FAQ | Reseed

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General

Carbon markets are an internationally agreed upon way to bring carbon emissions into the marketplace. Carbon credits represent projects that reduce emissions or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, such as preserving forests, building wind and solar farms, or capturing methane gas. In general, one carbon credit represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide that has been removed from the atmosphere. To a purchaser it represents permission to emit that same amount of carbon. A global carbon market emerged in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty that established carbon credits as a way for countries to offset their emissions to reach limits set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Carbon markets should be a fire hose for directing money where it’s genuinely needed in the climate crisis. Yet over the last few decades the Carbon Markets have failed to live up to their potential.

According to The Carbon Underground “There is no solution to climate change that does not include drawing down legacy carbon from the atmosphere… There is no mechanism with the scale, ability, and immediacy to draw adequate amounts of carbon back down to mitigate climate change other than the restoration of soil and shift to regenerative agriculture.”

And yet, when agriculture is mentioned in the context of climate change it is often more as a cause of emissions than as a potential solution, such as in the case of global forest loss where 80% of forest has been cleared for agriculture. (Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00854-3) Agriculture is also the emission category classified by the UNFCCC as involving the most people at over 1 billion people presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for mass, scalable mobilization.

Yet when we look at existing carbon market solutions, we see agriculture being grossly underrepresented. Agriculture-related emissions offsetting projects account for just over 1% of all carbon credits issued, with only transportation-related projects issuing less, according to data from the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project. (Source: https://agfundernews.com/carbon-credits-just-one-percent-from-agriculture)

This can only happen by rethinking how we are using carbon credits. Instead of seeing them as a way to wash away climate “sins,” we should focus on the outcomes we are trying to achieve. That’s because different outcomes need different incentives.

These give rise to three different forms of carbon credit. We call them reduction credits, protection credits, and removal credits. Many projects still represent these interchangeably, as generic “offsets.” But only by differentiating them based on their distinct outcomes can we effectively steer carbon-market resources in the right direction.

ReSeed’s solution is powerful in its simplicity, concreteness, and ability to scale globally while bringing real, quantifiable benefits in the fight for climate change mitigation. ReSeed starts with stored carbon that is measurable in the present, and creates an entire new asset class and marketplace.

Protection credits recognize the protection of existing carbon stocks that farmers manage. They include forests and soils and are intricately linked to the regenerative farming communities themselves. They reward regenerative farmers for the work they are already doing in protecting the world against climate change, and assist them with capital to increase their carbon sequestration. Protection credits also provide immediate financing to help smallholder farmers to stay on their lands and reverse the loss of smallholder farms worldwide.

Unlike some other classes of credits, removal credits are a pure carbon emissions neutralization tool. If I emit a metric ton and pay you to remove a ton, that gets me to zero—because what goes up comes down. While many mechanical removal credits currently cost north of $300 a metric ton, ReSeed works with nature to support existing natural processes which already draw down carbon from the atmosphere at a global scale by partnering with nature and helping those groups who are especially well positioned to support and increase these processes, i.e. the world’s 2 billion small holder farmers.

The world’s 2 billion smallholder farmers have the potential to manage billions of tons of carbon assets every day through their use of regenerative techniques, soil care efforts, protection of native vegetation, and the use of cover crops, among many other practices. ReSeed recognizes the existing management work of these farmers and helps them quantify, verify, and transform these previously ignored carbon stocks into financial assets (ReSeed Carbon Protection Credits) which provide extra income to help smallholder farmers stay on their land while incentivizing them to increase their carbon stocks under management (ReSeed Carbon Removal credits). This not only prevents these carbon stocks from being transformed into carbon emissions, it also supports and incentivizes them to draw down legacy carbon from the atmosphere.

ReSeed Carbon Removal Credits are among the most valuable and verifiable carbon offset credits in the world, as they guarantee that additional carbon is actually removed from the atmosphere. In this way they provide continual incentives for permanence and ensure that carbon stocks are retained over time. Protection credits represent one of the most tangible ecosystem services provided to humans and our planet, and is currently one of the only viable onramps for billions of farmers to participate in the carbon markets that will pay them to both protect AND to remove carbon. By giving smallholders the financial means to stay on their lands they also avoid the loss of extensive carbon stocks and in this way contribute to stabilizing global climate change.

