First 30×30: Indigenous Nations Lead the Way
In the United States, small-scale farmers account for 90% of all farms but manage less than 50% of total farmland. This imbalance is becoming more acute as small farmers face mounting challenges: the average age of these farmers exceeds 60, the costs of agricultural inputs continue to rise, and large-scale farms benefit from economies of scale. Compounding these difficulties, small farms are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events, droughts, and changing growing seasons—factors that disrupt crop yields and livestock production. These pressures are driving younger generations away from farming, threatening the backbone of the nation’s agricultural network.
For companies seeking to build resilient, ethical, and climate-smart supply chains, this program offers a scalable and strategic solution. Through partnering with farmers through the program, businesses can ensure a reliable supply of high-quality agricultural products while supporting the long-term viability of smallholder farms.
Growing American Farmer Prosperity Program: How we’re Reinventing Supply Chain Resilience through Regenerative Smallholder Farming
In the United States, small-scale farmers account for 90% of all farms but manage less than 50% of total farmland. This imbalance is becoming more acute as small farmers face mounting challenges: the average age of these farmers exceeds 60, the costs of agricultural inputs continue to rise, and large-scale farms benefit from economies of scale. Compounding these difficulties, small farms are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events, droughts, and changing growing seasons—factors that disrupt crop yields and livestock production. These pressures are driving younger generations away from farming, threatening the backbone of the nation’s agricultural network.
For companies seeking to build resilient, ethical, and climate-smart supply chains, this program offers a scalable and strategic solution. Through partnering with farmers through the program, businesses can ensure a reliable supply of high-quality agricultural products while supporting the long-term viability of smallholder farms.
Scaling Regenerative Agriculture For BIPOC Farmers
Nature For Justice’s Farmer Inclusion team is passionately committed to advancing regenerative agriculture, a transformative approach that not only fosters healthier soils but also minimizes input costs and enhances the resilience of farming systems against extreme and erratic weather conditions, as well as the broader impacts of climate change. Our strategy is grounded in a comprehensive multi-step approach that emphasizes co-creation and shared risk among farmers. We anticipate that scaling our initiatives will rely heavily on private sector investors recognizing the immense value of our bridge financing model, which effectively reduces both financial and ecological risks while ensuring competitive returns. This model ultimately aims to lessen our dependence on continual philanthropic support.
To date, in North Carolina, we have successfully engaged over 125 farmers who manage more than 7,000 acres dedicated to regenerative agriculture. This milestone has been achieved through the disbursement of over $1 million to these farmers, with an additional $2.5 million forecasted for distribution by 2025. We are also preparing to expand our initiatives into Virginia, with ambitious plans to extend our positive impact throughout the Southeast and Midwest.
A 3-Part Framework for Benefit Permanence
By Nicci Mander and Hank Cauley Climate-impacted communities can harness nature to build resilience and enhance well-being alongside contributing to global climate mitigation objectives. This use of nature-based solutions to advance social justice lies at the heart of Nature For Justice’s (N4J) global mission. But for external stakeholders supporting such endeavours–foundations, companies, and investors–what ensures […]
A Summer Internship Experience at Beverly Bowens Farm
By Briggs Oldham This summer, three North Carolina State University students participated in Nature For Justice’s pilot internship – Regenerative Farming with BIPOC Farmers. For ten weeks, they learned about how climate-smart, regenerative, and sustainable practices manifest on livestock and produce farms. Through tailored workshops, farm and market tours, and interactions with agricultural specialists, these […]
Insights from a Co-Creation Process
Cyril Lombard and Madumezulu Silinda (Biotrade Ventures) tell us about their recent project partnership with Nature For Justice in the beautiful Limpopo region, Southern Africa: For the proposed project we will be collaborating with community-based organizations that supervise the farmers responsible for planting. These farmers are classified as “emerging farmers,” who operate on a scale […]
Safeguards: The Importance of Robust Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) For Climate Justice
Nature For Justice (N4J) has expanded its offerings in pursuit of climate justice for frontline communities to include specialized training programs that encompass in-depth Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) training, mentoring, and support services for carbon offset project developers and implementers. A robust FPIC is a prerequisite and a key component of ethical carbon […]
Reflections on Terra Global Capital’s “Best Practices for Delivering a Just Transition through NbS Climate Finance”
Terra Global Capital’s paper Best Practices for Delivering a Just Transition through NbS Climate Finance describes the historical origins of the “Just Transition” and how, especially since COP28, Just Transition is being interpreted and applied to our global actions. Terra Global Capital asserts that while there is an impetus for the Private Sector to invest […]
The Nature-based Solution Ecosystem
The nature-based solution ecosystem for generating carbon credits is currently unbalanced and needs fixing. Investments to align various parts of the ecosystem, such as donor support for registries like Verra and addressing supply issues through the Core Carbon Principles developed by the ICVCM, follow a theory of change that assumes the market will self-correct to […]
Origination: The Importance of Designing Beyond Carbon
Bring the Focus Back to the People When creating a Nature-based Solution project, carbon should not be the first priority, but the last. That means a project must provide benefits for the communities involved, first and foremost, to enhance financial stability, improve quality of life, and promote dignity. Without those, forget about permanence. By restoring, […]
Carbon Investors: A Development Paradigm Optimizes Success
In the realm of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) carbon projects, I’m still relatively green, having only started my journey in 2016. While I’ve successfully led and grown teams in implementing high-quality and globally-recognized carbon projects, particularly in Africa, this experience pales in comparison to my decades-long engagement across various sectors including renewable energy, human rights, democracy […]
Getting to “Shovel Ready” A Field Trip to Tanzania
This blog described a field visit by Nature for Justice’s Khulile Lamula to the project site led by Lima in Tanzania. It is an important part of the co-creation and FPIC documentation process as noted in our recent blog on What’s Needed for More Shovel Ready Carbon Projects. Pilot Project: Lima Kwanza Ltd, Tanzania This […]
