This summer, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, issued its sixth and most grave warning yet — a “code red” — on how bad the climate emergency could get if we don’t intervene immediately. While the jury is still out on how to rapidly draw down emissions in certain sectors, some solutions are crystal-clear, such as the power of the soil beneath our feet to sequester carbon dioxide — the most abundant human-generated greenhouse gas.

The burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation are the largest contributors to climate change, but agriculture-as-usual contributes a sizable slice of the pie as well, to the tune of ten percent of greenhouse gases annually in the United States.

Luckily, the shift to climate-smart farming and ranching is all the rage and brimming with possibility. Widespread adoption of sustainable practices — such as planting cover crops like squash to protect soil and ceasing to till the land — could halve agricultural emissions by […]