Specialty crops often get short shrift on the mainstage of U.S. agriculture sustainability. This is partly because the sector has so many different production systems, growing regions and markets that it is difficult to have meaningful conversations about the future of regenerative farming that encapsulate all fruits and vegetables. Climate-smart standards will likely need to be focused on individual commodities that reflect the diversity of operations.

Earlier this month, Trust In Food participated in Farm Journal’s Sustainable Produce Summit in California. As you’ll discover in this week’s newsletter, the conversation quickly turned to the potential of dedicated research into climate-smart specialty crop production, consumer demands and the need for commodity groups to engage third parties to quantify sustainable practices.

Dialogue about carbon markets and ecosystem services also continues to mature. In our second featured post today, Editor Margy Eckelkamp of The Scoop illustrates how the marketplace, almost in its entirety and all at once, is reexamining strategies to engage more producers in more places. Trust In Food will have more on this topics in the weeks ahead with our upcoming carbon report—for now, you can get a preview here.

Whether your organization supports commercial growers or you actively farm, remember this month that every segment of agriculture has strengths that we all can learn from and transfer to the unique environments in which we work.

And we’ve only started seeing the incredible possibilities climate-smart agriculture could hold for some of the country’s largest segments.

Until next week, 
Nate Birt
Vice President, Trust In Food™

By Margy Eckelkamp, editor, The Scoop: More than a dozen opportunities exist for farmers to be compensated for change practices that lead to carbon sequestration or a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. While companies have big aspirations for carbon programs, they are simultaneously recognizing changes that need to be made to increase participation. Here's how simplified parameters could make programs more accessible, plus insights about farmer sentiment from Trust In Food's recent preview summary of the forthcoming report "Ag Carbon Markets and U.S. Farmers."