{"id":1059,"date":"2019-08-15T14:57:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T18:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2021-02-05T11:08:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T16:08:34","slug":"august-2019-esmc-monthly-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/august-2019-esmc-monthly-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"August 2019 ESMC Monthly Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Ecosystem Services Market Consortium <\/strong>Monthly<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Newsletter – August, 2019\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Our Mission<\/strong>: To advance ecosystem service markets that incentivize farmers and ranchers to improve soil health systems that benefit society.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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ESMC News<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
ESMC Celebrates\u00a0Member Kick-off Meeting<\/strong>
\nThis week we are excited to announce the successful launch of ESMC LLC\u2019s member-based collaborative. A huge thank you to ADM, one of our Founding Circle members, for hosting this seminal event at their office in downtown Chicago. The meeting signaled the official launch of activities as ESMC LLC, and our continued drive towards a 2022 national ecosystem services market for the agricultural sector. \u00a0Thanks also to all of our Founding Circle and Legacy Partner members for your participation and energy as we both surveyed the work ahead of us and began organizing our working groups and working streams.The meeting allowed us to begin assessing not just the current landscape in which we are operating, but also to further align our mutual and shared value propositions that are driving our collaboration and will enable us to share and benefit from the products of our collective work. The ability to improve soil health and additional environmental attributes associated with improved management of working and conservation agricultural lands is a shared value and goal of our membership based collaborative. The continued adaptation and refinement of ESMC\u2019s science-based, standards-based protocols to quantify, report and verify improved environmental outcomes at scale is a central component of our work flow. The protocols establish the requirements to generate ecosystem service assets and credits from enhanced agricultural practices and activities.<\/p>\n

Our collective investments will align critical work streams through working groups to support testing and refinement of the protocols and the technologies that will enable a technologically-advanced market to flourish at scale. The market will both recognize and reward farmers and ranchers who improve soil carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase water quality and water use efficiency outcomes in a transparent, documented, science-based and outcomes based approach. It will also meet the needs of companies and entities across the agricultural supply chain to quantify the impacts of their activities to improve agricultural ecosystem services impacts.<\/p>\n

A huge thank you to all our members who participated in this important event. We left the meeting energized and excited about the work ahead of us, and confident that the path we are walking together is the path to success: for us, for our collective stakeholders, for farmers and ranchers, and for society.<\/p>\n

We look forward to the next big steps in our journey.<\/p>\n

With regards,
\nThe ESMC Team<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Membership Update<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
ESMC Expands with Nine New Members!<\/strong>
\nESMC members include private and public sector partners along with NGO\u2019s who are creating a voluntary, market-based effort to provide ecosystem service payments to U.S. farmers and ranchers for their results in improving ecosystem services that provide widespread environmental benefits.\u00a0 While ESMC\u2019s initial focus is soil carbon sequestration and improved water quality and quantity, the Consortium intends to expand over time to include additional environmental and ecosystem service attributes from working agricultural lands.\u00a0\u00a0ESMC\u2019s top priority is building a marketplace that works first and foremost for farmers and ranchers. ESMC seeks to enroll 30 percent of available land in the top four crop regions and top four pasture regions to impact 250 million acres by 2030 and 560 million acres by 2050.New ESMC Founding Circle members include Corteva Agriscience and Land O\u2019Lakes. New Legacy Partner members include: Anuvia Plant Nutrients; Farm Foundation, NFP; Impact Ag Partners; National Corn Growers Association; Pivot Bio; Sand County Foundation; and Tri-Societies.<\/p>\n

ESMCs new members join the following current ESMC Founding Circle members ADM; Bunge; Cargill; Danone North America; General Mills; Indigo Agriculture; McDonald\u2019s USA; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; Noble Research Institute, LLC; Nutrien; The Nature Conservancy; and, Soil Health Institute. \u00a0ESMC Legacy Partners include: American Farmland Trust; Bayer; Mars, Inc.; National Association of Conservation Districts; National Farmers Union; Soil Health Partnership; The Fertilizer Institute; Tatanka Resources; and Tyson Foods. Partners pledge financial support and active participation to improve ways to measure, verify and monetize increases in soil carbon, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, improved water quality and increased water conservation. ESMC welcomes companies, nonprofit and conservation organizations and agricultural organizations as partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Partner Updates<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
CDFA Announces Stakeholder Engagement Opportunity for the Healthy Soils Program<\/strong>
\nThe California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has scheduled a public meeting on August 23, 2019 to hear from stakeholders and the public about the Healthy Soils Program. CDFA encourages farmers, ranchers, technical assistance providers, agricultural associations, university and state university partners, commodity groups, agricultural support service organizations, and other agricultural stakeholders–including the members of the public–to engage in this opportunity for dialog about the program itself and approaches for outreach and engagement.The meeting will cover several important topics, including feedback on developing partnerships, information sharing and engagement with socially disadvantaged farmers, conservation practices, and program recommendations. Workshops to gather feedback on new changes for the next release of the Healthy Soils Program Request for Proposals will be held in September.<\/p>\n

