![]() The initiative also includes an open-source, long-term study on soil carbon, in partnership with the Soil Health Institute and the Rodale Institute, and a series of competitions with monetary awards for farmers. At the heart of the Terraton Initiative is a new market, Indigo Carbon, that will pay farmers - initially $15 to $20 per ton of carbon - to implement regenerative practices such as "no till" that reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere. Spearheaded by the ag-tech company Indigo Agriculture, the Terraton Initiative has an ambitious goal of removing 1 trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by sequestering it in agricultural soil. Soil health is Chappell’s primary focus, and with this week’s launch of the Terraton Initiative, he - and other farmers across the United States - soon might be able to tap into a market that will reward them financially for that approach. It’s actually made this job enjoyable again." "It opened a whole new way of thinking and farming. "I just dove in with both feet," he said. That success set Chappell on the path of regenerative agriculture, an approach to farming that focuses on soil health and overall resiliency through management techniques such as minimal or no tillage, crop rotation and cover cropping. The soil was easier to work, the field didn’t have standing water after rain, and his irrigation timings were half of what they used to be. Chappell immediately saw a decline in weeds, but he also noticed other benefits. So he researched organic farming and decided to test growing cereal rye as a cover crop to control weeds on a 300-acre corn field. "We were on a treadmill we just couldn’t get off of, spending ourselves into oblivion."Ĭhappell knew he needed a new approach. ![]() ![]() "That weed was singlehandedly putting us out of business," Chappell told GreenBiz. The large, aggressive weed had invaded his 8,000-acre farm in Cotton Plant, and he was spending more than $100 per acre to fight it. In 2009, Arkansas farmer Adam Chappell had a pigweed problem. ![]()
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