November 15, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Ranch land accounts for about 28 percent of the more than 600 million acres that make up the U.S. landmass. Unlike tropical forests that sequester most of their carbon in vegetation, grazing land ecosystems hold as much as 90 percent of its carbon in the soil, according to the paper Carbon Sequestration in Grazing Land Ecosystems authored by Maria Silveira, Ed Hanlon, Mariana Azenha, and Hiran M. da Silva with the University of Florida IFAS Extension. And because carbon stored in soil is in a more permanent state than when stored in biomass, grazing lands represent a long-term and stable way to mitigate emissions. 

The need to harness this ability has been recognized by a team from some of the world’s most iconic companies – Apple, Google, Yahoo!, and Intel – who launched Enriched Ag, a grazing and carbon insights platform with $9 million in Seed funding led by Radical Ventures and Future Ventures. 

New technologies that can improve the financial, productive, and ecological outcomes of grazing operations are in high demand. In response, Enriched Ag combines technical expertise with deep cattle industry roots to provide beef producers with the tools needed to gain greater resilience and quantify soil carbon value.

Compounding the challenges, ranchers in the U.S. have been facing drought conditions not seen for more than 1,200 years, and proper ranch management is ever more essential for not only the survival of the industry, but also as a potentially key channel through which to meet ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets. 

“There is an urgent need for ranchers to optimize their practices to address the realities of a changing climate, while at the same time organize their long-term strategic business initiatives toward resilience and future value capture,” said Ash Munshi, former Yahoo! CTO and CEO, Enriched Ag.

Enriched Ag’s Grazing Insights product provides granular ranch-level data including forage biomass, drought status, precipitation levels, vegetation health, and bare ground data in a single platform. The platform also gives producers estimated value of carbon credits developed on their ranch and insights into practices that can maximize that value.

“Our solution provides producers with practical tools that are relevant to their bottom line,” said Munshi. “Data-driven insights can improve ranchers’ decision making today while partnering with Enriched Ag to monitor, manage and monetize ecosystems creating new revenue into the future.”

Ultimately, having this tool in the hands of ranchers will enable them to unlock the environmental and socioeconomic value of grazing lands through productivity, soil health, and ranch profitability by monetizing carbon sequestration in their land.

“The problem with most of the current approaches to carbon is that producers are being offered small payments for long-term commitments,” said Billy Cook, VP of producer relations, Enriched Ag. “We are taking a different approach to ecosystem services; we want to give people the insights they need to make the best operational decisions, both today and in the future.”

At one time, grasslands covered a quarter of all of North America. Today, that area has been reduced by two-thirds, largely due to homesteaders plowing the land to plant grain, according to Joe Fargione, science director, North America, The Nature Conservancy. 

But it’s not just grasslands in North America that have been compromised by crops, urban sprawl, climate change, and unsustainable grazing. The same is true for the Pampas in South America, the savannas across Africa, and the Eurasia steppes.

In the paper Greenhouse gas mitigation potential of the world’s grazing lands: Modeling soil carbon and nitrogen fluxes of mitigation practices published in 2015, researchers concluded that grazing lands present “a potentially large mitigation opportunity”, estimating that the global potential for carbon sequestration in grazing land soils is 352 Tg CO2 yr−, given better grazing management and the sowing of legumes in pasture lands. 

“It is a global imperative that we provide ranchers with the tools they need to optimize management, build resilience, and reduce emissions,” said Parasvil Patel, partner with Radical Ventures, who is also joining the Enriched Ag board. 

“Enriched Ag is at the cutting-edge of grazing and carbon insights that unlock tomorrow’s profits through better management practices today. We are excited to invest in a company applying machine learning to transform how ranches are managed and to address the challenges of climate change.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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