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Benson Hill, a food tech company with its CropOS platform, is now working with CropTrak, a technology company digitally connecting global food supply chains. The collaboration allows Benson Hill to accelerate collection of agronomic data to improve product performance and farm sustainability.
Benson Hill is shaping the future of food by taking an integrated approach to the food value chain. Beginning with the seed, the company links farmers with consumer-driven food trends and markets.
CropTrak’s cloud technology helps multinational food, beverage, agriculture, and protein customers increase the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their supply chain management processes and systems. The CropTrak relationship provides the technological infrastructure to accelerate this connection and further positions Benson Hill as a leader, providing the ingredients needed to deliver more healthy and sustainable food and feed products.
“Our collaboration with CropTrak accelerates in-depth agronomic data collection from our farmer partners, increasing our ability to benchmark and provide verifiable sustainability metrics to our customers and other stakeholders,” says Jason Bull, chief technology officer of Benson Hill says. “With this technology infrastructure, we will work to strengthen our CropOS data library, continue to increase profitability for our partner farmers, and build valuable ESG metrics for our food company customers, while also enhancing transparency and traceability across the supply chain.”
The CropTrak platform increases the efficiency to geo-locate acres contracted by Benson Hill, collect soil samples, and measure protein content, and it seamlessly uploads holistic data directly from existing farm management information systems and equipment. The information is delivered to CropOS, Benson Hill’s technology platform that combines data analytics and artificial intelligence with plant biology and food science to produce crops that are optimized for taste and nutrition while maximizing agronomic performance and assisting in the assessment of sustainability impacts on the farm.
“By digitally enabling and connecting an entire supply chain management process, food companies can more seamlessly weave together the story of their product and certification to defend against dynamic markets and environmental conditions that may affect production. We’re proud to be working together and to see Benson Hill adopt the CropTrak platform in a unique way to deliver on our shared commitment of providing safe, affordable, and sustainable food,” Aaron Hutchinson, president of CropTrak says.
Through CropTrak, Benson Hill will have the capability to recommend, measure, and assess farmer conservation and regenerative agricultural practices such as reduced tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, and irrigation methods to increase soil carbon sequestration.
Through an active membership in the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC), Benson Hill is exploring opportunities to ready its farmer partners for voluntary participation in the evolving carbon market.
“Agronomic and soil data collection is critical to measure the impact and outcomes of conservation practices on the farm. Through their collaboration with ESMC, Benson Hill is positioning its farmer partners to benefit from voluntary participation in carbon and ecosystem services markets through ESMC’s national scale market program,” says Debbie Reed, ESMC executive director.