Intro  00:00

All right, our next cattle chat is brought to you by eco balanced beef. Today we have Tellan Steffan, as well as Marc Estrada to speak with you guys. So they’ll take it away for ya.

Tellan Steffan  00:14

morning, and welcome. Thank you for coming and listening. Alright, my name is Tellan Steffan, CEO of EcoBalance Global. I’m here with Marc Estrada. Marc is a technical advisor for EcoBalance. We’d like to take this opportunity to, to share with you a project that we started, we’re about two and a half years in the making. So a little bit about my background grew up western North Dakota been there most of my life. Third, going on fourth generation on the ranch. And a couple years ago about going on three years ago, we are looking around in the carbon space. And we noticed that a lot of the projects that were out there were based off of cereal grains, row crops more in the farming sector. And so two of our founders, one Bill Price, another one named Jim Arnaud, and I had a meeting and we said we should do something on the grassland side of things, to provide a incentive for ranchers to have better management practices, as well as sequester carbon and get paid for those practices that they’re doing. And so that’s where we started out, we started out as a grassroots program. We developed what we call an Eco Smart framework, you know, not only layered in the management on their hands level, but we also brought in advanced technology, satellite monitoring, Blockchain, a management platform, we’re registering credits, off grasslands, creating third party verified carbon credits, as well as carbon produce products coming off the land such as you know, beef, lamb, protein products, mainly these carbon offsets that we’re generating, were putting into the supply chain as carbon insets. So it does qualify for s BTi qualifications in the supply chain. We also have the SDG attributes and some EcoSmart additional SDG value. We started with a US based pilot project that we’ll talk about a little bit later, it was the first of its kind in US carbon credits, applying the insects to the cattle, and then having the pilot project product sale, which is beef that we’re now selling into markets into Dubai. We have an international pilot project we’ll touch on, and we’ll talk about some thought leadership that we have around the space. So we have offices in Colorado and North Dakota, and we’re developing a network of branches US and globally, we have our proprietary Eco Smart Label. To our knowledge, it’s one of the first verified carbon produced products in the world, at least on the protein side of things. We feel that we were one of the first to leverage the concept of insetting. And placing this on the blockchain. As we speak, we have a large scale proof of concept underway in the US and about to start another one in Kazakhstan. And the framework that we’ve put together provides a lot of transparency, traceability, and third party verification registered credits that turn into insets. And then premium products that are managed off chain as well.

Marc Estrada  04:12

As Tel was referring he, we’ve set up the framework to address a lot of the questions and if you were here in the previous presentation, they brought up the different value streams that you could bring in. And so our framework is is meant to do beyond just carbon, and it’s to give every farm and ranch an opportunity to optimize and get different value streams. To add to the to the insects as tell mentioned, the difference between the insects and the offsets is that the inset stays in with the product in the supply chain. But along with the insects, and the rigor it takes to get the carbon offsets certified. There’s water potential credits, there’s forage credits, there’s forestry credits, so there’s different credits that are part of our framework. It requires technology. So the satellite imagery is important the databases. And one of the things that sets us apart at this point, which we think will be integrated, even from a legal perspective is the blockchain because the blockchain, they, the term they use is immutable, meaning it can’t be changed, it’s transparent. And so what we’re doing is we’re creating records on the blockchain that will also have a digital twin. And this stretches the mind, the keynote speaker talked about the future of the farming industry and ag industry in general. Well, this this will stretch it is we’re going to be building on the blockchain, we’ll have digital twins. And this is just a kind of a fun example of an NFT, a non fungible token that can be transferred with the carbon or with the protein products, to make it more interactive, make it more bring gamification into it. So you’re bringing multiple sectors into a sustainable beef product or sustainable protein, along with the different attributes. Next slide. And this is meant to show those attributes. So if you look at it, the world is used forestry as a major project to fight climate change is getting carbon credits for forestry and for preventing forests, or deforestation. What we’re showing here is when you look at what the ag industry has, from a soil perspective, it brings so many other attributes and value streams potential compared to the trees, or the last category is called direct air capture, which is equipment that’s put in that sucks carbon from the air. And it’s it’s extremely valuable. But when you really compare it to what the ag industry can provide, in as a global value, one of them being food security at the very top of it. Next slide till it ties into the what the United Nations has put together. So those value streams that we showed that go beyond what the forest can provide or other technologies, you can add what’s called the SDG, sustainable development goals. And each of those ties to a different aspect of what the agriculture industry could bring through sustainable management of land. Next slide. This is a complex slide, I realize the point of the slide is to show at each stage of the supply chain, where their different values and different certifications can be brought in to the process. And this, this shows you the equal balance framework in action. So you start the cow calf, and you can see the different green boxes below it. What those are showing is, is what are the potential certificates, certified values you could bring in, and what SDG what United Nations SDG aligns with that particular value stream that would come in from from rotational grazing or from sustainable growth or cover crops are different, different things the agriculture industry can bring for sustainability, then you get to the finisher. And the finish in the feed contributes to that. You have things that the finishers that they themselves can do for fuel sources and energy source. And it goes on to primary processor and that that place it’s a key spot, because that’s where we insert the beef, or the protein, whatever the protein product is, meaning that we take the carbon that was generated at the cow calf operation, or at the at the feed level, retire it and put it into the beef itself. So that way when it goes to the distributor and into the ultimate retailer, it’s considered a sustainable product. And so that Eco Smart Label that you see at each endpoint is when it’s it’s certified on the blockchain, and by a third party verifier. And then it can be given that stamp.

