Regenerative Agriculture — Part 2

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.