Moonshot is on a mission to change our broken food system and give you the option to choose climate-friendly foods that are good for you and the earth. We know that you want to do your part in the fight against climate change, from the food on your plate to simple lifestyle changes. We do, too!
Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to turn it into a solution. Agriculture accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, but regenerative agriculture provides a wonderful way to put carbon in the ground and help tackle climate change. At Moonshot, we source from climate-friendly farmers using these regenerative practices that, at scale, can sequester carbon (read on to find out how they work their magic)!
We (and hopefully you!) are voting with our dollars and showing that we care about regenerative and climate-friendly agriculture by sourcing ingredients this way. We’re talking to farmers and producers in the food system and sharing what we hear. We’re working with them to transform our food system - please dive in and join the climate-friendly food movement with us.
The Magic of Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is a way of practicing agriculture that regenerates and restores ecosystems - essentially putting more back into the system than is being taken. Regenerative farmers cultivate diverse crops and other life forms to balance nutrient and pest cycles and protect soils. One of the most exciting aspects of regenerative agriculture is the potential to sequester carbon and help reverse global warming.
As you probably know, plants take carbon dioxide out of the air and transform it into plant matter. If that plant matter is returned to the soil, with the help of healthy soil microbes, it becomes soil organic matter, thus sequestering carbon. That same, healthy soil absorbs more water, making the land more resilient to droughts and floods. The soil also has the benefit of hosting billions of microorganisms that support higher nutrient levels in food. A lot of the practices that help store carbon in the soil also increase soil fertility and reduce the chemical inputs required for farming - which means farmers can thrive while doing good for earth.
Growing food this way is not new - in fact, it’s quite old - but regenerative agriculture is a recent term that has emerged to describe this philosophy of cultivating a healthier ecosystem than you started with. Deeply regenerative systems require strong knowledge on how to cultivate a healthy ecosystem in a particular location. Indigenous peoples around the world have been practicing regenerative agriculture for centuries, and our modern concepts for regenerative practices have come from their deep understanding of place and species interdependence.
If it sounds like we’re excited about regenerative agriculture, it’s because we are! And you should be, too!
Regenerative agriculture is win-win across the board: it benefits farmers, the people who eat their food (you!), and the planet and ecosystems on which we all depend. Because Moonshot is purchasing from farmers who use these practices, we are rewarding farmers for climate-friendly and regenerative agriculture, increasing demand for these practices and renewing and restoring our planet.
Our Food System Today
Modern industrial farming focuses on producing the greatest amount of food in the least amount of time and at the lowest cost possible. Most land is planted with just one or two crops year after year. That’s just not good for the planet!
This monocrop method has been widely used for decades and has been optimized for efficiency with chemical inputs and infrastructure. However, growing the same thing year after year depletes the soil, and the lack of diversity makes crops more susceptible to insects and weeds. Farmers use tillage (turning over and breaking up soil) and chemical applications (herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers) to overcome these problems, but these practices present serious long-lasting complications.
But isn’t tilling good for the soil?
Tilling disturbs the microbes in the soil that sequester carbon and make nutrients available for plants. It also makes soil erode more easily, washing all the carbon and other nutrients into our waterways, causing greenhouse gas emissions and toxic growth.
Don’t chemicals help protect plants?
Sure, herbicides, pesticides and fungicides kill organisms that harm crops. But they also kill other life and create a negative cycle of using chemicals to fix the problems that other chemicals create.
Why is food grown this way?
It’s complicated. There is a whole system, built over decades, supporting the major US crops of corn, soy, and wheat. These crops are produced in huge quantities and used in food, as animal feed, and as energy sources. Large companies like Monsanto sell the seeds, fertilizer, and chemicals that farmers use to grow these crops and then buy what farmers produce. Financial markets, government policy, research dollars, storage, logistics, and manufacturing are all focused on producing a small set of crops at enormous scale.
Supporting Regenerative Farmers
Farmers who choose to grow food in a diverse, regenerative system are today’s pioneers. Some might even call them regenerative rebels. They must manage the complexities of many different crops, find buyers for their crops outside of the current commodity market, and get the crops to their buyers. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort - for both people and planet.
Across the US, farmers have successfully adopted regenerative practices. However, the structure of our food system means they don’t necessarily get rewarded for doing so. They might sell their product at the same price to the same corporate buyer as everyone else in their area. Their food gets mixed in with other farmers’ food, and as eaters, we don’t know how the food we’re eating is grown.
Here at Moonshot, we support regenerative farmers’ better growing practices by purchasing their food at a price that reflects this high quality. So you can purchase confidently, knowing that you’re helping support these farmers who are quite literally going against the grain.
Between 2020-2050, regenerative agriculture could sequester CO2 equivalents by ~18 billion tons. That’s the same as taking 118 million cars off the road each year!
Climate-Friendly Agriculture
You may have noticed that we mention both “regenerative agriculture” and “climate-friendly agriculture.” So what’s the difference? As we said before, we’re on the road to regenerative systems, which are definitely climate-friendly and can sequester carbon in the soil. That said, there are also lots of climate-friendly growing practices that aren’t sequestering carbon in the soil. These other practices, like reducing fuel use or minimizing nitrogen fertilizers, help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, which is also a critical part of tackling climate change. In the fight for a healthier planet, every little bit counts - including your support for climate-friendly farming.
Between 2020-2050, regenerative agriculture could sequester CO2 equivalents by ~18 billion tons. That’s the same as taking 118 million cars off the road each year!
Climate-friendly agriculture could sequester CO2 equivalents by ~9 billion tons. That’s the same as taking 59 million cars off the road each year!
When Farmers Win, We All Win
TLDR - The benefits of regenerative agriculture are remarkable: it puts more back into the ecosystem than it takes, makes more resilient crops, helps us capture more carbon from the air, and makes our food more nutrient-dense.
Moonshot works directly with farmers who are using regenerative agriculture practices and are just as committed to being as climate-friendly as we are. We know exactly how and where our wheat is grown. We know the story of the land and the love that’s poured into the food that’s grown on it. By going straight to the source, we reward farmers for their hard work, and you get to choose climate-friendly snacks.
That choice supports healthier soil, healthier food, healthier people, and a healthier planet. Join us in the climate-friendly food movement!