Tellan Steffan  09:05

So going back to the pilot project that I had mentioned earlier, these are all the partners that were involved in making this happen. Starting out at the open Angus ranch in North Dakota, that was the site of the first carbon credits that we generated, and then it goes all the way through the system. These are where some of those entities landed. So you got open at the cow calf level. We generated the carbon credits, we did that by taking soil measurements. We got our baseline data’s and in the meantime, the registry called beet carbon issued us interim credits on that land. We had to demonstrate our grazing practices that we’re using and put into place a 10 year soil non disturbance contract basically meaning that the operator will not disturb that soil for 10 years through, you know, farming or plowing or any methods that which, you know, as most of us know, their range lands across the US a lot of it’s still in range land because it’s not suitable for farming anyway. The cattle that came off of that ranch went to Missouri River feeders, they were backgrounded there as well as finished there. The the cattle on the POC will be harvested in the next 30 days. So those credits will be retired and inset into those animals. From there, they’re going to primary processor, best beef and Postville, Iowa, they’re going to do the processing for us. And then from there, these cattle are going to be shipped out to Dubai through hope, hope or May, they’re the distributor. And hope has agreement in place with solutions Leisure Group to go into 22 restaurants across Dubai, United Arab Emirates. And then they’re opening up a couple of restaurants in Las Vegas later this year. And looking at another set of restaurants in Asia. The beginning of December, we were in Dubai at cop 28. We signed a MoU with Kaz beef, Kaz beef is substantially bigger, but they agreed to do a pilot project on 100,000 acres and cause extend on grazing land. Artech is a company over there that will be our boots on the ground, performing soil tests, data collection, data management, kind of eyes on the operation a little bit just have second or third party verification that, you know, the practices that we agree to are actually in place. We’ll be starting that later in 2024. Or conclusion, you know, we’re looking at this space as kind of a global thought leadership. This is gonna take a lot of entities, you know, the whole climate circle, so to speak it, you know, this is agriculture can be a key part of it. But it’s not the only part. You know, there’s many areas that adjustments need to be made, changes need to be made improvements need to be made. But we feel that EcoBalance provides the a community with the key data to verify the ability to nationally and global scale carbon removal and storage in the supply chain. The sale of EcoSmart protein and the issuance of carbon credits will confirm the myriad of benefits that exceed other methodologies such as forestry and direct air capture. And the sale of the protein and other related products at premiums demonstrates higher incomes for farmers and ranchers producing these products. So with that, are there any questions?

Question 1  13:23

Thank you for the presentation. I guess. For me, I’m just a little confused. Are you are you the the the mechanism for your for tracking the data and then the entity has to find a third party verifier along the supply chain, I mean, my understanding that right?

Tellan Steffan  13:47

Close. So eco balance is providing the complete framework for the whole process. So if a rancher comes to us they want to sign up for the program will line up the soil testing for them will line up third party verifiers that they can work with. But then all of the data tracking all the data management that all comes into our our system, and we track that from start to finish on our system. And then we have third party verifiers looking at that saying okay, yes, indeed you did this. You did that. Mark, do you have a better explanation of that?

