ADM Requiring Farmer Data to Satisfy Upcoming EU Demands
Dr. Chad Lee, chad.lee@uky.edu
One of our county agents was contacted by a farmer asking about new requirements from ADM on soybeans being sold at ADM Silver Grove location in the fall of 2024. That county agent contacted me. With help from the Kentucky Soybean Board, I was able to set up a meeting with three people from ADM who are working with the European Union to deliver these certified soybeans. The following is what I gleaned from that meeting.
The European Union (EU) will be requiring “deforestation-free” soybeans, and they will require traceability to the field.
The EU set the requirement for December 2024, meaning that the 2024 crop will need to be documented.
Farmers will need to create an account with Farmers Business Network (FBN). The FBN account is free of charge to the farmer. The farmer can choose to participate in other FBN programs if the farmer wishes.
Farmers need enroll in “ADM re:source” via the FBN website or FBN app.
ADM is partnering with FBN for some of their carbon market programs as well.
Farmers need to send field boundaries to FBN. (Again, the EU will require traceability of the soybeans to each field.)
FBN will look at satellite imagery to confirm that the field was not forested before December 31, 2020.
The EU is defining a forested area bigger than 1.24 acres (with some other parameters) being removed counts as deforested for that field. The ADM people and I discussed fence rows being removed. If they were over 1.24 acres, then they probably count as being deforested. The FBN people working on this project and can provide definitive answers.
The geo-references to fields will not be linked to farmer names when the data is submitted to the EU. But, both FBN and ADM will have that data.
Most of the ADM sites in the program are the sites close to the rivers to make tracing easier.
The Silver Grove site (and possibly some other Kentucky sites) will only accept deforestation-free soybeans. So, while a farmer has a choice as to where to sell soybeans, if they want to sell to Silver Grove (or some of the other locations), they will have to enroll with the deforestation-free program and provide the required data.
The people at ADM said that anyone selling soybeans into the EU will have to have similar documentation. ADM is trying to directly account for those acres with this program. The people at ADM said that Bunge and Cargill will need to develop similar programs if they want to sell soybeans to the EU. ADM is not aware of how Bunge and Cargill will set up their programs.
ADM is offering "up to" a $0.20/bushel premium if farmers join the program by May 1, 2024. If farmers join after that date, ADM is offering up to a $0.15/bushel premium.
Final enrollment date is June 1, 2024 and field boundaries for the entire operation need to be submitted no later than July 15, 2024. This ADM Deforestation-free Frequently Asked Questions website has a good outline of the key points. After my meeting, I went to this site to double-check my notes: https://admadvantage.com/adm-resource-questions/
Please, go to this website and read through the Frequently Asked Questions. My notes above do not cover every question you may have. This website will get you closer to all of those questions.
This is a new era for farmers in Kentucky. The EU is demanding traceability. ADM is interpreting that as needing geo-referenced field boundaries on every acre. To sell soybeans at certain ADM locations, farmers will need to submit their farm data to FBN and ADM and that data will be anonymized and shared with the EU.
Farmers have been sharing their data for years with USDA FSA, John Deere, Case IH, private soil testing labs, Pioneer, DeKalb, and others. In some cases, they have paid the companies to share their data with them. But this is the first time of which I am aware that farmers are sharing their data with grain buyers, including companies and foreign governments. I doubt this will be the last. As you all hear and learn about these programs, please reach out to me.