Will Israel’s largest carbon credit project ignite the third agricultural revolution?

Two agricultural revolutions have left a mark on world history, and the importance of either of them cannot be overstated. The first revolution was described at length by Prof. Yuval Noah Harari in his bestseller. It is what created civilization by pushing our ancestors from a nomadic society of hunter-gatherers, to settle in permanent agricultural settlements and cultivate the land. The second occurred in the post-World War I world, when the Americans were left with a surplus of biological weapons converted into deadly pesticides, which are still widely used in agriculture today. 

The Second Agricultural Revolution, as part of the Industrial Revolution that has accompanied us for over 100 years, was found to be the main culprit in the current climate crisis due to the widespread devastation of croplands. Therefore, it is the duty of the industrialized agriculture to make the “Tikkun” and help the world reach zero carbon balance, net zero carbon or at least get closer to this target. 

The carbon economy that is rapidly growing directly from the core of the current climate crisis is generating demand, and with it the need to develop smart solutions for the production of measurable, acceptable and quality carbon credits. Polluters around the world operate under regulations for carbon pricing and emissions trading, which require them to seek a reliable source of carbon offsets. The overwhelming answer to this is “regenerative agriculture for carbon credit.” An agricultural carbon credit project is essentially an agricultural operation that applies common sustainable agricultural practices that increase carbon removal from the air and reduce GHG emissions. Today, contributions can be accurately measured and converted into credit points called “carbon credits.”

Imagine a polluting factory that emits carbon into the air, and next to it a a green Avocado tree plantation abundant with fruit. The carbon emitted by the factory to the air is absorbed back by the trees into the soil, and the plants material themselves. And above them, there is a regulated mechanism of checks and balances, which debits the polluting factory and credits the Avocado plantation.

Renewable agriculture for carbon credits centers on rehabilitating agricultural lands that have lost their ability to sequester carbon due to intensive and industrialized agriculture for decades, and transforming them into fertile and healthy soils that produce healthier food.

Farmers can already sell their carbon credits to the highest bidder among polluters around the world, thus generating an additional source of income for farmers, for helping to stop global warming and save the planet. Israeli agriculture is renowned for being technological, innovative and precise, so it reduces emissions and sequesters carbon; it is also highly environmentally conscious and maximizes protection of the ecosystem; farmers understand that there is no other choice but to care for the planet’s future. All these make Israeli agriculture the perfect arena to implement scalable & smart solutions for farmers to unlock untapped carbon credit potential out of their sustainable Agribusiness. Already, nineteen kibbutzim throughout the country are participating in Israel’s largest Agri-carbon project. This represents nothing less than the beginning of the Third Agricultural Revolution that, if guided correctly, can influence and even determined the future of the planet and the future of humanity.