Climate-Smart Farming and Marketing

Agriculture is one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions.

At the same time, farmers are dealing with many of the most immediate impacts of the changing climate. From unprecedented heat and drought, to severe floods that can sabotage an entire growing season and affect communities downstream—farmers are on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Climate-smart agriculture encompasses practices that work to mitigate climate-change by reducing carbon emissions and help farms adapt to increasingly extreme weather. These include production strategies like agroforestry, prescribed grazing, planting cover crops, managing nutrient inputs, reducing tillage, and other conservation farming methods demonstrated to improve soil health and climate resilience.

Many of these practices have their roots in Indigenous farming methods.

This program will provide technical assistance and financial support to help farmers across the Northeast and Eastern Seaboard implement regenerative practices such as agroforestry, prescribed grazing, planting cover crops, and reducing tillage.

Farmer participants will engage in community science and help to clearly identify environmental co-benefits of climate-smart practices, by measuring factors like water quality, soil health, and ecosystems resilience.

This program will offer marketing strategies to help farmers communicate the benefits of these practices to customers and develop tools to help climate-conscious consumers find climate-smart farms near them.

The program will serve over 2,000 farmers across the Northeast and Eastern Seaboard. Eligibility includes that you:

• Be willing to establish a farm record with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and share your farm, tract, and field numbers with Pasa and partnering organizations

• Certify that you are not a foreign person or entity

Program participation includes the following:

• Technical assistance providers will work with you to create a plan tailored to your farm's environmental and business goals.

• You'll get financial support for implementation, which includes upfront payments and annual stipends to support data collection needs.

• As a farmer researcher, you'll collect data to gain insights about your farm's soil health, water quality, carbon resilience, and other metrics.

• You can join a peer-to-peer learning community with other farmers working to improve their farm's climate resilience and bottom line.

• We'll offer marketing support to help you share your climate impact story and communicate research findings to your customers.

Application Page