The meeting will be held on Friday, August 23, from 9:00 am \u2013 12:00 pm at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Main Auditorium, 1220 N Street, Sacramento.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> to register to attend remotely.<\/p>\n

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Cargill announces commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its North American beef supply chain<\/strong>
\nGlobal demand for protein is rising rapidly, challenging farmers, ranchers and agribusiness to feed a growing population while protecting the planet. Across the food and agriculture industry, there is a pressing need to do more with less impact. To help address this need, Cargill is launching BeefUp Sustainability, an initiative committed to achieving a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity reduction across its North American beef supply chain by 2030. Read more here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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NRCS CIG Update: Final Report from Mountains-to-Bay (M2B) Grazing Alliance\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThe\u00a0Mountains-to-Bay (M2B) Grazing Alliance shared the final report from their multi-state USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant focused on promoting rotational grazing in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and quantifying the environmental benefits.\u00a0 In addition, they received a recent National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant to build on, and expand, their\u00a0partnership, and launched a web page<\/a> that provides details on the M2B Grazing Alliance (e.g., partners and steering committee members) as well as resources about grazing, including this report and another that provides more details on their assessment of the environmental benefits.<\/p>\n

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CDFA Accepting Applications for Climate Smart Ag Technical Assistance Funding\u00a0<\/strong>
\nThe California Department of Food and Agriculture is now accepting applications for 2019 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technical Assistance Funding.\u00a0\u00a0Eligible organizations may request up to $120,000 to provide technical assistance to applicants and awardees of the 2019 Alternative Manure Management Program and the 2019 Healthy Soils Program. A description of the technical assistance program and links to the application materials can be found here<\/a>. Applications are due August 30, 2019 at 5 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n

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California Air Resources Board (CARB) Workshops<\/strong>
\nCarbon Neutrality: Scenarios for Deep Decarbonization<\/u>: CARB staff will host a public workshop on August 15th on scenarios for achieving deep decarbonization of California\u2019s economy and to discuss implications for meeting California\u2019s carbon neutrality goals. The workshop will consist of a moderated panel discussion that brings together experts who have constructed economy-wide, deep decarbonization scenarios and will address key aspects of these scenarios that lead to economic transformations needed to achieve carbon neutrality goals.<\/p>\n

Social Cost of Carbon and Affordability<\/u>: CARB staff will host a public workshop on August 16th related to the social cost of carbon and the considerations for affordability in meeting California\u2019s carbon neutrality goals. The workshop will consist of a moderated panel discussion that brings together experts who continue to evaluate the social cost of carbon estimates or assess affordability considerations as part of deep decarbonization.<\/p>\n

More information on both workshops is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Conservation in Action on the August 20-21 Tour in Iowa<\/strong>
\nThe Conservation at the Leading Edge<\/em> tour will include a packed program of farm visits, facility tours and informative presentations in central Iowa on August 20-21. Highlights will include prairie strips, cover crop interseeding, corn stover harvest, a sprayer training simulator, bioreactors and drainage water management. The tour is expected to draw more than 200 farmers, crop consultants, conservation specialists, scientists, agribusiness leaders, policy makers and non-profit organization staffers from across the country. That creates an outstanding networking opportunity in addition to the chance to explore real-world conservation practices up close. ESMC will share highlights in our next newsletter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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News Updates<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
From WBCSD.com<\/em>: Reducing the environmental footprint of the agriculture and food system to stop it exceeding planetary boundaries<\/strong>
\nDespite the fact we need food to survive, the agriculture and food sectors can seem at odds with an increasing global drive for sustainability.<\/a> They impact on several planetary sustainability boundaries, the most concerning of which include nitrogen and phosphorous flows, loss of biodiversity, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
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From UN Intergovernmental Panel:<\/em> Climate Change report released<\/strong>
\nA\u00a0new UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report<\/a> released today shows that we should really be thinking about farms and ranches as platforms for climate solutions.<\/p>\n

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From BeefCentral.com:<\/em> Pay dirt: world first project paves way for soil carbon payments<\/strong>
\nEarlier this year Victorian cattle producers Niels and Marja Olsen achieved<\/a> a world first by earning income for capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil on their property. The company behind the soil carbon project says Australia has all the necessary elements to drive a strong soil carbon market in future.\u00a0 It is an exciting prospect for livestock producers, particularly those in more productive, higher rainfall areas, because it creates a genuine opportunity to earn additional income for practices that not only improve the health of land and reduce longer term emissions, but potentially also increase the productivity of their enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Ecosystem Services Market Consortium Monthly\u00a0Newsletter – August, 2019\u00a0 Our Mission: To advance ecosystem service markets that incentivize farmers and ranchers to improve soil health systems that benefit society. ESMC News ESMC Celebrates\u00a0Member Kick-off Meeting This week we are excited to announce the successful launch of ESMC LLC\u2019s member-based collaborative. A huge thank you to ADM, one of our Founding Circle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1059"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1059\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clients.dotgov.com\/esmc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}