The author, John Marek, is executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.

Amidst the clutter of higher-profile ads for Google, Rocket Mortgage and JEEP during the Super Bowl this past Sunday, it was easy to overlook the spot for Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold, an organic lite beer from the good folks at Budweiser. The product itself isn’t of much interest to me – I swore off mainstream brews years ago – but the “6 for 6-Pack” marketing campaign that accompanies it is fascinating indeed. 

6-for-6-Pack pledges that for every six-pack of ULTRA Pure Gold sold, Budweiser will “help transition six square feet of farmland to organic.” The fascinating part is what, exactly, they mean by “help transition.” At the time I visited their website earlier this week, the counter indicated that they had done whatever it is they are doing for 1,993,949 square feet of farmland so far, roughly 45 acres. 

According to the website, only 1 percent of American farmland is certified organic, despite a steadily increasing demand for organic products. Transitioning is difficult because the process takes 36 months without chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. During that period, the land is far less productive, but the yield cannot yet be sold as higher-value organic products.

I had to dig a little (a lot actually) to find out how the program works, but here is the gist of it. The cost of transitioning six square feet of farmland, specifically barley, from conventional to organic is calculated by an organization called Contract For Change to be 2 cents. So, Budweiser is paying a subsidy in that amount to the farmers who produce their barley and agree to transition over a three-year period.

An acre is 43,560 square feet, so a barley farmer accepting the deal would earn an extra $145 per acre over three years to compensate for lost productivity. While that may not sound like a lot of money, a conventionally farmed acre typically produces 40 to 60 bushels an acre at around $4.50 per bushel, so that acre would be expected to earn roughly $225 per crop on average. Most areas produce two crops per year. 

Looking at it another way, a bushel of barley produces about 300 bottles of beer, so the “barley cost” of a six-pack would be 9 cents, and the 2 cent subsidy is a significant investment.The ULTRA product line, in general, targets a Millennial market that as a demographic values concepts like “organic” and “change,” so this could be seen as a cynical marketing ploy by a multibillion-dollar company that finds itself competing for market share with local craft brewers. But when the numbers are examined, it certainly looks like 6 for 6-Pack is a real and substantive attempt to compensate farmers who want to transition their barley crops to a more sustainable form of agriculture.