The Reseed standard is composed of four core values which do the following:

Promote the recognition, quantification, remuneration and replication of existing positive actions by qualified ecosystem managers that ensure the protection and expansion of existing carbon stocks under management.
Defines “Additionality” as developing the incentives to both being able to scale positive carbon management actions globally to achieve a mass movement as well as increasing the drawdown of legacy carbon by existing participants either by intensifying existing practices and/or introducing new technologies/practices.
Transparency – ReSeed’s blockchain technology guarantees full transparency along the entire data chain from the source of the carbon to the purchasers and final destination of the ReSeed Carbon Credit tokens.
Timeliness and Permanence -The issuance of carbon credits happens only upon the verification of past concrete positive impact on a predefined and timely basis.

In addition to the unprecedented transparency provided by ReSeed’s farm fresh data included in its blockchain protocol, ReSeed’s methodologies are audited by accredited third party auditors.

ReSeed’s unique four-step process:

Through the use of our tested inclusive technology built from the ground up, we work directly with small farmers to help them inventory and map the carbon stock they currently hold and manage.
Using advanced AI and satellite imagery analysis we verify these existing assets and their status every six to 12 months.
From the moment it is generated, all information is included in our proprietary blockchain for unparalleled accuracy and transparency. (No use of legacy systems or outdated validation protocols). All of our data is fresh from the farm.
Through the ReSeed Marketplace and Trading Desk, farmers are paid directly for their carbon protection and removal credits when they are sold, providing timely income and greater financial incentive to increase their carbon stocks.

ReSeed’s 8,000 farmer partners in Brazil currently have 2 million tons of carbon protection credits to bring to market. ReSeed is aiming to bring 1 billion metric tons of carbon credits to market by 2030 through partnerships with millions of small farmers around the planet.

ReSeed identified and solves for four main problems that inhibit effective action in the climate carbon space:

Global carbon emissions are out of control. Carbon emissions from deforestation have doubled over the last 20 years.
Global carbon markets are inadequate to the task of providing a real solution at scale for offsetting carbon emissions.
Traditional and crypto-based carbon markets have been unable to bring transparency to both providers and buyers of carbon offsets.
Even though they are considered vital to any global solution to climate change, the world’s millions of small farmers are not able to participate at any effective scale in the current carbon markets.

Supporting effective carbon management of farmers allows us to reduce our carbon footprint as a whole and is not an incentive to maintain or increase our own individual carbon emissions. Supporting the increase of carbon stocks under management by the farmers through the sequestration or drawing down of legacy carbon in our atmosphere provides one of the most concrete benefits to our ability to mitigate and reverse climate change. It is these benefits that ReSeed quantifies and brings to market, allowing individuals and companies to associate their own carbon footprint with these actions through their support. All of these actions are registered and verified on the ReSeed blockchain and issued through our exclusive tokenization process. Consumers can then decide to retire their tokens and in this way account for a reduced carbon footprint.

Investors on the ReSeed Carbon Marketplace can bring additional resources into the carbon credit space, and for every transaction, the farmers who are managing the carbon assets receive additional income while providing a potential return to investors.

The ReSeed Marketplace is designed to facilitate the access for farmers who steward carbon and buyers who want to reduce carbon footprints to conduct transactions. The goal of this marketplace is to dramatically increase revenue for small farmers, incentivize the drawdown of more carbon, provide financial opportunities for buyers and sellers and ultimately reverse climate change.

RE/SEED is the first community-based suite of tools that verifies and provides ongoing direct revenue based on measurable current carbon stocks managed by small-scale farmers around the world. ReSeed recognizes, quantifies, verifies and pays for existing good practices. We start at what exists today and by rewarding existing beneficial practices. ReSeed leverages blockchain technology to ensure validity of carbon stock management, from registration through validation and verification. We transform the current concept of “additionality,” which is one of the main barriers to entry by those who are already helping to keep our planet livable, into “true additionality” through investing in additional practices to draw down carbon and bringing additional farmers into our carbon asset ecosystem.

