A more extensive version of this was originally published on Elemental’s blog, as part of an interview ahead of our recruitment for Cohort 11. Below are the areas in food, agriculture, and nature-based solutions I believe are ripe for innovation in 2022.
Food & Agriculture
I’m excited to fund solutions that build a more climate-resilient food system and help farmers transition to regenerative practices that restore land, promote biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve economic livelihoods. It’s expensive for individual farmers to make this switch — and there is a $700b gap needed to transition the US’s agricultural system to regenerative — so we need to find ways to decrease the “green premium” and increase revenues for those who adopt sustainable systems. At the same time, we need to scale new food technologies that can ensure greater food security. In particular, we’re looking to fund the following solutions (though this list is certainly not exhaustive):
Sustainable inputs: Synthetic fertilizer, which is created using fossil fuels and releases powerful nitrous oxide (NO2) into the atmosphere, accounts for 20% of all agricultural emissions, and 2.4% of global GHGs. Not to mention a litany of water quality and ecosystem issues caused by leaching. We need to replace synthetic fertilizers (while matching yields and price) with sustainable inputs, such as biologicals, biochar, manure, and other types of soil amendments.
On-farm automation: Agriculture is facing steep labor shortages, low wages, and increasingly harsh working conditions as extreme heat intensifies on the fields. While it’s important to keep in mind challenges to automation technology around job elimination, robotics that help with manual labor like carrying bushels and weeding can support the tasks of many farmworkers, enabling better working conditions and higher productivity. The potential result is higher wages in a more equitable working environment.
Measurement, reporting, and verification: To financially reward farmers for enhancing their soil through regenerative practices, we need to help them measure, report, and verify (MRV) the increased soil organic matter, insect and aviary biodiversity, nutrient density, and other indicative metrics of healthy soil. This allows farmers to become eligible for more favorable loans, get compensated through carbon credits, and even better, receive certifications that enable pricing premiums and increased sales.
Biodiverse crops: Just four crops provide 60% of the world’s calories. Impacts on any one can have disastrous implications for global food security, which is increasingly likely due to rising heat and drought. We need to build greater climate resilience (and disincentivize deforestation) by creating demand for diverse, low impact, and regeneratively-produced ingredients.
Alternative proteins: New methods of producing proteins are a critical piece of the climate resilience equation. One third of crop land in the U.S. is dedicated to feeding livestock, while only a fifth is used for domestic food consumption. That’s extremely inefficient, and land use changes to grow soy and other feed crops contribute significantly to global warming (along with direct livestock emissions). As global demand for meat and dairy grows, we need to support emerging, scalable methods for producing proteins, including fermentation and other plant-based techniques.
Nature-based solutions
Despite uncertainties around measurement, permanence, and greenwashing concerns, nature-based solutions and the co-benefits they provide are essential to our livelihoods and need to be valued accordingly. As we lose forests, coral reefs, wetlands, and healthy soils, we release carbon into the atmosphere and become more exposed to climate-induced hazards, particularly in frontline island communities like Hawai’i. Nature-based solutions like kelp, forests, and soil can protect biodiversity, provide healthy food and clean water, improve coastal and inland resilience to natural disasters, and hold important cultural significance. We need solutions that help sequester carbon and enhance ecosystems.
Created by and with indigenous communities: As the original stewards of land, indigenous people know how interconnected natural systems are. At the same time, they are often disproportionately affected by global warming and other unintended consequences from our extractive tendencies. I’m especially interested in solutions that are designed and deployed collectively with indigenous people, tribal organizations, and other frontline communities.
Land and ocean-based carbon dioxide removal: Each year the ocean sequesters ~9 GT CO2e, while soils, forests, and vegetation take in another 12 GT CO2e. We need to both protect these natural carbon sinks from releasing more carbon, and enhance their ability to remove and store additional carbon. Nature-based techniques, which can and should be supplemented with emerging technologies, include enhanced weathering, ocean alkalinity enhancement, kelp and blue carbon protection, regenerative agriculture, biochar, reforestation, and more.
Innovative conservation business models: Nearly 75% of nature-based solutions rely partially on grant funding, and almost half are entirely dependent on it. We need to funnel more capital into conservation and biodiversity initiatives, particularly through self-sufficient business models. Revenue from carbon credits offer one pathway, but businesses that have additional and/or alternative revenue streams and clear ecosystem benefits are particularly exciting.