Blog

The science behind agricultural carbon sequestration offers a snapshot of the constant dialogue between the atmosphere, plants, and soils.

It starts with photosynthesis—and continues in exchanges between plant roots, animals, and microbes living within the soil. Implementing regenerative practices that support soil microbial communities promotes active carbon cycling, thereby accumulating soil organic matter long term, particularly in deeper soil layers. This persistence is what ultimately allows farmers to get paid for the carbon in their soil and supporters to receive high-quality credits through Indigo’s Carbon program.

April 23, 2021

We caught up with one of the winners of the Indigo Carbon Challenge to spotlight the work being done by American Farmland Trust.

Featuring Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna
April 20, 2021

Stéphane Bancel, CEO of pioneering biotech powerhouse startup Moderna, understands the vital importance of climate. More than a year into a global pandemic brought forth by COVID-19, a brutal new virus that has triggered so much chaos and disruption, Bancel thinks the world has been primed to see how collective action can address monumental challenges. And that communities are capable of great change. Together, people can not only make do, but also make better. “I hope this crisis has opened the eyes of people that climate is a much bigger crisis, with much bigger consequences,” says Bancel. 

April 20, 2021

“Just take one of the pictures from the current Mars rover, Persistence, of a field with nothing in it. Just parched and dry. Then imagine a field of waist-high glowing green grass. That’s just how different it is,” says third-generation Arkansas farmer Adam Chappell of the transformation his fields have seen since adopting practices that embrace the ecosystems designed by Mother Nature.

By: Corey Jorgenson, Head of North American Markets
April 9, 2021

By: Geoffrey von Maltzahn, Indigo Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer & Board Director

Farmers depend on water for their business, as much as seeds, sun, and fertilizer – and it shows. Agriculture consumes 70% of the world’s freshwater an 85% of the available water in the U.S. annually. With growing demand for food running up against increasing water stress from droughts and declining groundwater resources farmers are in need more than ever of sustainable practices and inputs to reliably grow food.

Larkin Martin manages a family-farming operation in Courtland, Alabama, where she raises cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat. Her cotton is now part of a sourcing collaboration with The North Face to craft clothes with regeneratively-grown materials. The premier outdoor apparel and gear brand is not only paying for sustainable and well-made raw materials, but also ones with a clear and strong history for end customers to appreciate. When Martin, an art history major, took over the farming business from her father in 1990, she became the seventh generation to manage the land—and brought with her a discerning eye, fresh perspective, and global mindset.

A conservation biologist steering sustainability and sourcing for a luxury fashion group? You better believe Helen Crowley, Head of Sustainable Sourcing & Nature Initiatives for Kering’s 14 luxury brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga, gets some surprised reactions. In her defense, she has always loved nice shoes—even when doing field work.

P.J. Haynie is a fifth-generation row crop farmer based out of Virgina with a satellite operation in Arkansas. Winter wheat, barley, corn, and soybeans – the same crops P.J.’s family grew through his whole childhood – are in use on his completely non-irrigated peninsula on the Chesapeake Bay, while cotton peanuts, rice, and sweet potatoes grow in the Delta.

By: Kathryn Elmes, Senior Manager, Strategic Partnerships with Indigo Carbon