Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment to Lead Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture

In partnership with over 60 organizations, Wolfe’s Neck Center is awarded up to $35 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Freeport, Maine—Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment and its partner organizations were awarded up to $35 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program to support the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices on farms nationwide. This award will expand Wolfe’s Neck Center’s leadership role in advancing agriculture’s ability to become a solution to climate change through its global collaborative, Open Technology Ecosystem for Agriculture Management (OpenTEAM). 

“We are honored to be collaborating with such a distinguished group of awardees to achieve our shared goals. This represents the first important step in a larger endeavor that will support urban and rural economies, regenerate our working landscapes, increase access to conservation incentives, and build the critical shared technological infrastructure needed for transformative change,” said Dorn Cox, Research Director at Wolfe’s Neck Center.

Wolfe’s Neck Center will lead an alliance of over 60 national and regional buyers, funders, and organizations to launch and support climate-smart agricultural pilot projects on farms and ranches in the Northeast, Mountain West, and California. This will provide land stewards, farmers, and ranchers with direct soil health planning and technical assistance to access financing for practice implementation such as cover cropping, managed grazing, or no-till planting. 

The alliance will train agricultural service providers, provide open-source technology, and develop a robust, accessible marketplace for climate-smart products. As part of the USDA’s $2.8B investment in 70 projects, the alliance bridges local, regional, and national efforts to make climate smart agricultural knowledge accessible at all scales across diverse production systems. 

“This project and the many others funded through this program are a positive step forward on making agriculture a solution to climate change,” said David Herring, Executive Director at Wolfe’s Neck Center. “The transition to and implementation of climate smart agricultural practices is one that we are deeply committed to supporting – here in Maine, New England, and across the U.S.” 

Key organizational partners include Point Blue Conservation Science, Zero Foodprint, Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, American Farmland Trust, the Organic Trade Association, Oregon Tilth, California Certified Organic Farmer, Field to Market, and Carbon A List as well as many important regional, market, and technical partners. 

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About Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment

Wolfe’s Neck Center is a nonprofit, farm-based education, research, and visitor center on a mission to transform our relationship with food and farming for a healthier planet. By facilitating knowledge and best practice sharing, educating a wide variety of learners, and convening a community of people who care about the future of food and the planet, Wolfe’s Neck Center aims to help make agriculture a solution to climate change.  

Wolfe’s Neck Center sits on 626 acres of coastal farmland, with forested trails, livestock education barns, and an oceanfront campground. Learn more about all there is to do, see, and learn at Wolfe’s Neck Center.

Led by Wolfe’s Neck Center, Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management (OpenTEAM), is a farmer-driven, collaborative community committed to improving soil health and advancing agriculture’s ability to become a solution to climate change through the codevelopment of an interoperable suite of tools. By acting as a convener, technology steward, and facilitator, OpenTEAM is increasing the integrity, interoperability, and knowledge shared across the agricultural technology landscape for a more sustainable technology ecosystem. To learn more about OpenTEAM, click here.

Link to the USDA announcement

Wolfe’s Neck Center Press Contact
Madison Moran
Marketing and Communications Manager
Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment
mmoran@wolfesneck.org | 207-865-4469 x 105

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OpenTEAM and Terran Collective Partner on Open Source Community Platform to Support Soil Health and Regenerative Agriculture

Freeport, Maine—Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management (OpenTEAM) is partnering with Terran Collective to create a free and open source digital community platform for farmers, ranchers, and the regenerative agriculture movement on Hylo. Together with the OpenTEAM community and input from Regen Foundation, Terran is designing new features to extend the social coordination platform to support people improving soil health and advancing agriculture’s ability to become a solution to climate change. 

The long-term goals of this partnership are to activate community among food producers and between producers and the public, to connect people to their bioregions, and to channel a greater flow of resources toward growers who want to engage in ecological regeneration–in order to build resilient local food systems and realize tangible benefits like improved soil health and carbon drawdown. 

“As a land steward, it is important to find others working on similar challenges, be inspired by those trying something different, and be able to communicate with purchasers and markets,” said Dr. Dorn Cox, Project Lead of OpenTEAM and Research Director at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment. “When developed and integrated into the OpenTEAM ecosystem, this platform will unlock a lot of opportunities to access new markets, knowledge, and technical support from our peers.”

The Terran team led OpenTEAM’s Community Platform Collabathon series this past autumn, where farmers, technologists, and advocates for equity and rights of nature collaborated to identify what community tools are needed most. The focus was to create ways for producers to easily connect with similar growing operations for mentorship, collaboration, and even market opportunities in the transition to regenerative practices, through the design of new features on Hylo. Participants include representatives from Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Regen Foundation, Regen Network, Terra Ethics, Open Rivers, and the California Farm Demonstration Network.

“As a place-based organizing platform for networked groups, Hylo is uniquely positioned to facilitate the growth of relationships in the agriculture community,” shared Clare Politano, Hylo’s Product Lead. “We hope this platform will connect land stewards and the people who support them to the larger regenerative movement.” 

Designed for collaboration within and across organizations, Hylo helps groups break out of silos to coordinate as movements and meet the challenges of our time. The platform offers web and mobile apps with discussions, requests, offers, resources, projects, events, a geographic map, member directories, and direct messaging.

OpenTEAM is a farmer-driven collaborative community of food producers, scientists and researchers, technologists, farm service providers, and food companies that are co-creating an interoperable suite of tools that provide farmers around the world with the best possible knowledge to improve soil health. OpenTEAM offers field-level carbon measurement, digital management records, remote sensing, predictive analytics, and input and economic management decision support in a connected technology toolkit that reduces the need for farmer data entry. This tech ecosystem supports adaptive soil health management for farms of all scales, geographies and production systems.

Founded in 2019 by Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Stonyfield, Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and USDA’s Land PKS, OpenTEAM has since grown to include 250 community members, 45 member organizations, and 15 Hub farms and ranches who are testing OpenTEAM’s suite of tools on the ground.

As OpenTEAM continues to build out its network, interested farmers, ranchers, scientists, technologists, organizations, and businesses are encouraged to connect with OpenTEAM via their monthly newsletter. You can learn more by exploring their website and finding them on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Interested in learning more and joining with other individuals and networks committed to regenerative agriculture? Get future updates on this Hylo-hosted OpenTEAM Community Platform.

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About OpenTEAM:

Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management (OpenTEAM), is a farmer-driven, interoperable suite of tools that provide farmers around the world with the best possible knowledge to improve soil health. OpenTEAM offers field-level carbon measurement, digital management records, remote sensing, predictive analytics, and input and economic management decision support in a connected technology toolkit that reduces the need for farmer data entry. This tech ecosystem supports adaptive soil health management for farms of all scales, geographies and production systems. OpenTEAM was founded in 2019 by Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment, Stonyfield, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, and USDA’s Land PKS.

Press Contact:

Laura Demmel Gilmer
Head of Global Community & Operations at OpenTEAM
Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment
laura@openteam.community

About Terran Collective:

Terran Collective is a community of care and practice in the Bay Area bioregion, based in Ohlone territory in the area colonially known as Oakland, California. Their mission is to amplify cooperation among people regenerating our communities and our planet, by building systems and tools that foster trust and relationship. Terran supports their community by making connections, bioregional organizing, and experimenting with systems of solidarity. They build technology for thriving, so that their community and the movements they are a part of have the tools they need to create impactful action in the world. They are also land stewards and permaculture practitioners, personally committed to restoring and transitioning land to regenerative management.

Press Contact:

Clare Politano
Core Steward
Terran Collective
clare@terran.io

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