Giving Compass' Take:

• Food Tank highlights The Terraton Initiative, who are working with scientific research partners and industry leaders in order to reduce carbon emissions while promoting innovation.

• How can funders help farmers and communities increase improve their agricultural practices?

• Here's how regenerative and sustainable agriculture can help. 

The Terraton Initiative embodies one specific goal—to remove 1 trillion metric tons of carbon from Earth’s atmosphere. Indigo Agriculture, an agricultural technology company based in Massachusetts, founded and runs the project. To accomplish this goal, the Initiative aims to use “the awesome potential of the soil beneath our feet to absorb one trillion tons of atmospheric carbon,” says David Perry, CEO and Director of Indigo Agriculture.

The Terraton Initiative’s strategy for removing carbon requires using the earth as a tool to trap carbon through carbon sequestration. The Initiative advocates for regenerative farming, which allows plants to store carbon in the ground, while releasing oxygen—instead of releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Perry tells Food Tank that carbon sequestration represents the “single most actionable, immediate, and affordable thing we can do to impact climate change.” According to Perry, on average farming sequesters one percent of carbon, compared to untouched land, which sequesters three to seven percent. “Regenerative practices can allow us to continue to farm the land, continue to produce food on it, but give us back the three plus percent,” says Perry.

Read the full article on The Terraton Initiative by Alex Bezahler at Food Tank.