Beyond Practice Change: New Technologies Can Arm Producers With Climate-Smart Innovation

Last week, USDA officially launched the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) program. As one of the tentative grantees, we’ve been tracking progress here closely.
One of the most compelling reasons for the private sector interest in the programs is that they’re poised to harness new innovation to advance the suite of options available to producers to curb GHG emissions.

We’re watching closely to see how innovation is being built into these grant programs as theory turns to reality. I touched on this theme two weeks ago at the NIAA conference. Together with ABS Global’s Ellen Lai and Field to Market’s Paul Hishmeh, we focused on some key themes, including the importance of allowing data to drive solutions that we plan to scale. We also addressed the challenge of bringing new climate-smart practices into the mainstream.

“While we look for as many solutions as possible to address the climate crisis, it’s important we don’t forget about better breeding and genetics as part of that equation,” Ellen Lai shared.

Animal genetic technologies are just one example of an array of technologies and practices that could have a meaningful impact on mitigating greenhouse gases from outside the realm of traditional conservation agriculture. Despite some of the challenges associated with trialing new practices, I hope that we’ll see grantees lean into experimentation and innovation.

As the conservation playbook expands, however, it’s critical for verifiable data to drive adoption strategies. Those strategies must include all stakeholders so emerging solutions can be tailored to each producer and each production system. Additionally, accessibility will be crucial so producers understand their options in implementing new technologies into their evolving operations.

If you’re part of a project trialing a new climate-smart approach, I’d love to hear from you, and I’ll do a roundup of what I hear in a future newsletter!

Yours in regenerative ag,
Amy Skoczlas Cole
President, Trust In Food™