s no cost or commitment to join the waitlist now. To get join click through here.
*https://carbonmarketinstitute.org/app/uploads/2021/06/2020-Strategy-Paper_final.pdf