Agriculture has sustained humanity for over 12,000 years and today provides livelihoods for 1 billion people worldwide. The same agricultural intensification that has enabled agriculture to feed a growing population is, in some cases, simultaneously rapidly degrading the soils on which it relies, contributing to climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, degrading and depleting natural resources, and imperiling food security. Governments and corporations have intensified their focus on using “climate smart,” “sustainable,” and/or “regenerative” agriculture(SARA) practices as mechanisms to fight climate change and build resilience, yet what constitutes a “SARA” practice or suite of practices is not one-size-fits-all; recommended practices must account for the great variability in natural resources, climate regimes, and capital resources, and balance farm, watershed, and global needs. Despite this, markets are moving, policies are proliferating, and consumers are engaged and interested.

Without first establishing common SARA definitions, baselines, or expected outcomes, we cannot make the most of this opportunity for a vital, global agricultural revolution. While many farmers are at the cutting edge of on-farm innovation top remote soil regeneration, environmental health, productivity, and resilience, they can still benefit from practical and specific guidance for successful and profitable implementation of sustainable and regenerative agricultural (SARA) management. Still, many others are yet to incorporate SARA practices, and without sufficient evidence as to why and how to do it, they risk becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events, while missing out on the potential benefits to farm productivity and profitability.

The team’s behind NASA Harvest and NASA Acres – NASA’s food security and agriculture Consortia – have launched an innovative initiative on Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture (SARA) that brings private and public sectors together to build the evidence-base needed to make agriculture climate smart and resilient, as well as the tools and methods to scale and transition these practices to farming systems around the world.

The SARA Initiative builds upon the Consortia’s world renown science and relationships with the top multi-disciplinary researchers from around the world. SARA is moving quickly to advance transparent, scalable Earth observations (EO) based methods and knowledge about adoption and impacts of sustainable and regenerative agriculture techniques on farm profitability, soil health, and greenhouse gas emissions/sequestration. SARA provides a public good, as a neutral convener with expertise and mandate to build this evidence base.