By Mary Anne Potts
This month, Creekside Carbon helped move $2.89 million in carbon payments into farmers’ hands—months earlier than traditional carbon markets typically allow.
Across approximately 200 farmers in 12 states, these early payments supported regenerative practices already underway in their fields, from cover cropping to reduced tillage. The resulting carbon credits are independently verified through registry-approved carbon programs, ensuring high-integrity outcomes at scale.
But the real shift is timing.
Carbon markets today weren’t built around farmers’ cash flow. In most cases, farmers wait 6–18 months to get paid—long after the work is done and the expenses are incurred. Creekside was built to change that. By moving a portion of those payments forward, we help farmers access capital when it matters most: during planting season, when dollars are going out, not coming in.
This isn’t just faster. It’s foundational to making regenerative agriculture actually work at scale.
The Reality on the Ground
Friends since graduating from Clemson, Jason Gamble and Zan Tomlinson say these payments are arriving at a pivotal moment when the present is more difficult than ever and the future is uncertain. Both returned to their roots in South Carolina in 1998 to continue multi-generational legacies. While carbon programs reward new additions to their acreage, both have been practicing regenerative techniques—like cover cropping and reduced tillage—for decades.
In New Zion, Jason manages a six-generation operation of corn, soybeans, and grain sorghum, alongside cattle and poultry. Roughly 15 miles away in Lynchburg, Zan oversees a large-scale operation with 96,000 turkeys, pigs, and cattle, while preparing to add peanuts into his rotation of corn, wheat, and soybeans.
Despite diversified operations and deep roots, the pressure is real. Diesel, fertilizer, equipment—costs are up, margins are tight, and risk sits squarely on the farmer.
“If something doesn’t change, I don’t know how we keep doing this,” Jason admits.
Zan echoes it. Even farms that look successful from the outside are operating on thin ice. “We may not even be in business after this year.”
A Shift That’s Starting to Take Hold
What’s changing isn’t just the economics—it’s the mindset.
A decade ago, practices like cover cropping were often dismissed as a cost with no return. Today, more farmers are paying attention.
“If one neighbor finds something that works, most of us are open… and you see a lot of us changing,” Zan says.
That’s how this scales. Not through mandates—but through proof, trust, and outcomes that make sense on the ground.
Carbon markets can play a role in that shift. But only if they work for farmers.
For Zan, receiving a payment earlier than the typical 6–18 month delay wasn’t just helpful—it showed up exactly when it was needed most. “We were doing it for soil health to benefit our crops, and then to be able to get that check and be able to reap some rewards from what we're doing, that's a little bonus above and beyond what we were even thinking we were doing," says Zan. "It definitely comes in at a good time here, during planting season to get that check. You've got rent going out, input, paying for corn seed and all that. So usually this time of year there's money going out, so it was certainly nice to get some money coming in....”
More Than a Transaction
For many farmers, this isn’t just about cash flow—it’s about being seen.
Jason describes the payment as a long-overdue acknowledgment. "It's an acknowledgement by corporate America, corporate America driven by the consumer, that what we are doing matters," says Jason. "A farmer is the number one environmentalist. He is the steward of the land. And I think that the regular folks don't get that about farming."
A signal that the long days, the risk, and the stewardship of the land actually matter beyond the farm gate to corporate America and consumers.
“Agriculture and the farm is the answer to our environmental problems,” he says.
For farmers like Jason and Zan, this work is about legacy as much as livelihood. It’s about leaving the land better than they found it—for their kids, their grandkids, and the generations that follow.
By moving payments forward, we’re not just improving a system—we’re helping sustain the people and places at the center of it.
Early Pay. Shared Returns.
Farmers don’t operate on carbon market timelines.
They invest upfront—seed, fuel, fertilizer, labor—months before any carbon payment arrives. Traditional systems ask them to wait 6–18 months to see that return.
We built Creekside to change that.
We move a portion of those payments forward—so farmers get paid closer to when the work actually happens.
Less waiting. More working capital. Real support when it counts.
And when additional value is created later, farmers share in that upside.
Join the Movement
Creekside Carbon exists to connect people directly to the farmers restoring our soil—and to build a market that works better for the people doing the work.
Whether you’re an investor helping scale carbon markets, or an individual starting with a $10/month subscription, your participation helps move capital to the ground faster—and keeps these multi-generational operations going.
This is real land. Real farmers. Real impact.
And it’s time we invested in it.