Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) made the first purchase of verified carbon credits in the livestock carbon insetting marketplace from Athian.

Texas dairy farmer Jasper DeVos utilized Athian’s first accepted protocol to generate carbon credits by reducing enteric methane and improving feed utilization through use of an innovative feed management product and quantification tool from Elanco Animal Health, resulting in nearly 1,150 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reduction.

"DFA is proud to lead the way as the first U.S. dairy cooperative to establish a science-based target (SBT) with the goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain by 30% by 2030," the cooperative stated in a news release. "As part of an industry-wide collaboration on environmental sustainability through the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, DFA is a key contributor to the dairy industry’s commitment to become greenhouse gas neutral or better by 2050."

This new marketplace creates a scalable opportunity for farmers to earn money for their sustainability efforts while accelerating tangible impact on emissions reduction when it’s needed. Dairy farmers of all sizes now have the opportunity to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, quantify and validate their reductions and sell the resulting credits in Athian’s livestock carbon insetting marketplace, DFA stated.

"Dairy farmers raise their families and their herds on the same land. They have always been the true stewards of the land, the air and water and, as a result, have been consistently reducing their carbon footprint, year in and year out, decade after decade. However, the necessary systems have not been in place to quantify their tremendous environmental progress in a manner that would compensate for the ongoing investments they have made over generations. The marketplace can now finally allow farmers to realize financial benefits from their initiatives,” said Dennis Rodenbaugh, president and CEO, DFA. “We’re gratified to see this science-based, third-party verified and validated system coming to life with the Athian platform and that dairy farmers are among the first to prove it works. The dairy industry has been positioned to rapidly advance progress. By working within the value chain on an insetting approach with the companies we work with every day, and now farmers can directly benefit.” 

“It’s exciting to see the full value chain come together to accelerate climate progress,” said Paul Myer, CEO of Athian. “Athian’s carbon credit marketplace is different than the traditional offsetting carbon marketplaces because it keeps the value inside of the animal protein value chain and allows each participant to gain unique value from the transaction. The farmer is able to create a new revenue stream, the food companies who have had challenges meeting their Scope 3 emissions reductions are able to make significant progress and ultimately, we’re able to mark progress against aggressive global goals.”