As the premiere client of BEE, A-Frame Farm will bring the valuable building block of biodiversity to improve sustainability metrics across the board for customers, including Simple Mills and Lil Bucks
MORRISON, Ill., June 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Merge Impact, the most comprehensive data solution helping farmers and brands build ethical, sustainable, and transparent food systems, announced BEE: Biodiversity & Ecosystems Evaluation (BEE), a new solution taking another vital step toward a completely sustainable, transparent, independently verified supply chain from farmer to food brand to consumer. Through BEE, Merge Impact will work with regenerative and organic farms to measure biodiversity metrics, such as species and habitat density, and provide each farm with a biodiversity score. Using these initial results as a baseline, Merge Impact will provide tailored recommendations about how to further increase biodiversity and then continue tracking progress, ultimately connecting the farm to food brands and supply chain managers seeking ingredients, crops, and animal products with transparent, easily verifiable biodiversity impact metrics.
As the premiere client of BEE, A-Frame Farm, which supplies ingredients to top food brands such as Simple Mills and Lil Bucks, will work with Merge Impact to increase overall biodiversity. The farm already uses regenerative agriculture to cultivate a diverse range of grains on over 1000 acres of certified organic cropland, and measuring the biodiversity impact on the farm’s yearly crop rotation is key for its sustainability goals.
“The more diverse a farm ecosystem is, the better chance it has to survive,” said Luke Peterson of A-Frame Farm. “When options are limited, and an unforeseeable challenge comes up, all is lost. If you have options, you have multiple avenues for surviving when something unpredicted happens. Things like weather events, markets, disease, etc. will come and a diverse system provides the flexibility to keep the whole system afloat. Biodiversity creates opportunities, where the lack of creates scarcity.”
By embracing biodiverse agricultural practices, regenerative and organic farmers can enhance their market presence and potentially achieve profits 50% higher than conventional farmers.*
"Biodiversity is the foundation of all climate health outcomes including soil health, carbon impact, water quality and human wellbeing," explained Ben Adolph, Merge Impact co-founder and CEO. "BEE empowers farmers to make informed decisions that benefit their operations, profitability, and the environment. We provide independent, verifiable data to tell the entire story of how a crop is grown, how sustainably it is produced, and how nutritious it is. Plus, help the farmer articulate all that to food brands, supply chains, and the consumer."
Biodiversity plays a crucial role in the global economy, supporting more than half of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)** with fifty-four percent of consumers indicating that a food brand's ethical food-sourcing practices and impact on biodiversity are necessary for their product choices.*** Food brands and supply chains adopting biodiversity reporting practices enhance their ability to expand into new markets where consumers demand verifiable biodiversity-friendly products and services. Merge Impact's BEE brings transparency and traceability to food brands, ultimately enabling the consumer to make well-informed decisions having the confidence to understand the ecological ramifications of the food items they purchase.
"By cultivating biodiverse crops, we can produce healthier yields that are rich in nutrients, benefiting the environment and the consumer," said Beth Robertson-Martin, co-founder and vice president of partnership development at Merge Impact. "With the creation of BEE, food brands can leverage transparent data collection, understand the monetization potential of that data, and purchase verifiable-biodiverse crops directly from the farmer, at a fair price. BEE drives positive change throughout the food industry, fostering a more sustainable and transparent ecosystem while providing consumers with greater visibility into biodiverse-friendly products on store shelves.”
Food brands and farmers interested in learning more about Merge Impact’s Biodiversity & Ecosystems Evaluation (BEE) can visit www.mergeimpact.com.
About Merge Impact
Merge Impact uses the power of data to help farmers and brands build ethical, sustainable, and transparent food systems by providing regenerative and organic farmers with comprehensive field-level measurement and ecosystem services. The result is a radically transparent food economy that ensures all stakeholders — Earth, farmers, consumers, and brands — benefit from verified regenerative practices. With its partners, Merge Impact measures the environmental impact of crop production by monitoring almost any data point on the farm — from water to carbon to biodiversity and more. Merge Impact is an essential brand partner that connects brands with the verified data they need to reach their climate goals. Founded on the farm, Merge Impact enables and empowers farmers to measure and monetize the impacts of regenerative farming practices, with the click of a button. www.mergeimpact.com
Contact:
Molly Antos
Dadascope Communications
press@mergeimpact.com
Sources
*Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy
**Landscape context affects the sustainability of organic farming systems
***A Biodiversity Reckoning For Brands
Merge Impact and A-Frame Farm work together to bring the valuable building block of biodiversity.
Luke Peterson of A-Frame Farm is working with Merge Impact to increase the pollinator habitat of his cattle grazing areas to improve sustainability metrics across the board for A-Frame customers, including Simple Mills and Lil Bucks.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/bf968294-c680-4869-846d-6bad098230eb
