Digital Marketplace Tools to Incentivize Conservation​: Investing in Conservation Practices to Increase Food Quality, Health, and Climate Resilience

Authors: Zara Aspenson, Katrina Lang, and Christi Electris

December 2025

This three-year study, supported by a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant, was designed to provide a supply chain solution to conservation efforts by tying food products to their attributes (benefits of the conservation practices compared to conventional), and testing the market response.

Producers need to be compensated for the risks and costs of conservation transitions. There is also the need to establish markets where consumers recognize and pay for defined conservation-benefit attributes. The project’s goal was to use a pilot digital marketplace to facilitate producer-to-consumer transactions, and establish the market values of conservation practices.

The project convened farmers and market partners to develop key insights for incentivizing conservation adoption through food and farm data tested in conservation-attribute markets. It is clear that accessible data monitoring systems paired with improved market, consumer, and financial education are likely to have significant benefits for incentivizing regenerative agriculture.

This study was led by Croatan Institute, in collaboration with Nourishⁿ, Bionutrient Food Association (BFA), Merge Impact, Agriculture Capital, and MarketSquare (formerly active).