How can those of us concerned about sustainability, climate change, and agriculture work toward the goal of becoming carbon-neutral? The start-up company Indigo Agriculture has developed a new project to use sustainable farming techniques to remove 1 trillion metric tons of carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere. The project, called the Terraton Initiative, advocates for regenerative agriculture, in which plants store carbon in the ground, instead of releasing it back into the atmosphere. This is a process called carbon sequestration, in which plants capture and store carbon in their body, and use the carbon to grow leaves, stems, and roots. Plants also release some of the carbon into the soil in the form of simple sugars. According to David Perry, CEO and director of Indigo Agriculture, carbon sequestration is the “single most actionable, immediate, and affordable thing we can do to impact climate change.”

Perry says that farming on average sequesters one percent of carbon, as opposed to untouched land, which captures between three and seven percent of carbon. But regenerative agriculture can bring farmers closer to the three to seven percent, says Perry.

The Terraton Initiative tries to bring together farmers, scientific researchers, businesses, investors, and nonprofits to achieve higher profitability, the most sustainable practices, and better consumer health.

To put together useful data, the Terraton Initiative analyzes tens of thousands of farms to correct data on carbon sequestration. It will release the data it finds to researchers and the general public in order to enable innovation.

Regenerative agriculture looks like a great way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to reduce climate change while at the same time growing food for people. On its own, this may not be enough to stop climate change, but put together with other methods for reducing CO2 emissions and removing CO2 from the atmosphere, regenerative agriculture could have a big impact on reducing carbon dioxide levels back to a point where they're manageable once again.

There are some very promising ways that sustainable farming can help combat climate change. We've researched these new developments and blog what we've learned in this post and the next. ​

Maybe you've seen the term "regenerative agriculture" around and you're wondering what it means.

According to Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Chief Science Advisor for FoodPrint, regenerative agriculture is "organic plus". Sustainable farming aims to only use the resources that are available; whereas regenerative agriculture focuses on "building health into the ecosystem," starting with increasing soil fertility, according to Rangan. Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach that focuses first on the soil, and then after the soil, it takes into consideration the health of the animals, workers, farmers, and community.

Chemical-heavy farming techniques—as well as erosion from deforestation, and climate change—are causing a loss of topsoil around the world, which is making land less fertile. The United Nations estimates that if current rates of soil degradation continue, then all the world's topsoil will be gone in 60 years, which will be catastrophic for farmers' ability to grow food for people. With that in mind, we need to stop farming in ways that deplete the soil, and instead farm in ways that renew it. Healthy soil can act as a carbon sink by pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. If implemented worldwide, regenerative agriculture practices have the ability to sequester 50 parts per million of carbon dioxide over the course of a century.

Regenerative agriculture also helps make soil more resilient against weather extremes, such as flood and drought. This is especially important as weather extremes become more likely due to climate change. Regenerative agriculture also helps promote higher nutrient density in plants, which is important considering that climate change is expected to cause plants to suffer nutrient losses.