Marc Estrada  14:32

I think you summarized that. Well, the additional thing I’d add is we also put it up on the blockchain. So that way, not only is it a third party verification, but it’s also transparent.

Question 2  14:50

So are you only tracking this on the blockchain or is the blockchain how you’re paying out as well? Or?

Marc Estrada  14:59

That’s a great question. Just like that one, at this point, it’s not the the payments aren’t going to be made on the blockchain yet. That’s the dream that it would be, you could do crypto exchange. But at this point, it’s just for tracking and for the NF T’s, so we can do the digital twins of ranches, or animals or whatever, whatever you would want you’d put on the blockchain along with the carbon credits. But theoretically, you could also do the transaction using crypto.

Question 3  15:31

Thank you. Is everything carbon based? Or is there? Is it more holistic than just carbon capture?

Marc Estrada  15:39

That’s, that’s also a great question. And we can’t go back to the slide. But we had a slide where it lists all the different additional value add streams, you know, and so as we can get, as the methodologies developed further, so right now, the methodology, the main methodologies for carbon capture, but there’s water credits, there’s forge credits, there’s all sorts of different credits that the registries will start developing over time.

Question 3  16:08

Sorry, I should have been more specific, just on the follow up its co2 equivalents, or just co2, co2.

Question 4  16:22

Thanks for the presentation. So the farmers want to get a revenue out of the carbon payments, or any other things associated with it.

Tellan Steffan  16:31

So right now, if you followed the carbon markets at all, they really nosedived. You know, last summer, we were looking at, you know, $1 $1.50 on nature based credits, the forestry credits on some projects that were not maybe managed properly or completed properly, really had an effect on the market. So what we’re looking at is because of the low value in the carbon offset itself, if we insert these credits into the beef chain, where the farmers and ranchers are gonna get paid the premium is on the sale of the beef and driving that premium through a, I don’t want to say the word climate smart product. But I think that’s one that everybody recognizes through the sale of that premium product, and then that premium on that beef will be paid back to their answer. And that’s how we’re going to drive. And that’s how we are driving the premiums right now, just due to the lack of value in the carbon markets themselves.

Marc Estrada  17:37

Oh, add to that tell that on the shipping labels that we’re doing to better Galway to the retailer. For example, in our POC case, the restaurant owners will have the the the QR code. So the consumer of the product could go to the QR code and do what we’re calling cow tipping, so they can tip back all the way to the rancher. So the blockchain will hold the entire process. And it may not go specific to a rancher, if the rancher wants to stay private, it won’t go it’ll go to a pool of ranchers and then distributed to the different ranchers.

Question 5  18:11

A follow up question on that was, you know, implementing those practices and are cheap, right? So do you guys helping them? Or what what’s the upfront cost? Or just wait till you know, the the revenue has materialized and then pay them?

Tellan Steffan  18:29

It’s a good question. It’s kind of a combination of both. Most branches have enough infrastructure setup where if you can vary your grazing management to that most people have things set up that we can start with. The other part of it is this is a really immature market. You know, it’s, we feel like one of the one of the first out there that have went as far as we have with it. And so, you know, from our standpoint, looking at places that you know, do have adequate infrastructure, they don’t need, you know, huge improvements to make things happen off the start. Till we can get this develop further till we can fully understand where the premiums are at. I feel like from there, we’ll be able to branch out on what we’re able to provide in terms of whether it’s upfront payments to help with some of that infrastructure or just a more sure backside to where, you know, when we’re in Dubai, there was a lot of discussion around banks financing these projects. And, and so, you know, I think there’s part of that, too, that as things change as things get further along. It’ll evolve into more opportunities and more options.

Question 6  19:50

Are there any other questions about financial asset coverage? Is that something that’s part of the plan, natural asset cut? My

Tellan Steffan  20:01

natural asset companies. So I have heard about him. I know very little about him. I’ve read a little bit, but I don’t know enough to answer your question.

Wrap Up  20:18

All right, any other questions? Perfect. Well, thank you, gentlemen, for spending your time speaking for us. As well as thank you to eco balance beef for putting on this cattle chat. So everybody, let’s give them a round of applause for their time.