August 22, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Row crop agriculture contributes 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S., and is the largest emitter of nitrous oxide – a gas with 300 times more warming potential than carbon dioxide. However, scientists estimate that a 21 percent reduction in row crop emissions is a viable goal over the next 15 years through the optimization of current technologies – and a reduction of up to 71 percent is possible with new innovations. 

Despite being a contributor, agriculture is also one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. But regenerative growing practices, which work with nature to optimize the health of the entire ecosystem, offer growers the ability to build healthy soils that can protect crops from uncertain rainfall patterns, reduce the need for inputs, reduce farm costs and risks, restore biodiversity, and strengthen the long-term value of the land. 

This reimagined approach to food production aims to achieve greater agricultural sustainability, productivity, and profitability through climate change countermeasures and conservation of ecosystems and natural resources.

Once viewed as a fringe movement or a catchphrase, more recently the production methodology seems to be going mainstream, rapidly becoming a focus of some of the world’s largest CPGs as they take a more active role in determining the integrity of their supply chains. 

But regenerative production at scale doesn’t just happen. Such projects need to be thoughtfully and responsibly developed. 

Japan’s Mitsui & Co. has invested in RRG Nature Based Solutions (RRG NBS), a U.S.-based company with an integrated global presence in regenerative agriculture projects at all stages from formation through design and on to management. 

Established in January 2023, as a spin-out of a unit of the Renewable Resources Group (RRG), RRG NBS is a one-stop provider of natural capital conservation solutions including project development, design, administration, and farming guidance.

Its parent company, RRG, has a 20-year track record of managing funds and the development of projects in the areas of sustainable agriculture, water resource conservation, and support for smallholder farmers through its RRG Capital Management subsidiary. 

Mitsui stated that this investment in RRG NBS “…will contribute to the stabilization of world food production and the conservation of natural capital by combining its accumulated knowledge of agricultural materials with new solutions leading to a transition to regenerative agriculture.”

But this is not the only major announcement by Mitsui this month. On August 16, GAI News shared that Mitsui & Co. invested $360 million through a Singapore-based holding company in Ecuador-based Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila (IPSP), the largest shrimp farming company in the world.

Mitsui expressed that this investment reflected an ongoing focus on the future of protein production and the group’s goal of becoming a leading global player in the shrimp industry by extending its reach up the value chain to upstream activities such as breeding, feed, and farming. 

“Mitsui has identified Wellness Ecosystem Creation as one of its Key Strategic Initiatives in its Medium-term Management Plan 2026,” stated the company. “By providing healthy food, Mitsui will contribute to the improvement of people’s quality of life.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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