Firm Launches Plan to Cut One Trillion Tons of CO2 From Atmosphere

(Solutions from the Land) A company that says it is "dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet," announced last month the launch of The Terraton Initiative™, a project designed to accelerate carbon sequestration at an unprecedented scale.

Among the steps cited by Indigo are regenerative farming practices - management techniques that sequester carbon, while restoring soil health and resiliency - which the company notes are currently implemented by a small percentage of growers. Minimal tillage, cover cropping, crop rotations and perennial cropping, among other practices, increase soil's carbon content, water permeability and water retention, the company notes. The practices also increase a crop's ability to withstand drought and flooding.

"If implemented on the 3.6 billion acres of farmland across the globe, regenerative farming practices, combined with increased scientific understanding and new technologies, have the potential to return the carbon levels in agricultural soils from an average of ~1 percent back to ~3 percent," Indigo says. "This shift is enough to account for the sequestration of one trillion tons of carbon dioxide."

To catalyze The Terraton Initiative, Indigo is creating Indigo Carbon™, a market providing growers with the financial incentive to implement regenerative farming practices and remove carbon from the atmosphere. In partnership with the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) and other organizations, Indigo will use its digital agronomy capabilities and satellite imagery analysis to measure and verify soil carbon sequestration and on-farm emission levels.

Growers who join Indigo Carbon within the first twelve months are eligible to receive a minimum of $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide sequestered. The market price will ultimately be set by supply and demand, but at $15-$20 per metric ton, Indigo Carbon says it offers the most economical price to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while providing substantial incentives to farmers.

Partnering initially with the Soil Health Institute, The Rodale Institute, and a network of grower partners, Indigo is launching The Terraton Experiment, the world's largest atmospheric carbon sequestration experiment. The goal of the experiment, which will include tens of thousands of farms followed for a decade or more, is to quantify farming practices that maximize soil carbon sequestration and understand the impact of these practices on farm profitability and crop nutrition.

Officials say the results of the experiment will form the blueprint for maximizing soil carbon sequestration. Indigo says it will make the data from the study available to other research institutions.

Additionally, Indigo is launching The Terraton Challenge, calling on innovators and entrepreneurs to develop technologies for maximizing soil carbon sequestration rates, improving soil carbon measurements, and reducing the need for chemical and fertilizer inputs. Winning innovations will be awarded $1M contracts by Indigo. READ MORE

Excerpt from the FERN Food and Environment Reporting Network: In early March, just a week before the Midwest was inundated by catastrophic flooding, a dozen farmers gathered at the First Presbyterian Church in Grinnell, Iowa, for an event billed as a conversation about “Faith, Farmers, and Climate Action.” “How is God calling you to use your farm to improve the world?” asked the evening’s facilitator, Matt Russell. “We’ve got this narrowing window of time in which we can act,” he said. “When we think about climate action—are you feeling any call to that?”

Russell directs the Iowa branch of Interfaith Power and Light, a nonprofit that promotes a religious response to global warming. A fifth-generation farmer who runs a livestock operation with his husband in nearby Lacona, Iowa, the 48-year-old nearly became a Catholic priest in his twenties but then got a degree in rural sociology. Now he preaches that America’s farmers—a demographic seen as religious and conservative—are a secret weapon in the climate fight.

As TV crews and pundits descend on Iowa for the 2020 caucus season, Russell’s goal is to round up a 100-strong squad of farmers who are willing to speak publicly about agriculture as a climate solution.

The alternative approach, which includes growing crops that absorb more carbon and planting without tilling the soil, is sometimes referred to as “carbon farming.” In the United States, where agriculture accounts for about one-tenth of greenhouse gas emissions, these adaptations could, in the best-case scenario, offset all agricultural emissions. One analysis of these techniques found that they can sequester nearly a ton of carbon per 10 acres annually—the equivalent of taking one car off the road for 70 days. Even more carbon could be stored if farmers planted more trees and permanent vegetation. Many growers already embrace these techniques, in part because they enrich the soil. “We’re all in the carbon reduction business,” a large man in suspenders said during the workshop.

Farmers and environmentalists have found common ground in the burgeoning soil health movement. By championing farming practices that could boost fertility, reduce costs, and increase yields (not to mention stem erosion and water pollution and make crops more resilient during extreme weather), the effort might be a win-win for everyone.

A few prominent Iowa conservatives are already getting their hands dirty. When Ray Gaesser, a no-till farmer, ran for Iowa secretary of agriculture last year, he told reporters that he did not believe human activity was responsible for all climate change. But after attending an Interfaith Power and Light meeting earlier this year, he pledged to help Russell. When I met him in his tidy white equipment shed outside Corning, Iowa, he told me he believed it was time for farmers to claim the “leadership mantle” in mitigating climate change, in part because farmers “are also sequestering carbon, but nobody’s giving them credit.”

“What is missing, in your experience, from getting farmers to be more leaders on engaging with the problem?” Russell asked the crowd at the church. “Financial reward,” blurted out the farmer in suspenders, to nods and grunts of agreement.

Studies have found that converting to no-till farming and cover crops could potentially pay for itself in the long run, but the initial investment is difficult when commodity crop prices hover near the cost of production. The Department of Agriculture offers several incentives for improving soil health, but they have yet to be widely adopted. In February, a consortium of food and agriculture giants, including General Mills and McDonald’s, announced plans to create a private-sector carbon market dedicated wholly to agriculture by 2022. READ MORE