SCAVE - a social initiative fighting against climate change
We all know the alarming and growing effects of climate change in our current world. The seriousness of such an event also lies in the fact that it affects multiple aspects of our lives, but also many of the things we currently do significantly increase its effect. A clear example is our systems of food production. Despite being an essential service to provide us with food, it is performed in such a way that it affects the quality of water available, affects the soil, emits a great number of polluters, neglects wildlife, and many others. So how do we fight these consequences, while still keeping necessary services working? A possible response for this started to be developed by Bart van Beuzekom in 2018, which he called SCAVE. This initiative focuses on rethinking agriculture to use it as a way to reduce atmospheric carbon, and thus fight climate change. In spite of being an ambitious proposition, Bart, together with his diverse team of specialists, propose a model to convert arable land into regenerative agroforestry.
The main idea here is to prioritize biodiversity and scalability as a way to solve the problems of large-scale agriculture. And to do that, they developed a regenerative agroforestry system that can store carbon in the soil, produce nutritious food, and heal the land. Together with such a system, the scalability will allow farmers to transition agricultural practices when they want and how they want, as well as build capacity from the bottom. In the end, farmers can use food mills to regen its ingredients into delicious food ready to be delivered to the end-consumer, which also makes it a lot easier for people to actively support regenerative practices.
Overall, within the many reasons that make this model stand out, the highlights are that its effective approach to fighting climate change includes better livelihoods for farmers, increased value of the land, and good returns for investors. In the end, we can only feel very glad to have had the chance to work with them through our Sustainability Council team, that even had the chance to visit one of the farms they have located in the Netherlands.
Congratulations to all of the SCAVE team for the great job they have done so far, and thank you for giving us the chance to work together!
