Yesterday, The North Face announced a commitment to purchasing cotton grown using regenerative farming methods. To that end, the apparel company will be working with Boston-based Indigo Ag, which combines tech and biological research to make agriculture both more sustainable and more profitable for farmers.
Farming has long been viewed as a climate burden: agriculture activities generate about a third of human greenhouse gas emissions. On the flip side, farming is also heavily impacted by climate change, with rising temperatures, droughts, floods and unpredictability wreaking havoc on crops. Which is where regenerative agriculture comes in. Adopting methods that improve soil health and increase biodiversity, it's a holistic approach to farming that can actually soak CO2 back into the soil. A problem becomes a solution. And one that's exciting enough for us to focus this month's (free!) Make→Shift report on what we've dubbed TERRAPY.
As explained by Carol Shu, Senior Manager of Global Sustainability at The North Face: "Regenerative products have the ability to shift the industry from simply 'doing less harm' to actually replenishing or having a positive impact on nature and resources, and as a brand that is committed to protecting the outdoor places we love to play, we believe this is another critical step in addressing climate change impacts in our supply chain." The North Face's regenerative cotton collection will hit store shelves in fall 2022.
(Related: OatUP, the world’s first regeneratively-grown oat milk, bets big on soil.)
