Climate Beneficial™ Agriculture

We develop natural fiber and dye systems that contribute to the stabilization of our climate: our north star includes 6 billion pounds of carbon drawdown potential, with a 1% increase in Soil Organic Carbon on the working landscapes engaged in our Northern California network, with concurring increases in water-holding capacity, wildlife and pollinator habitat, and reductions in wildfire fuel load and herbicide and fertilizer use. We work directly with land stewards to implement land management practices that build soil carbon and increase productivity naturally.

Explore our Carbon Farm Report

Current Grant Opportunities:

Fibershed Healthy Soils Program Block Grant
Climate Beneficial Fiber Partnerships – USDA Climate Smart Commodities Grant

Climate Beneficial Verification Program

Fibershed’s Climate Beneficial Verification program provides direct technical and financial support to farmers and ranchers for the implementation of carbon farming practices. Our monitoring and measurement tools include a combination of direct measurement, dynamic environmental systems models and satellite systems. These tools are used to annually track and verify the continual improvement and innovative work that our producer community has embarked upon to stabilize our climate while producing high quality fiber and food.

Our Annual Carbon Farm Impact Report aggregates and summarizes data on the carbon impacts of this work and the types of practices producers implemented in 2023 and throughout the entirety of the Climate Beneficial Program.

Climate Beneficial Fiber

Natural fibers like wool, cotton, alpaca, and flax linen can be grown and raised in ways that maximize the drawdown of carbon from the atmosphere to help restore ecosystem health and stabilize our climate.

Carbon Farming Education

Our atmosphere has too much carbon, while soils around the world have too little. Agriculture can balance the carbon cycle and stabilize climate through carbon farming, which moves carbon from the atmosphere into plant life and soil ecosystems. We work with our producer network, and since 2016 our community has implemented carbon farming practices that we estimate will draw down over 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 20 years. Fibershed is a leader in modeling carbon farming in our home community and expanding broad awareness of how fiber and dye-producing landscapes can restore balance to the earth’s climate, build resilience to drought, and increase our agricultural productivity naturally.

Cotton Systems Research

Flowering cotton fields are part of an annual agricultural cycle of food and fiber production in California. With millions of pounds of white cotton produced annually in the Golden State, as well as naturally colored Colorganic® cotton, there is a major opportunity to regenerate soil and water health across these landscapes. Fibershed is currently partnering with farmers and researchers to understand how carbon farming practices can be incorporated into cotton landscapes.

Grazing for Ecological Resilience

From accumulated dry brush that fuels wildfires to excessive chemicals used to kill weeds, land management challenges can be met with grazing animals for a multitude of benefits. Prescribed Herbivory is a new term for a time-honored practice of moving livestock across the landscape to create ecological outcomes like fuel load reduction, increased water holding capacity in soils, soil carbon increases, enhanced biological diversity, the elimination of synthetic compound usage (nitrogen fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides), and enhanced agricultural productivity. Learn more about the latest Integrated Crop & Livestock research and livelihood development by exploring our collaborative partnerships with universities, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit colleagues.