Small farmers produce up to 75% of the world’s food. Many of these farmers have been living and farming on the same land for generations, often perfecting traditional forms of biodiverse carbon-capturing regenerative farming practices that care for soil health and above-ground ecosystems as if their livelihoods and very lives depend on it. Because they often do.

Smallholder farms are under threat worldwide, especially those who are owned by the most vulnerable populations .Small-scale farmers and rural populations are disproportionately among the poor and hungry.

As of today, there are 4 million remaining smallholder farmers in Brazil.
These farmers occupy 80 million hectares (200 million acres), representing 23% of all agricultural lands in Brazil.
Smallholder farming provides employment for 10 million people which represent 70% of all people employed in agriculture in Brazil.

Carbon emissions from forest loss doubled in the last 20 years. (Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00854-380% of deforestation was due to agriculture)
The Brazilian Agro census numbers confirm the advance in Brazilian agribusiness at the expense of family farming in all areas of the country.
- Between 2006 and 2017, there was a 9.5% reduction in the number of family farms, while in agribusiness the growth was 35% with a loss of 2.2 million jobs on family farms. (source: https://censoagro2017.ibge.gov.br/ )
Most smallholder producers live in extreme poverty, with a gross monthly production value that does not correspond to half a minimum wage per family property.
The expansion of areas for production of industrial agricultural products (especially soy) are linked to land grabbing—which increases agrarian conflict and disrupts traditional productive dynamics and land use—expelling family farmers and compromising food and nutritional security.

The 6,000 minority (Black) farmer communities represent 25% of all smallholder farmers in Brazil.
In 2021, the number of murders in traditional and family farming communities grew 12 times to an all time record in Brazil.
ReSeed partner farmers identified land security as one of the three main challenges they face together with lack of access to credit and lack of technical assistance. (source: http://ecam.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/EN-A-Survey-of-Quilombola-Family-Agriculture-in-the-amazon-State-of-Amapa-Brazil.pdf)

There are 273,000 small farms, of 1-9 acres occupying around 0.1% of all U.S. farmland.
The US Lost 1.3 Million Acres Of Farmland In 2021
Threats – Reduction in Black-run farms
In 1920, there were more than 925,000 Black-run farms. They accounted for over 14 percent of all U.S. farms.
By 2017, there were fewer than 35,000 Black-run farms, making up less than 2 percent of the nation’s farms.

ReSeed defines its carbon credits by the outcomes we intend to achieve and by only quantifying and rewarding verified actions.These credits are anchored in real, verifiable, on-the-ground existing carbon stocks rather than in abstract and theoretical additional or future emissions. All of the carbon credits brought to market by ReSeed are anchored by real, existing carbon stocks measured and verified during specific periods of time.

Enhancing carbon removals from soils and of restoration of peatlands and coastal wetlands can, starting today, remove over 6 billion tons of CO2 per year across 79 tropical countries and territories between 2030 and 2050 at a cost of less than US$100 per tCO2. This is significantly less than the price tag of $1,200 for mechanical carbon capture. In order to do this at scale we need to be able to engage with those who are the current guardians of the world’s soil and forest carbon assets – the world’s 2 billion regenerative farmers. By recognizing the value of their current carbon stock management, ReSeed leverages investments in smallholder farmers around the world, using the latest technologies to ensure scale, transparency, and impact.

ReSeed is a Wyoming LLC with four co-founders, each an expert in their respective field. ReSeed was formed with the mission to create a global movement to take on the climate crisis by building a market to reward responsible stewardship of our precious forests and other natural resources, raise the living standards of the regenerative farmers across the world, invest in new technology, and in so doing reduce planetary carbon emissions to a level that guarantees a future for humanity on this planet.

Farmers

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