Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) is a non-profit, public-private-partnership, working with farmers and ranchers, food and beverage companies, agribusinesses and conservation and environmental organizations across the agricultural supply chain and value chain to build an innovative, science-based, standards-based market system to radically increase the adoption of regenerative soil management and improved environmental outcomes at scale. Rather than building the market alone, ESMC conceived and designed a market to overcome past market challenges and obstacles, and then created a public-private partnership to collaboratively, and in a pre-competitive space, build out and test the market prior to launch.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

ESMC‚ unique and innovative market approach provides multiple points of entry for all types and sizes of agricultural producers. However, agricultural producers across the country are overwhelmingly white and male. According to recent USDA statistics, a little over 1% of farmers and ranchers are Black, and about 5% are Native American. One of ESMC‚ key imperatives in 2020 was establishing a Working Group on Inclusion and Racial Justice to identify and remove barriers to equality, equity, inclusion, and racial justice encountered by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers and ranchers. 

This ESMC Working Group seeks to achieve measurable changes as it relates to ESMC‚ market program, our partnerships, and the broader agricultural sector. We are stronger, more credible, and more effective when our work includes individuals with backgrounds, cultures, and lived experiences that reflect the richness of human diversity. This commitment is both a moral imperative consistent with an intellectual community that celebrates individual differences, perspectives, and diversity, as well as a matter of law. 

We are committed to making racial justice, equality, equity, inclusion, a celebration of Pride, and diversity a central part of our focus, our work, our communications, and our conversations. We understand that this requires consistent and sustained effort, and we know and acknowledge that we have not been doing enough to achieve real change. The Working Group has developed several milestones for assessing progress towards real change through ESMC‚ work, both in the short term and beyond. These draft milestones continue to be refined, and currently include: 

1. Increase BIPOC Producer Participation in ESMC‚ Market by including at least one BIPOC-focused 2021 ESMC pilot, located in an approved ESMC protocol region. 

2. Broaden BIPOC producer access to financing, which impedes the ability and financial bandwidth to grow and operate their businesses, by ensuring ecosystem service assets generated in a BIPOC-focused pilot have an identified buyer who is willing to pay a premium payment for these BIPOC-produced assets and developing a program to support the upfront costs of agricultural conservation practice implementation for participating BIPOC producers. 

3. Increase BIPOC representation in ESMC‚ membership and decision-making by Identifying and recommending 2 additional ESMC Founding Circle members from BIPOC-led or serving organizations to serve as voting members. Recommend the recruitment and service of 4 BIPOC producers on the ESMC Producer Circle, which is responsible for providing direct feedback to the ESMC market development (protocols, pilots, and asset certification) to ensure the program meets the needs of BIPOC farmers and ranchers. 

4. Ensure equitable ESMC outreach efforts to BIPOC producers, candidates, vendors, partners, and stakeholders. 
At present, these milestones are unfunded and ESMC is looking for program funding to further develop and sustain this work.

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