March 2024 ESMC Newsletter
ESMC Welcomes Samantha Kemp
We are pleased to announce Sam Kemp has joined ESMC as a new addition to our team as a Finance and HR Specialist. Sam has worked in the Finance and Human Resources field for the past seven years; six of which have been as a consultant at various for profit and non-profit companies. With a BS in Psychology, she served the employees at her previous companies by being an advocate for their well-being and for their position in the company.
Sam currently lives near Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and two children. In her spare time, she visits the coolest playgrounds (to her kid’s delight), plays boardgames with her husband, and loves to read any fantasy novel she can get her hands on.
ESMC Is Hiring for Two Positions: A Protocol and Standards Manager & Director of Business Development
If you or someone you know would like to join our team, ESMC has two positions open, and we encourage you to apply or circulate to potentially interested parties. Find more information and application details for these two positions on our website.
Look for ESMC At…..
OpenTEAM Webinar on MMRV Technologies
April 4, 11am ET, virtual
Measurement Monitoring Reporting Verification (MMRV) platforms are a cornerstone of agricultural carbon market programs. At the latest OpenTEAM webinar, ESMC team members Doug Adams (Manager, Member Engagement and Equity) and Austin Arrington (Director of Technology and Innovation) will present a live demo on how ESMC’s MMRV is used by market and research projects to store field boundaries, collect regenerative agriculture data, and generate Scope 3 Impact Units used by leading food and CPG companies. Register here.
Mitigation and Environmental Markets Conference
April 29 – May 2; Pittsburgh, PA
“The must attend” event for those involved in, seeking solutions, or exploring environmental markets — ecosystem and ecological restoration, mitigation and species banking, outcome-based approaches, carbon, water quality, biodiversity, and related markets. ESMC’s Executive Director, Debbie Reed, will attend and participate on an Agriculture & Environmental Markets panel on May 1. Learn more and register.
ESMC in the News
Emerging Carbon Programs Pay Farmers to Lower Emissions
FeedMill of the Future (March 7)
Learn about a few of the carbon programs that are available to help farmers meet their sustainability goals, lower their carbon footprint, and create a more sustainable value chain while earning money to do so. ESMC’s Eco-Harvest market program is highlighted throughout. Read the full article.
ESMC Member and Funder News
Sustainable Agriculture Gets a Push from Big Corporations
Wall Street Journal (March 22)
Farming accounts for a significant chunk of CO2 emissions. Some big businesses are offering farmers incentives to take up regenerative ag to lessen their carbon footprint and enhance biodiversity—and profits. The article highlights numerous ESMC members including Danone, Mars, McDonald’s, and Cargill. Read the full article.
Dairy’s Building a Better Environmental Tool
Hoard’s Dairyman (March 14)
The Farmers Assuring Responsible Management Environmental Stewardship Program (FARM ES) is collaborating with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy (an ESMC Founding Circle member) to integrate a new, process-based model for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting: the Ruminant Farm Systems (RuFaS) model. This rigorous, science-based (but user friendly) approach will position FARM ES as the key on-farm tool to support U.S. dairy community efforts to achieve its 2050 environmental stewardship goals, including to become GHG neutral or better. FARM ES is the U.S. dairy industry’s unified platform to track and aggregate on-farm environmental progress, with a suite of informational resources to support continuous improvement. Read the full article.
Other News of Note
Digital Regenerative Agriculture
Nature (March 26)
Intergovernmental organizations are pushing for ecological renewal with ever-increasing urgency. The trinity of Precision, Digital, and Smart (Ag 4.0) Agriculture encapsulate the tools best positioned to quantify the contributions farmscapes make towards these ends. Read the full journal article.
Dollars and Sense of Climate-Smart Agriculture
Farm Progress (March 22)
Commentary: Five leaders in Illinois agriculture and sustainability say there are ways to make sustainable practices pay off for farmers. Here’s how. Read the full article.
AI Could Help Track Farm Country’s Carbon Emissions, U Study Says
Star Tribune (March 21)
A new study from the University of Minnesota entitled, Knowledge-guided machine learning can improve carbon cycle quantification in agroecosystems, suggests a machine learning model could help solve the tricky question of where planet-warming gases are escaping from soil. Read the full article.
UN Global Climate Report: A Stark Reminder of the Urgent Need to Leverage Agrifood Solutions
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (March 19)
There is an urgent need to transform agrifood systems and leverage their climate solutions, the FAO has said in light of the findings of the latest UN State of the Global Climate Report. Read the article and download the report.
An Invisible Water Surcharge: Climate Warming Increases Crop Water Demand in the San Joaquin Valley’s Groundwater-Dependent Irrigated Agriculture
UC Merced (March 13)
University of California researchers from the USDA-funded Secure Water Future project recently found that increases in crop water demand explain half of the cumulative deficits of the agricultural water balance since 1980, exacerbating water reliance on depleting groundwater supplies and fluctuating surface water imports. Read the full article.
Fungi Are Helping Farmers Unlock the Secrets of Soil Carbon
Civil Eats (March 11)
By tapping into underground fungal networks, farmers are learning how to build lush, spongy soil that supports healthy plants and stores carbon underground. Read the full article.
The SBTi Releases New Reports to Help Accelerate Corporate Climate Action Beyond the Value Chain
SBTi (February 28)
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has released two new reports to support the design and implementation of beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM). Read the full announcement and download the reports.
Biodiversity Responses to Agricultural Practices in Cropland and Natural Habitats
Science of the Total Environment (February 27)
Largely driven by agricultural pressures, biodiversity has experienced great changes globally. Exploring biodiversity responses to agricultural practices associated with agricultural intensification can benefit biodiversity conservation in agricultural landscapes. This journal article analyzes biodiversity responses to landscape cropland coverage, cropping frequency, fertilizer and yield, among different land-use types and across geographical regions. Read the full journal article.
